Beijing Embroidery
01 · Historical Records
It developed and evolved from the duiling (silk-pile applique) and tiejuan (silk-pasting) techniques of the Tang dynasty, and is a craft combining duiling and tiejuan with embroidery and buhua (applique) techniques. After 1949, a transmission lineage with clearly defined generational relationships has reached the fourth generation.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Beijing applique embroidery, also called “carved applique” (diaobuxiu), is a traditional handicraft unique to Beijing. In the Qing dynasty, the Imperial Household Department's Zaobanchu (imperial workshops) maintained embroidery and garment workshops dedicated to making applique-embroidery products for the court; the craft was later spread among the people and used for home decoration. Beijing applique embroidery uses natural silk fabrics as its principal material: ling (figured silk), luo (gauze), chou (silk), duan (satin), juan (thin silk), cotton cloth, dyed cloth, and linen serve as base fabrics, while silk, ling, juan, and fengwei sha (“phoenix-tail yarn”) serve as the main applique materials. Among these, fengwei sha is a material woven from pure cotton colored yarn; its colors are brilliant and supplied in complete sets, with the yarn shades deepening gradually from light to dark, and it is a material made exclusively for the applique-embroidery craft. In production, artisans select different fabric materials according to the subject and employ multiple techniques such as relief, weaving, embroidery, stitching, padding and applique, and thread-drawing, passing through process steps of design, material selection, cutting, weaving and patching, and washing and pressing, to make the finished product. In technique, applique is combined with embroidery, and drawnwork with applique, while new techniques such as inlaid patchwork, pinched-pleat methods, and gauze-mounting methods are incorporated, strengthening the expressive power of the patterns so that they take on the charm of three-dimensional sculpture, with their decorative quality still more pronounced. Especially characteristic is the “flower-plucking” (bohua) technique within flat applique and padded applique, which gives the works clear layers, with flowers set down one upon another and the stems and veins evenly divided. Its patterns excel in being concise and vivid, and its artistic forms are characterized by round and circular compositions, expressing the auspicious meaning of a full and happy life. Its representative works “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” and “Tang Women Playing Polo” were presented as state gifts to the United Nations and friendly countries, becoming calling cards of Chinese culture. Beijing applique embroidery is a remarkable branch of traditional Chinese handicraft: its techniques are unique and its colors magnificent, presenting the artistic effect of three-dimensional relief on a flat plane, and it has high artistic and appreciative value. It is suited to homes and many kinds of activity venues, and plays a positive role in beautifying people's lives, raising people's aesthetic accomplishment, and promoting social harmony and sustainable economic and social development.
Archival Record of the Process Steps
In production, artisans select different fabric materials according to the subject and employ multiple techniques such as relief, weaving, embroidery, stitching, padding and applique, and thread-drawing, passing through process steps of design, material selection, cutting, weaving and patching, and washing and pressing, to make the finished product.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The circulation of Beijing applique embroidery centers on Chaoyang District, Beijing, as its principal place of transmission, with Beijing Gongmei Group Co., Ltd. responsible for its conservation and apprenticeship. The long coexistence of court embroidery workshops and folk embroidery houses in the capital has allowed Beijing applique embroidery to combine silk, ling, and juan with the exclusively supplied fengwei sha among its materials, forming a capital-city profile different from the applique crafts of southern China; since 1949 its transmission lineage has been clearly documented to the fourth generation.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Beijing Embroidery · Beijing Embroidery.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Beijing City is its principal place of transmission. Beijing applique embroidery has the character of folk social transmission, so for the Ming and Qing periods there is no transmission lineage available for examination.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Liu Xiuhua 05-2711
- Liang Shuping 05-2712
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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