Minjianxiuhuo
01 · Historical Records
Gaoping embroidery is a folk embroidery art popular in the Gaoping area of Shanxi Province. Judging from surviving artifacts, its history can be traced back to the mid-Ming dynasty. Gaoping has been a strategic place in the Shangdang region since ancient times: merchants and travelers gathered there, and weddings, funerals, festivals, and sacrificial ceremonies were frequent, so embroidery became an essential kind of work for women. Two categories of work — silk-thread embroidery and cloth appliqué — developed side by side here.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Folk embroidery is also known as “needle embroidery,” “stitched flowers,” and “flower embroidery”; since it is mostly done by women, it is also habitually called “women's needlework” (nügong). It is a traditional folk craft: a needle threaded with colored thread is passed through the fabric to form stitches, so that the embroidered marks create specific patterns or characters. Finished folk embroidery pieces are indispensable gifts and decorations in folk activities. The craft has a long history and is closely bound up with the daily life of ordinary people; since ancient times, Chinese folk tradition has circulated the saying “To know whether a family's daughter is clever, look at how good her needlework is.” Folk embroidery embraces a wide range of subjects and rich cultural connotations, and its regions of transmission span the length and breadth of the country, from the great river valleys to the Great Wall frontier. In Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guangdong, Sichuan, Beijing, and elsewhere, folk embroidery has developed creatively, giving rise to distinct regional styles. Gaoping embroidery is a folk embroidery art popular in the Gaoping area of Shanxi; judging from surviving artifacts, its history can be traced back to the mid-Ming dynasty. Gaoping embroidery is divided into two types, silk-thread embroidery and cloth appliqué. Silk-thread embroidery employs stitches such as the flat stitch, the seed stitch, the gold-couching stitch, and the gold-laying stitch. The flat stitch offers the richest expressive range, the seed stitch is sturdy and hard-wearing, and the gold-couching and gold-laying stitches produce a sumptuous, magnificent effect. Cloth appliqué is an art that makes use of the leftover colored scraps from garment cutting. In production, the scraps are cut into particular shapes according to the maker's conception and then piled onto a base fabric and secured with lockstitch edging; the finished pieces are plain and dignified, with gorgeously bright colors. Gaoping embroidery has distinctly local characteristics in its color matching. It habitually pairs black, blue, red, and purple, or light blue, gold, and silver, and through long practice has developed a color scheme that expresses the unity of opposites. To strengthen the decorative effect, Gaoping embroidery frequently employs exaggeration and distortion; its works prize spirit and vitality over literal likeness, reflecting the artistic ingenuity of the embroiderers and the aesthetic taste of the local people.
Silk thread and cloth appliqué
Gaoping work divides into stitched silk and appliquéd cloth, the latter pieced and overlocked for durability in rural use.
Judge a girl by her needlework
A proverb judges a girl by her stitching, and embroidered gifts were indispensable at weddings and festivals, often weighed in marriage negotiations.
Zhao Cuilin and the Fenglin workshop
Zhao Cuilin learned from her mother and village craftsmen, toured the famous embroidery centres at nineteen, and founded the Fenglin workshop in 2009, fusing Gaoping work with Bian and Su stitches.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Gaoping embroidery is divided into two types, silk-thread embroidery and cloth appliqué, the former employing stitches such as the flat stitch, the seed stitch, and the gold-couching stitch. The works are used mainly for wedding garments, birthday-anniversary pillow cloths, and altar drapes, and are transmitted especially widely through the townships of Gaoping City. In recent years, through training and promotion by inheritors such as Zhao Cuilin, more than two hundred people across the townships have received training cumulatively, of whom over forty have fully mastered the craft.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Zhao Cuilin (related inheritor, official archival record): Female, Han ethnicity, born July 1980, native of Gaoping City, Shanxi Province. From childhood she was deeply fond of art, and from the age of ten she learned embroidery from her mother and from the skilled craftspeople of her village. At nineteen she went to Kaifeng, Suzhou, Guangzhou, and other places to study and investigate famous local embroidery traditions. In 2009 she founded the Fenglin Embroidery Factory, whose works are sold far and wide. She organically blended Gaoping embroidery with renowned embroidery traditions such as Bian embroidery and Su embroidery, preserving the traditional charm of silk-thread embroidery while developing a style of her own. The subjects of her works cover everything under the sun, and their images are vividly lifelike: colorful flowers and birds, lively goldfish, handsome figures, and magnificent landscapes make them hard to put down. She has devoted herself to training successors, conducting Gaoping embroidery training in the townships of the Gaoping region; she has trained more than two hundred people cumulatively, of whom over forty have fully mastered the craft. Representative inheritor of Folk Embroidery (Gaoping Embroidery), a project in the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhao Cuilin 05-2687
- Zhang Xiaohong 05-2688
- Liu Shouxian 05-2689
- Cai Yuee 05-2690
- Zhang Juhua 05-2691
- Li Xiayin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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