*Cantonese Embroidery (Guangzhou Embroidery、Cha...

70.*Cantonese Embroidery (Guangzhou Embroidery、Chaozhou Embroidery)

Nominating Units: City of Guangzhou and City of Chaozhou

Popular in Guangzhou and its ancient apanages like Nanhai, Panyu, Shunde, the Cantonese Embroidery is a folk craft that boosts a history of more than 1,000 years. Early in the Tang Dynasty, Su’e has recorded in Duyang Anthology that a Nanhai girl, whose name is Lu Meiliang, is “so skillful that she can embroider seven volumes of Fahua Sutra on a 34 cm silk”.

Cantonese Embroidery combines both form and quality of the material and can be divided into four categories: Zhensirong Embroidery (embroidery made of silk and wool), Jinyinxian Embroidery(embroidery made of gold and silver thread), Xian Embroidery (embroidery made of thread), and Zhu Embroidery (embroidery embedded with beads). Using natural silk as its material and having a strong expressive force, Zhensirong Embroidery is the most ancient one and has inherited most of the traditional craft among the four. The stitch of Jinyinxian Embroidery is quite unique that can be classified into seven categories and more specifically into over sixty types, such as fl at embroidery, bianxiu, raoxiu, tuxiu, dianxiu, applique embroidery, zhixiu, and baldachin etc. Zhu Embroidery is a new type that was developed and then applied by craftsmen only several decades ago.

Cantonese Embroidery has a long history in Guangdong Province with Chaozhou Embroidery appearing in Chaozhou Area of Guangdong Province as early as the Tang Dynasty, and has formed its own style since the Qing Dynasty. Its themes mainly consist of dragons, phoenixes, flowers, birds and beasts, aquatic animals and people, and its products are served as daily necessities, sacrifice appliances, ornaments, and costume decorations, etc. There are five ways of producing embroideries: to broider, to pad, to stick, to put together and to embellish, while it has more than 200 stitch methods like Hexangular and three folds tazhen brocade, Dianmian guo jinzhen, Shuang dinglin and Dianxiu chrysanthemum panlin. A lot of embroideries have combined different ways of embroidering and stiching, and are even more creative. For example, the representative of Chaozhou Embroidery “Folding Screen with Nine Dragons”combines five broidering methods including the unique method of padding silk fabrics and using gold thread to make the image of the dragon as vivid as if living.

With flexible stitch and even pace of needle, Cantonese Embroidery has its own style that can delicately manifest the texture of the objects through broidering. It is extensive in theme, rich in color and pays attention to the harmony of light and shadow. Meanwhile it values the artistic effect of its products and sets the objective that “labor work” serves for “artistic effect”.(https://www.daowen.com)

As Cantonese Embroidery and Lingnan Culture are closely combined, Cantonese Embroidery concentrates the talents and wits of handicraftsmen of all ages and is filled with Lingnan characteristics in its artistic style and creative thinking. The influential successors of Cantonese Embroidery include Huanghong, Xu Liancheng, Yude, Huangmei, Chen Heying etc. Now with the successive deaths of old handicraftsmen, certain unique techniques of Cantonese Embroidery have gradually got lost. The only master Mrs. Chen Shaofang is nearly 70 years old, and successors are in urgent need. With the developing economy and scientific technology, Cantonese Embroidery, which is famous for its handicraft, has been severely struck by machine embroidery and computer embroidery. The market for Cantonese Embroidery is shrinking and it is hard to pass on the skill and therefore, it is in need of help and protection.

Cantonese Embroidery(Guangzhou Embroidery/ Chaozhou Embroidery) was selected into the list of the first batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2006.