Chuxiong, Yunnan: A Small Embroidery Needle, Drawing A "Beautiful Picture" Of Yi'S Getting Rich And Increasing Income

Under the blue sky and white clouds, you feed chickens, bring babies, embroider flowers, raise your family, and use your hands to embroider your heart's poems and the distance... In the Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan, Yi women have inherited the art on their fingertips - Yi embroidery from generation to generation, embroidering exquisite elements such as lantana, camellia, and sheep horn patterns on clothing, so that beauty can bloom in life. In recent years, the local government has done enough "fingertip article" to promote the three major changes of Yi embroidery "from embroidery to products, from show to market, and from embroidery to business card", which has become an important channel for increasing people's income and promoting rural revitalization. 57000 embroiderers, more than 530 Yi embroiderers, and more than 200 million yuan of output value... The masses are embroidering a happy picture with one needle and one thread.

　　 Bright Art

Flowers bloom and songs are loud. Li Ruxiu, a villager from Chalimo Village, Lianchi Township, Yongren County, and the girls dressed in traditional Yi costumes welcomed guests from afar with singing and dancing. This small Yi village with more than 660 people engages in embroidery, and the beautiful patterns on the clothes come from the fingertips... Li Ruxiu, who is in her 60s, opened her mouth when she mentioned Yi embroidery.

Yi embroidery has a long history and embodies the history and culture of the Yi people. It is mainly based on black, green and other colors, with yellow, red, green and other colors. It is characterized by rough techniques and strong colors. It is a bright pearl in the folk art of the Yi people. Local people said that Yi girls "can hold a needle and embroider", and embroidery is their lifelong skill.

In Zhiju Village, Zhonghe Town, Yongren County, on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year, villagers put on new clothes and came to the central square to participate in the grand "costume competition". This custom has been passed down for more than 1300 years and is known as the ancient "rural runway show". "The sun, moon, stars, flowers, birds, insects, fish, etc. often appear in embroidery works and wear them on the body." Li Ruxiu said that we all know Yi embroidery, and each of us has several beautiful clothes.

When Li Ruxiu was young, her parents carried her to the costume contest. Her mother looked aside while she was embroidering. She learned to embroider when she was 8 years old, and embroidered clothes when she was 12 years old... Like other villagers, Yi embroidery has become an integral part of Li Ruxiu's life. She has mastered eight embroidery techniques and participated in more than 50 costume festivals.

In 2004, Li Ruxiu was elected as the president of Yongren County Embroidery Association, and was busy with inheritance, protection, publicity, promotion, and talent cultivation. Since 2020, many villagers have followed Li Ruxiu to learn embroidery. After her daughter Yu Kunyao graduated from university, she opened a Yi embroidery studio in the county. Her works incorporate modern fashion elements and are popular with young people.

In order to promote the development of the Costume Festival and help villagers develop their industries, the local government has taken measures such as cultivating women embroiderers, holding catwalk activities, and promoting Yi costumes in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. More than 12000 people in the county participated in embroidery. In 2017, the Yi Embroidery Street in Yongren County was opened to the public to exhibit and sell Yi embroidery and perform in the costume competition festival.

Today, the works of Yi people have stepped onto the international stage from remote mountain valleys. Clothes with Yi embroidery elements have made a wonderful appearance at the New York Fashion Week show. Li Ruxiu retired from the county cultural center in 2022, but she felt that the inheritance of Yi embroidery could not stop.

"Li Ruxiu is a representative figure in the Yi embroidery industry. There are 57000 embroiderers in the prefecture, and many embroiderers rely on Yi embroidery to increase their income." Li Wenjuan, member of the standing committee of Chuxiong prefecture party committee and head of the propaganda department of the prefecture party committee, said that there is one national Yi embroidery inheritor, five provincial-level Yi embroidery inheritors, 31 prefecture level Yi embroidery inheritors, and 434 people with professional and technical titles of Yi embroidery, including 105 senior technicians.

In the future, Chuxiong Prefecture plans to set up Yi embroidery majors in Chuxiong Normal University and other schools to cultivate complex Yi embroidery talents. Li Wenjuan said that we should promote the evaluation of professional titles of embroidery technology, establish a Yi embroidery expert workstation, build a think tank of Yi embroidery experts, and strive to cultivate and introduce more than five national level craft masters by 2025, so that the art at the fingertips can be carried forward.

　　 Promote innovation

Handicraft delivers beauty; Making folk art creative products that "touch the temperature"; Cross border and innovation... This is the philosophy of Fan Zhiyong, a Yi embroidery worker in Dayao County: traditional skills should be inherited, and more importantly, they should adapt to the times and innovate and develop.

Fan Zhiyong has been influenced by the environment of "everyone can embroider" since childhood. She likes painting and handwork. She studied product design in college. After graduating in 2007, she returned to her hometown to establish Yunnan Naxi Cultural Creative Development Co., Ltd., registered the brand "Nasu", and directly led 126 embroiderers with the mode of "company+base (association)+embroiderer (member)" More than 300 embroiderers participated in Yi embroidery. In 2019, Fan Zhiyong joined hands with everyone to complete the 70 meter long and 1.5 meter high "Shenzhou Splendid" Yi embroidery scroll.

Over the years, Fan Zhiyong has been committed to the innovative application of traditional crafts in modern life. Many internationally renowned enterprises have asked Fan Zhiyong to make business gifts incorporating Yi embroidery elements. "Fashion" and "cross-border" have become the new labels of her works: notebooks embroidered with Yi patterns are full of cultural flavor; Ordinary T-shirts are embroidered with Internet buzzwords, and the packaging box is a paper file box, which is popular with young people... By the end of 2021, the company has completed the collection and sorting of 560 Yi embroidery patterns, and 50 in-depth development.

A few years ago, she launched the "Happiness Fingertip Plan": organizing designers, under the guidance of previous data, to do product research and development according to the cultural characteristics of different regions, pre-sale from online and offline platforms, and then train Xiuniang with orders to help them earn income and receive free retraining.

The company has organized embroidery, e-commerce and marketing training to cover nearly 10000 people, and the monthly income of practitioners has risen from 800 yuan to about 3000 yuan before the training. Recently, the company participated in an entrepreneurship contest and won the first place in the province. Fan Zhiyong said that he hoped to pass on the intangible cultural heritage, help the embroidery lady realize her craftsmanship, help the rural revitalization, and promote the revival of Yi embroidery culture.

It is reported that the cultural support of the Yi embroidery industry is growing. Chuxiong Yi costumes are listed as national intangible cultural heritage, and Yi embroidery is listed as provincial intangible cultural heritage. Zhiju Yi women's clothing has won national patents, and 1056 Xiuniang databases have been completed throughout the prefecture. Li Wenjuan said that we should strengthen the training and order competition of Xiuniang, connect the small production of thousands of households with the ever-changing market, and make contributions to increasing the income of rural Xiuniang, optimizing the rural industrial structure, and promoting rural revitalization.

"Under the blue sky and white clouds, we feed chickens, bring babies, embroider flowers, and raise families... The craftsmanship conveys beauty." Fan Zhiyong always adheres to this concept.

　　 Increase income

"This Yi people's grand dress is very beautiful, embroidered with lantana." Recalling the scene that she was moved many years ago, Zhang Liqiong still has a light in her eyes. In 2004, Zhang Liqiong, a lecturer in the prefecture museum, was shocked by the Yi embroidery costumes at the ceremony. After that, influenced by her husband, who was engaged in the research of Yi culture, she gradually became familiar with Yi embroidery, and set up a studio of Yi color clothing in Chuxiong to start the journey of Yi embroidery.

Zhang Liqiong's studio is "highly skilled". Customers from all counties and cities in the prefecture come to order clothes, with an annual output value of more than 400000 yuan. She also improved her embroidery skills and learned various cutting techniques by learning from her teacher. In 2014, she resigned to start a Yi embroidery company. At present, there are 8 series and more than 150 kinds of Yi embroidery products.

Now, she devotes more time to inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage Yi embroidery products, rescue and protection of Yi costumes, collection of Yi embroidery classics, and research and development of cultural and creative products with Yi cultural themes. The work "Song of the Yi People" shows the people in Yi costumes dancing and singing, reflecting the scene of prosperity, grain harvest, and livestock prosperity; The pleated skirt of the Yi nationality, a chieftain in the Qing Dynasty, was very exquisite. The embroidery method was to divide a silk thread into 32 pieces, which was thinner than the hair...... In the Yi color clothing studio, her collection of embroidery boutiques was rich and colorful, which was constantly admired by the audience.

Li Jiyan, a villager in Lianchi Township, Yongren County, started to learn embroidery at the age of 5. In 2020, Yongren Qiaoniang Embroidery Co., Ltd. was established, which has more than 50 embroidery women and adopts order production. In 2022, the output value will be more than 800000 yuan, and the annual income of each embroidery woman will exceed 20000 yuan; Li Xiaoli runs Yongren Huajin Yi Embroidery Co., Ltd. She said that orders came from Shanghai and other places, with an output value of more than 1.5 million yuan... Now, more and more people are engaged in the Yi embroidery industry.

The scale of the Yi embroidery industry in Chuxiong Prefecture continues to expand, and the degree of industrial agglomeration continues to improve. There are 56 Yi embroidery associations (cooperatives) and 538 Yi embroidery operators in the prefecture, including 12 enterprises with an annual output value of more than 5 million yuan. "More than 30 million yuan has been invested in the cultural industry of provinces and prefectures, and the industrial output value will increase from 20 million yuan in 2012 to more than 200 million yuan in 2021." Li Wenjuan said that various measures should be taken to promote Yi embroidery to become a product, a market, a business card, and a "fingertip art" to become a "fingertip economy.".

　　 Break into the market

Keep an eye on the embroidered cloth on the shelf, and move the needle skillfully with both hands... In the workshop of Nanhua County Qicai Yi Embroidery Culture Co., Ltd., the villager Li Guoxiu is focusing on embroidery. "When I was a child, I was very skilled in flat, seed and random stitches. After coming to the company, I learned a lot." As the workshop director, she took more than 70 embroiderers and rushed to produce embroidery products that would be sold to coastal areas.

"Embroidery has changed my life." Li Guoxiu said that he earns more than 6000 yuan a month from it and can take care of his family. Embroidery is loved by people far away and he is very proud.

Ding Lanying, the chairman of the company, was also changed by Yi embroidery: from Hongtupo Town, she learned Yi embroidery under the influence of her mother, and later opened an embroidery shop in the village, which was poorly managed; She decided to go out of the village to study clothing design and processing. In 2006, she returned to her hometown to start her own business again. In 2014, she founded an embroidery processing factory. In March 2021, she founded a company. It has one processing factory, eight poverty alleviation workshops, and more than 2000 embroidery mothers working at home.

The bigger change is that the products are exported to Fujian and other places, and the order scale is constantly growing. Today, Ding Lanying is the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage in Yunnan Province, and has mastered more than 70 Yi embroidery techniques. In 2020, the company will realize diversified product development, research and develop more than 1000 products in more than 300 categories, such as handbags, laptops, shawls, etc., and sell them at home and abroad, with an annual production income of more than 15 million yuan.

More than ten years ago, Southeast University and Nanhua County established a pairing relationship of targeted assistance. Qu Xu, the leader of the special team for the inheritance and development of ethnic embroidery industry and ethnic culture in Nanhua County, said that the school has helped the Yi embroidery industry in Nanhua since 2017, and has made great efforts to tap the industrial potential from product design, brand marketing, embroidery training and other aspects.

Southeast University introduced 120000 yuan of public welfare fund to help the inheritance of Yi embroidery culture; A total of 825000 yuan has been invested in training Yi embroidery skills, and more than 1000 embroidery women have been trained; Teachers and students from the school's art school were selected to design more than 200 Yi embroidery products for Nanhua, helping to build a cultural website for Nanhua Yi embroidery, an online store for product sales, and improving the brand image. The school also invested 2.5 million yuan in the construction of the Nanhua Yi Embroidery Museum and the implementation of the Nanhua Yi Embroidery Characteristic Village Construction Project. "The 28 new products designed by the teachers and students of Southeast University are particularly popular," Ding Lanying said. The colors and patterns of the products are very fashionable. Now, her daughter Chen Haiyan has also become the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage of Yi embroidery at the county level, responsible for the company's product innovation and the design of fashionable and simple products.

Small embroidery needles provoke big industries. Chuxiong Prefecture has built a special cultural industry chain of Yi embroidery from the production end to the market end. It has specially organized a group to Fujian to carry out investment cooperation on Yi embroidery, and "mountains and seas" have joined hands to help Yi embroidery enterprises "go global". Create "Yi Embroidery Park" for industrial incubation, public brand logo "Yi Embroidery Awareness" and industrial "Yi Embroidery Logo", and two "Yi Embroidery Libraries" of Chuxiong Embroidery Mother and Pattern; The preferential loan "Yi Embroidery Loan" and "Yi Embroidery Mail" aimed at reducing logistics costs, as well as the "Yi Embroidery Guarantee" to ensure that consumers can buy pure hand-made Yi embroidery boutiques... Li Wenjuan said that she should build brands, expand influence, expand orders in coastal areas, expand overseas markets, and create a beautiful picture of rural revitalization by double hand embroidery.

(Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Wang Changshan, Lin Bifeng, Wang Anhaowei)

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