Editor’s Note: This article is produced in collaboration with the Chongqing Institute of Foreign Studies as part of a series of ongoing reports exploring the city’s abundant resources in intangible cultural heritages.
Youzhou Miao Embroidery.
Hailed as the "living fossil of ancient Miao culture", the ancient city of Youyang, located in the hinterland of Wuling Mountain in the southeast of Chongqing, is Youzhou Miao Embroidery's place of rebirth, where slates are built along the mountain roads and embroiderers' dwellings are made of black bricks and grey tiles with overhanging eaves protruding from the roof.
Chen Guotao, the inheritor of Youzhou Miao Embroidery, grew up seeing her grandmother and mother embroider flowers on the stilted building. Pointing at the lifelike patterns of stunning peonies and vibrant fluttering phoenixes, her mother told her that their ancestors had passed down the Miao embroidery from generation to generation. Since then, she has started learning embroidery from her mother and grandma. Out of love and aptitude, Chen Guotao tended to do better in stitching than others, and her mother had hoped that she would carry the Miao Embroidery tradition forward. When growing up, however, she left the mountains and stopped learning Miao embroidery.
Youyang, where the Miao people reside, once witnessed the popularity and prosperity of the Miao needlework. However, Youyang folks have been assimilated into Han culture and Miao Embroidery has all but vanished from folklore as a result of the economic and social development and ethnic group unification. For embroidery preservation, Chen Guotao was determined to return to her birthplace and commit herself to the advancement of Miao embroidery.
When initiated into Miao embroidery, she was over her thirties. Though the family disapproved of her decision to resign from the bank and return home for embroidery, she proved her resolution by acting out of passion and persistence in promoting Miao Embroidery. "I start practicing stitching at six every morning, and I don't put the needle away until about eleven at night; I sit down to embroider when I can't stand up, and I stand up to embroider when I can't sit down." With more than dozens of stitches, every step of Miao embroidery is crafted by hand. A piece of art that is one meter in length and width requires at least a year to finish.
When Chen Guotao goes alone from one village to another to learn Miao Embroidery, she frequently gets insights. She noted, "Those elderly yet highly skilled embroiderers are like pearls strewn around every village in Youyang. Whenever I see them, I feel much honored to be able to transmit and preserve my ancestors' heritage." She then aspires to embroider the Youyang Taohuayuan with Miao embroidery so that both of them can step out of the mountains and be internationally recognized.
Miao embroidery is a prized component of traditional Chinese garment culture and a significant aspect of Miao culture. Youzhou Miao Embroidery, distinct in technique from the other four major Chinese embroideries—Su Embroidery, Shu Embroidery, Yue Embroidery, and Xiang Embroidery—features brightly colored floral and bird patterns in particular, which can better capture the fervent and vivacious nature of the Miao people.
Among motifs of Youzhou Miao Embroidery, one can find vibrant dragons, phoenixes with the character "Wang" on their crowns, chubby big-eyed fish, and trees with peach blossom, plum blossom and chrysanthemum. In an exaggerated bold way, Miao women transform them through artistic processing out of love for mascots such as peonies, magpies, butterflies and carps in nature, thus adding their regional flavor and artistic appeal.
An animated pattern will be created on the fabric with just a few exquisite needles and threads. Groups of left-behind women can be found hither and thither in Youyang County. With techniques gained from practicing Youzhou Miao Embroidery, they have found their path to fortune. Behind them, Chen Guotao must be mentioned. Chen Guotao said, "Miao embroidery is not just mine; it belongs to children of the Miao. It is owned by our nation and also shared by the world. As an inheritor, it is my responsibility to make it more lively and active."
Miao Embroidery has not ebbed from the social tide, although people's aesthetic ideas and tastes are shifting. It has been continuously renewed, inspiring the Miao people to carve out the industrialized path out of poverty in the modern era. Currently, Youzhou Miao Embroidery is paving a new path for people to live happy and healthy lives. Benefiting from the Belt and Road Initiative, our Miao Embroidery is emerging out of the highlands and traveling around the globe with the help of China's high-speed rail.
In addition, Chen Guotao expressed her hope that more knowledgeable and skilled individuals would pick up the relay baton from her and travel among laboring people in towns and villages to impart their information and skills. There are two peach gardens in the world, one in your heart and the other in Youyang, Chongqing. Chen Guotao will continue to collaborate with the Youyang people to embroider a picture of the happy and harmonious peach garden in Youyang.
Chinese script: Xia Xinyu
Tutored by: Wang Ruqian
Translation: Tan Meiling
Tutored by: Zhou Yinzhi Han Xiefang
Voice-over: Liang Shengdong
Tutored by: Gui Shushu