Dong Embroidery
01 · Historical Records
There are no explicit written records of Dong embroidery. Stele inscriptions and legends from the Pingqiu area date the popularity of "panzhou rolled-edge embroidery" back to the Ming and Qing periods; for generations it was passed down from mother to daughter within Dong families, and embroidered pieces circulated with the festivals and marriages of the Dong villages.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The most representative variety of Dong embroidery is "panzhou rolled-edge embroidery"; the pieces made by Dong women of Pingqiu Town, Jinping County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, and the surrounding area are the most famous. Pingqiu Town lies at the junction of the southern and northern parts of the Dong cultural community of Guizhou and is one of the birthplaces of northern Dong culture. Pingqiu was originally called Ashu, a transliteration from the Dong language; in the late Ming it was renamed Pingqiu, meaning "things vanish naturally." According to local stele inscriptions and legends, "panzhou rolled-edge embroidery" was already popular in the Ming and Qing periods; its basic stitch method combines two embroidery techniques: "panzhou stitch" and "rolled-edge stitch." In "panzhou stitch," a colored silk thread is taken as the "lead thread" (that is, the axis thread); two more colored silk threads are then tightly twisted together to form a thicker, pre-made two-in-one embroidery thread, also called the "coiled thread." When embroidering, the "lead thread" is stitched upward from the underside of the pattern and pulled straight; the "coiled thread" is looped once around the root of the "lead thread" and pulled tight; this process is repeated to embroider the outline of the pattern — this is "panzhou stitch." "Rolled-edge stitch" takes a white yarn thread as the "lead thread"; two more white yarn threads are tightly twisted together, and this two-in-one white thread is then tightly wound around the "lead thread" to form a thicker three-in-one embroidery thread, which is stitched (rolled) around the outline of the "panzhou stitch" pattern — this is "rolled-edge stitch." Ordinary embroidered pieces are composed of three lines of "panzhou stitch" and one of "rolled-edge stitch," with colored threads filled inside the pattern outline in the same manner. The remaining parts are usually embroidered with flat stitch, cross-stitch, random stitch, skip stitch and similar techniques. With its effect of shallow relief, "panzhou rolled-edge embroidery" is a representative work of Dong embroidery art, with distinct ethnic character.
The coiling-axis stitch
One coloured thread becomes the axis while two others are wound into a thicker ready thread, looped and tightened at the base of each outline.
The rolled-border stitch
A white thread is wrapped with two others into a triple cord and rolled as a border around the coiled outline.
Three coils and one rolled edge
A typical piece uses three coiled passes and one rolled edge, filled with coloured thread and finished with flat, counted, random or skip stitching for a low-relief effect.
Pingqiu and its old name Ashu
Pingqiu sits where the southern and northern Dong cultural areas meet; once called Ashu in Dong, it was renamed in the late Ming and remains a wooded, old-fashioned valley town.
Chen Xianyue and Long Lingxiang
Chen Xianyue, born in 1964, mastered the family technique by fourteen and has trained eighty people; Long Lingxiang, born the same year, runs a workshop and a 200-woman association.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The local terrain is crisscrossed by valleys, with luxuriant forests; the folkways are simple and unsophisticated, and there are distinctive local customs and practices.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
However, nowadays fewer and fewer Dong women master the "panzhou rolled-edge embroidery" technique, making protection and transmission extremely urgent. Chen Xianyue (associated inheritor, according to the official archival record): Female, Dong ethnicity, born in April 1964, native of Jinping County, Guizhou Province. Both her maternal grandmother and her mother were skilled local Dong embroiderers. She is especially skilled at panzhou rolled-edge embroidery; the baby carriers, young women's sashes, calf wrappings, girls' capes, silver hats for babies and festive dress of Dong women that she makes are deeply loved by the local people. Representative inheritor of Dong embroidery, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project (fourth batch). From the age of twelve she learned embroidery from her mother, and by fourteen she had mastered all the embroidery skills her mother taught her, becoming a highly skilled embroiderer. She is committed to training successors in Dong embroidery: she has trained eighty person-times, brought up six apprentices, and passed the technique on to young embroidery enthusiasts. Long Lingxiang (associated inheritor, according to the official archival record): Female, Dong ethnicity, born in September 1964, native of Jinping County, Guizhou Province. She has mastered every stage — spinning, weaving, dyeing, pattern drawing and embroidery — and is a skilled local embroiderer. She has created a large number of excellent works and is representative and influential in the field of Dong embroidery technique. Her works inherit the characteristics of northern Dong rolled-edge embroidery, with rich content, exaggerated forms, bright colors and strong expressive power. In addition, she has opened embroidery workshops, taken the lead in founding the Jinping County Northern Dong Embroidery Technique Association, and led more than two hundred women to increase their income through embroidery. Representative inheritor of Dong embroidery, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project (fifth batch). She comes from a family of Dong embroiderers; she loved embroidery from childhood and learned Dong embroidery from her family from the age of thirteen. She attaches importance to both master-apprentice transmission and social transmission, and has trained a good number of successors.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Chen Xianyue 04-1820
- Long Lingxiang 05-2710
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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