Miao Embroidery Is Listed In The Intangible Cultural Heritage "Embroidery", Bringing New Vitality

Broken thread embroidery, counting yarn embroidery, lock embroidery, pile embroidery... Miao embroidery women use needles as their pen, lines as their ink, and use mountains, rivers, plants, flowers, birds, fish and insects to tell the story of Miao village life on the cloth. Traditional Miao embroidery has complicated needlework techniques and exquisite silk dyeing procedures. It is the crystallization of Miao women's diligence and wisdom.

In 2006, Miao embroidery was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

　　 Academic Opportunity to Participate in Miao Embroidery

Miao art attracts Wang Yunan, a designer who lived in the United States and Mexico and worked in handicrafts. In 2020, Wang Yunan returned to China and settled in Kaili, Guizhou, and cooperated with Long Luying, the inheritor of Miao embroidery, a provincial intangible cultural heritage, to establish a Miao embroidery design workshop.

Yungui Plateau, the foot of Miaoling Mountains, and the bank of Qingshui River, she brought back her understanding of minority culture formed during her overseas study and work here, and worked with local embroiderers to promote the integration of southwest minority handicraft features and modern aesthetics, and realize the inheritance and innovative development of Miao embroidery.

"When I looked at Miao embroidery after I received western art education, I found more special features of this folk art," said Wang Yunan.

In 2010, Wang Yunan, 18, went to Parsons College of Design in New York to study fashion design, and completed his master's degree here. During her master's graduation project, she returned to Yunnan and Guizhou, where ethnic minorities live, to collect folk songs. Miao embroidery in Shaxi ancient town reminded her of her childhood memories.

"When I was very young, I lived in Guizhou with my father in Zhibian. When I saw Miao embroidery, I just thought it was fun. When I was twenty three or twenty four years old, I had a strong resonance with its aesthetics and decided to design with the theme of Miao culture," said Wang Yunan.

In Wang Yunan's opinion, the flexible use of geometric patterns is the common ground between Miao embroidery and western contemporary art. The Miao branch of Kaili, "Hebian Miao", is good at broken thread embroidery, and the characteristics of plane stitching of different color blocks are similar to the geometric composition of western art. In New York, design is often a bold combination of the pattern itself, which is a highly individualistic art; In the quiet minority villages in southwest China, handicrafts are simple expressions of emotion and a way of life based on the collective local culture passed down from generation to generation.

During the years of working in the United States and Mexico after graduation, Wang Yunan still couldn't give up her feelings for Miao embroidery. She believes that her understanding of the traditional culture of the Miao nationality is still at the perceptual level, and regrets that it is difficult to accurately express the soul of Miao embroidery through her works. In order to facilitate direct communication with women embroiderers and further explore the cultural connotation and artistic value of Miao embroidery, she decided to take her career roots in Kaili, Guizhou, the hometown of Miao embroidery.

　　 Explore overseas and take root in Miao village

In New York, Wang Yunan once interned and worked for Chinese design brands "Alexander Wang" and "Fililyn 3.1". In 2018, she moved to Oaxaca, Mexico, which has the most local ethnic cultural characteristics, and engaged in the design of local ethnic handicrafts. Wang Yunan's overseas work experience has given him a broader vision, a new perspective on Chinese culture and the courage to take root in national culture.

Chinese American design brands in New York mostly focus on modern fashion style, with a small amount of reference to traditional Chinese cultural elements. Embroidery with Chinese characteristics may be sewn on simple clothes with black, white and gray as the main colors, or it may become the finishing touch of jeans jackets or handbags. "They must be wearable items, which makes me pay attention to practicality in my later design," said Wang Yunan.

Compared with the trendy fashion in the United States, Mexico has many ethnic groups and cultural characteristics to follow everywhere. "It has many similarities with southwest China, which makes me feel familiar."

When working in Mexico, Wang Yunan visited many villages, some of which are located in desert, with dry climate and difficult conditions. She directly touched the roots of local ethnic culture and worked with the villagers to design new beading and embroidery patterns. She experienced unprecedented satisfaction in artistic creation. It was this experience that inspired Wang Yunan to return home to engage in the design and development of Miao embroidery.

After years of exploration in overseas fashion circles, Wang Yunan found that ethnic minority art, which has been neglected for a long time in China, is a "bright pearl" in the eyes of foreigners.

An Italian designer who was engaged in textile art in Mexico told her his experience of living in Guizhou and bringing a batch of Miao "bright cloth" back to Mexico for further research, and told her to do a good job in Miao craftsmanship. In Japan, there are many scholars who specialize in Guizhou culture.

"In the 1970s and 1980s, some foreigners thought that Chinese minority culture was particularly interesting, so they came to Kaili, Guizhou, and bought many excellent Miao embroidery works. I reflected on why we have not been able to further bring it out of the mountains for so many years. I hope to use my knowledge and skills to tap the development potential of national crafts." Wang Yunan said.

　　 Joining hands with Xiuniang to start a business

In the process of undertaking Miao Embroidery, establishing a modern production process is the number one problem Wang Yunan encountered.

Returning from Mexico to southwest China, Wang Yunan deeply realized the gap between the two countries in the national art industry. "Mexico started decades earlier than us. The design, production and sales links are relatively mature, and a large number of products are sold to the United States."

In 2021, Wang Yunan met Long Luying, the prefecture level inheritor of Miao embroidery in Qiandongnan, and the two started to cooperate. The study of embroidery patterns and garment patterns is a process that consumes money, energy and results slowly. With the policy support of the local government for the protection and development of Miao embroidery and the efforts of the two people, the workshop gradually began to operate. Wang Yunan also invested her bonus from participating in the clothing competition in the workshop to buy raw materials.

At first, the embroiderers generally did not understand the commercial production mode, and sometimes personalized creation and original ecological production were carried out according to their personal preferences. This led to low product standardization, and the embroidery was inconsistent with the pattern design drawing, which resulted in deviation from customer requirements.

In this case, Wang Yunan and Long Luying selected local women who were good at Miao embroidery and carried out short-term training for many times. The scale of a single training varies from 50 to 100 people, and about 860 people are trained every year.

The delicate and exquisite skills of the embroiderers are combined with Wang Yunan's creativity in needle adjustment, color matching design, cloth selection improvement and other aspects, so that the embroideries are more in line with the public aesthetic while showing the characteristics of the Miao nationality. The embroiderers were surprised by their progress in craftsmanship and aesthetic appreciation, and understood the aesthetic value of Miao Embroidery beyond daily life, which also enhanced the commodity value of Miao Embroidery.

At present, there are more than 1200 embroiderers registered in Wang Yunan and Long Luying's Miao Embroidery Workshop, which is still growing. "They are usually left behind women in the village. Our career has enabled them to contact and adapt to the working mode of modern enterprises, and also experienced the happiness of creating wealth with both hands." Wang Yunan introduced that since the establishment of the workshop, the average annual income of the four full-time embroiderers who worked with her has increased by more than 35000 yuan, and other sporadic participants have also received additional income.

After returning to China, Wang Yunan still kept in touch with overseas fashion designers and planned to take Miao embroidery products abroad for exhibition. However, at present, she hopes to do a solid job in design and production in China. "The best way to protect and inherit Miao embroidery is to let the embroiderers live a better life in the familiar Miao village through their good skills."

(Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition)