Yao Embroidery
01 · Historical Records
The Yao people of Ruyuan belong to the Mian-language branch of the Guoshan ("mountain-crossing") Yao; they migrated from the north during the Sui and Tang dynasties and long lived hidden in the deep mountains, bringing their embroidery tradition with them to northern Guangdong. The community preserves books and materials such as Pangu, The Legend of Panhu and the Guoshan Charter; the embroidery patterns are intertwined with the historical memory, migration routes and mountain products of the Guoshan Yao. Because every Yao woman handles the needle, the embroidery technique has been passed down from mother to daughter for generations in the Yao villages of the three towns of Bebei, Youxi and Dongping.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Ruyuan Yao embroidery is one branch of Chinese Yao embroidery, mainly distributed in the three towns of Bebei, Youxi and Dongping within Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County in northern Guangdong Province. The Yao people living in Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County belong to the Mian-language branch of the Guoshan Yao; they migrated from the north during the Sui and Tang dynasties and long lived hidden in deep mountain forests, their mode of production centering on slash-and-burn cultivation and hunting. The community preserves books and materials such as Pangu, The Legend of Panhu and the Guoshan Charter, and its traditional customs and culture are well preserved. Embroidery is a craft that every local Yao woman knows. Yao women learn from their elders from childhood, handling needle and thread, starting with such items as embroidered front panels and edging, decorative sashes and leg wrappers, in order to practice the fundamentals. By the time they have grown into young women, their embroidery skill has matured, and the elaborately embroidered flower bags, pouches, sachets and headscarves they make are the best gifts to give a sweetheart. At the same time, they must also carefully prepare their wedding garments and gifts for relatives and friends such as aprons, flower bags, sashes, embroidered hats and headscarves. The wedding dress worn at marriage is the garment that displays the bride's talent; it must be dazzling and outstanding, and is the embroidery on which girls expend the most care. After marriage, besides embroidering everyday items for their families, women must also pass their craft on to the next generation. Ruyuan Yao embroidery uses dark cotton cloth as a ground and embroiders patterns with velvet-silk threads in red, yellow, blue, white, green, black, purple and other colors; it is divided into "deep-mountain Yao" and "shallow-mountain Yao" types. The embroidery of the deep-mountain Yao has a heavy, full and fine character, while that of the shallow-mountain Yao is fine and generous, with light, bright colors and more varied patterns. As society has developed, the way of life of the local Yao people has changed greatly; Yao embroidery, which was closely bound up with traditional social life, has gradually been marginalized and is on the verge of dying out, and urgently needs protection.
Deep-mountain and shallow-mountain Yao
Worked in coloured silk on dark cotton, the embroidery divides into a deep-mountain style, heavy and rich, and a shallow-mountain style, delicate and light in colour.
Flower bags, purses and bridal dress
Girls learn on hems, bands and leggings, then make flower bags, purses and head scarves for sweethearts and a bridal dress meant to display their skill.
Natural and geometric motifs
Motifs drawn from nature include squares, triangles, lozenges, circles, wave and zigzag forms along with paired butterflies, twin dragons, rice ears and flowers.
Migration and the embroidered record
The Yao of Ruyuan are migrating Mian-language Yao who moved whenever land or game failed, their embroidery recording forest produce and migration.
Deng Juhua's Yao Ridge Song
The fifth-batch inheritor Deng Juhua, born in 1952, led the hundred-metre Yao Ridge Song shown at the Shanghai Expo and co-wrote the book Yao Embroidery.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
When the local land was no longer suitable for farming or game became scarce, the whole community would move to another mountain to live, which is why they are called the Guoshan ("mountain-crossing") Yao. The common patterns are mostly taken from nature: squares, triangles, diamonds, circles, water-ripple forms, waves, zigzags, gong-shaped forms, as well as paired butterflies amid flowers, paired dragons playing with a pearl, rice ears and fresh flowers, reflecting the aesthetic and values of the local people.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Deng Juhua (associated inheritor, according to the official archival record): Female, Yao ethnicity, born in November 1952, native of Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province. She learned embroidery from her mother from childhood and has mastered the traditional embroidery techniques. Through long and unremitting exploration and practice, while preserving the artistic character of traditional Yao embroidery, she has boldly innovated in the stitching methods of traditional patterns; her embroidered works mostly take the history and culture of the Guoshan Yao as their subject matter. She led the creation of the hundred-meter-long scroll Long Song of the Yao Ridges, which was exhibited at the Shanghai World Expo. Representative inheritor of Yao embroidery, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project (fifth batch). Since 2008 she has specialized in the rescue, protection and transmission of traditional Yao embroidery techniques; together with Pan Caiwan and Mo Ruifu she compiled the book Yao Embroidery, led and trained more than twenty embroiderers around her to take up the craft, and also opened Yao embroidery courses at the Ruyuan secondary vocational school, training large numbers of successors.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Deng Juhua 05-2709
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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