Minjianxiuhuo
01 · Historical Records
Xiqin embroidery is a folk embroidery art popular in the Baoji region of Shaanxi Province. Traces of embroidery have been found in the Western Zhou tomb of Ji Ji in Baoji, which shows that embroidery has a very long history of development in the local area. After more than a thousand years of accumulation in the former lands of the Zhou and Qin, the embroidery designs inherited the realistic tradition of Qin embroidery while also absorbing the rich, saturated coloring of the northern Shaanxi folk tradition, producing the face of Xiqin embroidery as it exists today.
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. Xiqin embroidery is a folk embroidery art popular in the Baoji region of Shaanxi Province. Traces of embroidery have been found in the Western Zhou tomb of Ji Ji in Baoji, which shows that embroidery has a very long history of development in the local area. Xiqin embroidery is rich and varied in subject matter, with ingenious and romantic conceptions; its forms are simple and exaggerated, and its colors are bright and warm. Its technique forms a system of its own, encompassing stitching methods such as flat embroidery, suspended embroidery, and pieced stitching.
Stitch traces from the Jing royal tomb
Embroidered remains in the Western Zhou tomb of the Jing queen show how old the practice is on this side of the passes.
Quilts, pillow cloths and children's dress
Xiqin embroidery lives on quilts, pillow cloths, door curtains, aprons and children's clothing, a skill every village woman was expected to master.
Teaching within kin and neighbours
It passes through family, kin and neighbours, with village reputation — and marriage prospects — turning on the quality of a girl's stitching.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Xiqin embroidery is closely bound up with social life and folk customs in the Baoji area; it is widely transmitted in the local countryside and is passed down continuously through social relations of family, kinship, and neighborhood, having become an essential manual skill for farm women. As a folk art rooted in the local soil, Xiqin embroidery contains a great deal of historical and cultural information. It fully reflects local farmers' understanding of life, nature, and society, conveys their values and ideals in life in artistic form, and can provide vivid reference material for research on Shaanxi folk customs and regional culture.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo · Minjianxiuhuo.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Xiqin embroidery is widely used for bedcovers, pillow towels, door curtains, children's bellybands (doudou), and children's garments. Embroiderers mostly pass on their skills through family, kinship, and neighborly relations, and local judgments of embroidery are commonly made by the standard “To know whether a family's daughter is clever, look at how good her needlework is.” Over the past decade or more, the impact of machine-embroidered goods has driven down both the price and the market for hand embroidery; rural embroiderers in the Weibin and Qianyang areas have gradually gone out to work elsewhere, and there is an urgent need to steady this craft by means of commissioned purchasing and performance subsidies.
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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