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.
“On a piece of silk light as water, needlewomen embroider in the chamber. Stitch by stitch, flowers open petals; thread by thread, birds grow feathers.” As depicted in the poem Embroidery by Luo Yin, a poet of the Tang Dynasty (AD618-907), the scene of needlewomen stitching and threading the beauty of spring with their dexterous hands, has been performed for hundreds of years in the street corners in Shapingba and Banan districts, Chongqing. Chongqing embroiderers are using mixed-needle embroidery to exhibit various forms and splendid landscapes in the whole wide world.
Chinese embroidery has a history of more than two thousand years. The “four great embroideries” – Su embroidery in Jiangsu province, Yue embroidery in Guangdong province, Shu embroidery in Sichuan province, and Xiang embroidery in Hunan province – have been famous at home and abroad from past to present. Created in the 1920s, mixed-needle embroidery is acclaimed as the “fifth great embroidery” because of its unique style.
“The advent of mixed-needle embroidery has broadened the scope of Chinese embroidery” – this is the comment from Liu Haisu, a prominent contemporary Chinese painter and art educator. In 1921, Lv Fengzi, a master of calligraphy and painting, and his student Yang Shouyu creatively incorporated Western painting techniques into their embroidery, using threads to color and needles to paint. With threads in various angles, lengths, densities, and flexibilities, mixed-needle embroidery has broken the limits of traditional Chinese embroidery (the works were usually stitched on flat surfaces), producing a stronger three-dimensional look. It looks like a painting from afar but an embroidery from near, perfectly integrating the wonderful effects of Western paintings and embroidered pictures, which has an enduring artistic charm.
During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Zhengze Girls’ School, founded by Lv Fengzi and Yang Shouyu, moved from Danyang, Jiangsu province to Bishan District, Chongqing, where they taught mixed-needle embroidery as well as other courses, enabling it to be successfully passed on in the years to come. Thus, mixed-needle embroidery is also known as Yang embroidery or Zhengze embroidery. Chongqing mixed-needle embroiderers, with Yang Shihua as the representative, were lucky enough to become Yang Shouyu’s students. After she completed her studies, Yang Shihua embarked on her lifelong journey of passing down mixed-needle embroidery.
At her 70th birthday party, Yang Shihua showed her works of mixed-needle embroidery. Noticed by a journalist from Chongqing Times, she proposed the idea of recruiting students for free to continue to develop mixed-needle embroidery in Chongqing. After the newspaper was published, Chongqing mixed-needle embroiderers, with Liu Ruiping and Yan Yongxia as the representatives, become Yang Shihua’s students, taking the baton and growing to be the third generation of mixed-needle embroiderers.
Chongqing Stilted Buildings, the serial works by Liu Ruiping, not only made her famous in Chongqing arts and crafts circles but also won her dozens of students. For this reason, mixed-needle embroidery was included in the list of Chongqing Intangible Cultural Heritage, and Liu Ruiping was also named as the representative inheritress. In addition, Five Oxen, co-created by Yan Yongxia and her teacher, won a silver medal in the 2nd Chongqing Exhibition of Arts and Crafts. Before the National Day (October,1) in 2012, she opened the Shaci embroidery workshop in Ciqikou ancient town (Shapingba district, Chongqing), which was rated as the most beautiful shop by the management committee of Ciqikou ancient town.
To make mixed-needle embroideries, all you need are a few needles, silk threads, scissors, knives, embroidery frame hoops, and cloth, such as Rongchang ramie, silk, or linen. Stitch by stitch, layer by layer, a mixed-needle embroidery is viewed well-bedded from afar and well-arranged from near. It has become another treasure of Chongqing folk arts. Nowadays, the fourth generation of mixed-needle embroiderers is growing. These new embroiderers, with love and passion, will use needles to bring daily lives and elegant arts into their works, into the circles of arts and crafts, and into the city of Chongqing.
(The original article comes with a Chinese version authored by Li Haoyue (advisor/Ran Hongqing) as well as an English version translated by Wu Liang (advisor/Zhang Jin, Hu Wei), and was later narrated by Chen Qinwen (advisor/Ren Yi), all of whom are students and teachers from Chongqing Institute of Foreign Studies.)