Uyghur Embroidery
01 · Historical Records
It took shape and developed on the basis of Islamic culture, while drawing on and blending Han-Manchu culture and Buddhist culture, and the history transmitted down to the present day is already very long.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Uyghur embroidery is a folk embroidery art rich in ethnic characteristics, popular mainly in the Hami region of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Almost all Uyghur women are skilled at embroidery. Before marriage, girls must diligently learn all kinds of embroidery techniques in order to complete such indispensable articles of married life as embroidered pillows. Uyghur embroidery takes a variety of expressive forms, of which four types best embody the cultural character of the Uyghur people: cap-flower patterns, pillow-flower patterns, garment-border-flower patterns, and gown-panel-flower patterns. In technique, Uyghur embroidery has absorbed certain methods from Su embroidery and Jing embroidery, developing many stitching styles including flat stitch, knot stitch, gold- and silver-wrapped coiling stitch, cross stitch, velvet-tie stitch, lattice-frame stitch, and combined stitch.
Cap, pillow, hem and robe-panel flowers
Of its many forms, the cap flower, pillow flower, hem flower and robe-panel flower best carry Uyghur cultural identity.
Coiled metal thread and looped and velvet stitches
Absorbing techniques from Su and Beijing embroidery, it offers flat, looped, coiled gold-and-silver, cross, velvet, lattice and composite stitches.
Ajiil Saimaiti and her trademark
Ajiil Saimaiti grew up embroidering, registered the Ajihan trademark and founded a workshop providing jobs and training for laid-off and poor women.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Uyghur embroidery is a folk embroidery art rich in ethnic characteristics, popular mainly in the Hami region of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Hami lies at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains and is a place where many ethnic groups live side by side; historically, the traffic of the Silk Road caused the region to be influenced at once by the embroidery methods of the Han people of the Central Plains and by Islamic decorative art. Almost all Uyghur women are skilled at embroidery, and before marriage girls must diligently learn all kinds of embroidery techniques in order to complete such indispensable articles of married life as embroidered pillows. In technique, Uyghur embroidery has absorbed certain methods from Su embroidery and Jing embroidery, developing many stitching styles including flat stitch, knot stitch, gold- and silver-wrapped coiling stitch, cross stitch, velvet-tie stitch, lattice-frame stitch, and combined stitch.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Hami Uyghur embroidery art is a product of the Uyghur people’s plural culture and of Hami’s local culture, and has research value in many fields, including ethnology and folk art. Protecting and transmitting this outstanding ethnic art is conducive to strengthening ethnic unity, promoting ethnic integration, and making an important contribution to the building of a harmonious society. Ajil Saimaiti (as recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): female, of the Uyghur nationality, born in August 1952, a native of Hami City, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. From childhood, influenced by her family, she developed a love of embroidery. Building on her inheritance and masterful command of the essence of Uyghur embroidery, she has created new works with both practical and artistic value. Her embroidered works have rich and varied patterns, bright and lively colors, and fine, impeccable stitching, matching modern life perfectly. She registered the “Ajarkhan” embroidery trademark and established an embroidery processing factory, providing employment and training opportunities for laid-off workers and impoverished women. She is a representative inheritor of Uyghur Embroidery, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item in the fourth national-level batch. Over several decades she has embroidered thousands of works, and many of her embroidered pieces have won prizes in exhibitions and competitions within and beyond the autonomous region. She is devoted to the development of ethnic embroidery and to the training of successors, and has cultivated large numbers of outstanding embroidery inheritors.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ajier Saimaiti 04-1811
- Ayixiamuzhayiti
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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