Manchu Embroidery
01 · Historical Records
The origins and development of this project are a vivid practice of cultural exchange and integration among multiple ethnic groups, reflecting the unity and inclusiveness of Chinese civilization, and are of positive significance for promoting ethnic unity and harmony.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Mudanjiang Manchu Embroidery is a form of embroidery created by the Sumo Mohe people, ancestors of the Manchu, during the Bohai State (Balhae) of the Sui and Tang periods, in the area of present-day Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province. Using locally produced tussah silk, they studied and absorbed the finest techniques of Central Plains embroidery and combined them with their own ethnic characteristics. Relevant excavated artifacts and murals confirm that Bohai Mohe embroidery was already quite mature at that time. The project uses tussah silk thread, particular to Northeast China, as its embroidery material; the tussah is a wild silkworm whose silk has a jewel-like luster, natural and soft. Mudanjiang enjoys exceptionally favorable geographical conditions, with abundant oak forest resources that supply ample, high-quality raw material for the project. Mudanjiang Manchu Embroidery is renowned for its lifelike, three-dimensional visual effect: it conveys the refraction of light and shadow, making viewers feel as if they were present in the scene. Highly prized for appreciation, it is praised as "the oil painting of embroidery." The traditional stitch is the chicken-claw stitch, handed down from the Bohai State period; its shape resembles a chicken's claw. Through generations of transmission, the stitch technique has kept developing; today the triangle stitch is generally used, with fairly large stitches, worked from large to small in 4 to 8 overlapping layers, the silk threads doubled and the colors blended, so that the forms resemble five-pointed stars. The resulting artworks are fine and exquisite, richly colored, and true to life in their scenery—at once delicate and gentle, and bold and unrestrained. Historically, Manchu women mostly acquired the craft through heart-to-heart, hand-to-hand transmission from elder women of the family. With richly colored and textured embroidered works, Manchu women adorned their lives and delighted their hearts, adding an artistic atmosphere to everyday life; the craft has aesthetic value.
Chicken-claw stitch
The traditional stitch handed down from the Bohai period, named for its chicken-claw-shaped stitches.
Triangle stitch and four to eight layers
The stitch now in common use: large stitches tapering smaller over four to eight layers to produce a five-pointed star shape and effects of light.
Tussah silk and oak forest
The work uses the wild tussah silk of northeast China with its jewel-like lustre, plentiful in the oak forests around Mudanjiang.
Embroidery's oil painting
Its realistic, three-dimensional light effects have earned it the name of embroidery's oil painting.
The Bohai Mohe embroidery brand
The inheritor Sun Yanling opened her studio in 2007, created the Bohai Mohe embroidery brand and set up a vocational training school for the craft.
Family transmission from Yu Zhangshi and Yu Xiuying
Sun Yanling learned from her grandmother Yu Zhangshi and mother Yu Xiuying from 1984, the craft being traditionally passed between women of a family.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The subjects are drawn from the area's distinctive local customs and natural scenery, reflecting the folkways and traditions of the Manchu people.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Manchu Embroidery · Manchu Embroidery · Manchu Embroidery · Manchu Embroidery · Manchu Embroidery.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Mudanjiang Manchu Embroidery is transmitted both within families and from master to apprentice. Today there are also diversified transmission methods, such as master-led apprenticeship and school education, and transmission is no longer confined to the Manchu ethnic group. Sun Yanling (according to the official file of the associated inheritor): female, Manchu, born March 1978, from Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province. From 1984 she learned Manchu embroidery from her maternal grandmother, née Zhang of the Yu family, and from her mother Yu Xiuying. In 2007 she opened the Yanjie Embroidery Workshop, founded the "Bohai Mohe Embroidery" brand, and developed series of products including embroidered garments, still-life paintings, landscape paintings, and decorative hangings. In 2010 she established a production and processing base in Rason, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and the products are exported to Japan, South Korea, Russia, the United States, and other countries. She founded a vocational training school for Manchu embroidery, which passes on the technique while also creating employment and business opportunities for local women. She is a representative inheritor of Manchu Embroidery, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project from the fifth national-level batch. Fourth-generation inheritor of Manchu Embroidery; deputy to the 13th National People's Congress. Her embroidered works have taken part in intangible cultural heritage exhibitions and expositions many times and have won awards.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xia Liyun 05-2693
- Sun Yanling 05-2694
- Liu Yamei 05-2695
- Zhang Lixin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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