Yi Embroidery In Luquan, Yunnan: Inheritance In The Dance Hands On Needle Tips

Pick, wear, lead, hook, flat needle, trocar, roller needle...... Stitch by stitch, like a dance on the needle tip, in a moment, vivid and pleasing national style paintings leaped on the cloth. In a national clothing store in Luquan County, Yunnan Province, You Dingmei, the inheritor of the provincial intangible cultural heritage of Yi embroidery, is showing her exquisite skills to reporters.

Luquan Luowu Embroidery, known as "a national history book embroidered on clothes", has distinctive style, bright colors, exquisite patterns and exquisite texture. It was included in the representative project list of Yunnan provincial intangible cultural heritage in 2012. Up to now, there are 3 provincial-level inheritors of ethnic embroidery in Yunnan, 2 municipal inheritors, more than 3000 embroidery women engaged in professional embroidery production in the county, 4 ethnic embroidery intangible heritage workshops and 2 transmission halls.

You Dingmei, who was born in Zehei Township, Luquan County, learned embroidery from her ancestors when she was young. At the age of 11, she learned excellent craftsmanship and became a famous "florist". On the basis of what her ancestors taught her, You Dingmei also innovated the Yi embroidery. At present, she has mastered 48 embroidery stitches.

You Dingmei, the inheritor of the provincial intangible cultural heritage of Yi embroidery. Photographed by Chen Wentao

You Dingmei revealed that after 20 years of hard work, she has trained more than tens of thousands of people to learn Yi embroidery, and even her 13-year-old granddaughter has become her little assistant. "As a successor, I have the responsibility to inherit our ancestors' things, which is my greatest wish."

"Our traditional costumes of the Yi people are a particularly good national culture, but they have not been well promoted." Yin Mingzhang, the 34 year old founder of Luquan Yizun National Culture Communication Co., Ltd., told the reporter that under the impact of modern culture, the inheritance and development of Yi embroidery, a traditional skill, is also facing a crisis.

He believes that only innovation can "go out", so he teamed up with designer friends to create Yi costumes and accessories that are suitable for the current national customs and traditions, and can move towards fashion, so that more young people like their hometown's national costumes.

Yin Mingzhang, founder of Luquan Yizun National Culture Communication Co., Ltd. Photographed by Chen Wentao

Yin Mingzhang said that the original intention of creating a clothing brand was to protect Luquan's traditional clothing culture and "Yi Embroidery" stitch, so that the traditional culture would not be lost. "We are also making constant efforts to let Luquan Embroidery go out of Yunnan and across the country."

In recent years, Yunnan Luquan has organized a team of embroidery talents to carry out 28 sessions of training and teaching in Yunnan Minzu University, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Yunnan Academy of Arts and other schools, as well as in Yunnan provinces and cities, 30000 person times. At the same time, the inheritors of national embroidery represented by You Dingmei and Chen Guowen have successively gone to Japan, Germany, New Zealand and other countries to promote and display national embroidery, and participated in more than 40 exhibitions such as Cultural and Natural Heritage Day, South China International Fair, and ICIF. While deepening exchanges and exchanges among ethnic groups, they also let national culture go out of the country and into the world.

In addition, Luquan, Yunnan, has vigorously fostered local ethnic embroidery featured industries, established the Luquan Yi and Miao Autonomous County Ethnic Women's Embroidery Crafts Professional and Technical Association, built an industrial cluster of Xindu Embroidery Street in the Yi City, and focused on cultivating and supporting nine leading enterprises with a certain scale, good operating conditions, and driving farmers to increase income quickly, It has attracted 80000 full-time and home embroidery workers throughout the county. Today, 300000 pieces of hand embroidery and handicrafts are produced annually, and the annual output value of the embroidery industry has reached tens of millions of yuan. The handicraft embroidery industry has become an important way for local women to obtain flexible employment at home, broaden their income channels, and increase their income through hard work.

(Source: China News Network)