In the liduozi embroidery workshop of Wanzi Village, Pig Farm Township, Nayong County, Yang Li (left), an embroidery lady of the Miao family, earnestly teaches skills. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Nayong County CPC Committee
Miao women from Yutang Community in Honglin Yi and Miao Township, Qianxi City, inspect finished embroidery products sold on the shelves in an embroidery workshop. Photo by Zhou Xunchao/Guangming Photo
Miao embroidery wax painting "Miao Ling Fei Feng" painted by miao family embroidery lady in Wanzi Village, Nayong County. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Nayong County CPC Committee
Cai Qun, the inheritor of Hmong batik embroidery in Zhijin County, made a horsetail embroidery work "Phoenix Play Peony". Photo by Chen Mei/Guangming
Common Hmong embroidery flat embroidery grass pattern works in the Bijie area. Photo by Chen Mei/Guangming
Villagers embroidered in the poverty alleviation workshop of the relocation site for poverty alleviation and resettlement in Xinren Miao Township, Qianxi City. Photo by Shi Kai/Guangming Pictures
Hmong women wearing embroidered costumes. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Nayong County CPC Committee
Some people say: The history of the Miao people is worn on the body. Since there is no writing, the embroidery on the clothing has become the carrier of the culture inherited by the Miao compatriots. From creation myths to heroic epics, from mountains and rivers to grass, trees, livestock and poultry, from history to life, Miao embroidery is an encyclopedia of the Miao people.
"For as long as I can remember, I've watched my mother embroider the seedlings." Miao woman Lu Yinfei is the general manager of Qianminglu Miao Embroidery Inheritance Development Co., Ltd. in Nayong County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, and is also a non-hereditary inheritor of Miao costumes at the municipal level. Since the age of 6, she has learned Miao embroidery with her mother. The Miao are the least populous of the four branches of the Miao people in Nayong County, inhabited by the alpine forest, and are a "people left behind in the deep mountain forest". They used needles as pens and threads as ink to embroider the memories of migration on their dresses.
Lu Yinfei said that the embroidery techniques of the seedlings are several yarn embroidery, paper-cut embroidery, weaving embroidery, batik embroidery, collage embroidery, rolling embroidery, rolling embroidery, plate embroidery, etc., including "family emblem" animal patterns with totemic meanings, such as cattle, dragons, phoenixes, fish, etc., each pattern represents a different meaning.
"I have the confidence to inherit our Miao culture well, carry it forward and develop it well." Nowadays, using the company's platform, Lu Yinfei has organized the Miao women in the village to produce Miao embroidery cultural and creative products, bringing everyone a lot of economic income.
In order to better inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional culture of Miao embroidery, Bijie City actively encourages inheritors to carry out the inheritance of Miao embroidery and batik skills by means of family style, teacher and apprentice, and workshop. There are 14 representative inheritors of Miao embroidery at or above the municipal level in the city, each of whom subsidizes the inheritance fund of 5,000 yuan per year, and there are irregular special funds for intangible cultural heritage at all levels to support the development of Miao embroidery.
The national is the world, and today's characteristic Miao embroidery is both a culture and an industry. There are nearly one million Miao compatriots in Bijie City, who promote rural revitalization in the inheritance and promotion of traditional culture, and here, the national traditional culture represented by Miao embroidery is ushering in unprecedented development opportunities.
During the Waxing Moon season, the taste of the new year is getting stronger, and in the Miao embroidery shop in Bijie Qianxihuawu Village, there are exquisite handmade Miao embroidery costumes and special trinkets; the workers in the poverty alleviation workshop are flying needles and threads, busy making orders.
You Huazhong, the person in charge of the workshop, said: "This is an industry that leads the masses to increase their income and become rich, and it must be bigger and stronger." In 2021, the poverty alleviation workshop received more than 1,000 sets of Orders for Miao costumes, with an output value of nearly 3 million yuan. At present, a 1,000-square-meter Miao embroidery production workshop is being built, and the production capacity will be greatly improved after it is put into operation. We also cooperated with a garment manufacturer in Huadu District, Guangzhou, to explore the integration of Miao embroidery elements into fashion clothing, so that Miao embroidery products can attract more consumers. ”
In the small totomiao village of Dazhai Village, Guanzhai Township, Zhijin County, embroidery ladies are in groups of three or five, or sit around to communicate, or sit scattered embroidery. Cai Qun, the non-hereditary heir of Miao embroidery, is going from house to house, pointing out the stitching method of the embroidery lady while answering the phone to negotiate orders. The Cai Qun Miao Batik Embroidery Co., Ltd., which she founded, has just successfully signed an order of 5 million yuan.
Talking about his Miao embroidery career, Cai Qun was very excited. General Secretary Xi Jinping praised Miao embroidery when he inspected Guizhou on the eve of the Spring Festival last year: Miao embroidery is both traditional and fashionable, and you embroider it with one stitch and one thread, how wonderful! The embroidered ladies were encouraged and their confidence was greatly enhanced. Nowadays, their Miao embroidery products are not only sold to surrounding counties and cities, but also exported to Shanghai, Guangdong and overseas markets. "This craft that our ancestors have passed down is very valuable! If we can live a good life, my daughter will also learn to inherit Miao embroidery in the future! Cai Qun said.
At present, the embroidery ladies of Xiaotuomiao Village can get an average of about 4,000 yuan a month, and when they live a lot in the peak season, the young and skillful embroidery ladies take 10,000 yuan and are not fresh.
At the 2021 Shenzhen Cultural Fair, Bijie City built a pavilion with the theme of "DongtianFudi • Huahai Bijie", and national cultural and creative products such as Miao embroidery were loved and concerned by exhibitors. Zhang Min, member of the Standing Committee of the Qianxi Municipal Party Committee and director of the Propaganda Department of Bijie City, said that as an embroidery technique inherited by the Miao people, Miao embroidery is finely crafted and complex in craftsmanship, and is known for its beautiful composition, strong national style and rich colors, and is known as "haute couture" hidden in the mountains.
In 2021, Qianxi also increased the support for the traditional Miao clothing industry, supported "intangible cultural heritage" inheritors such as Miao embroidery through multiple channels to establish Miao traditional clothing production workshops, and introduced sewing machines, computer embroidery machines and other equipment, so that traditional skills can be combined with modern craftsmanship, and traditional Miao embroidery is full of vitality. At present, 33 Miao traditional costume production workshops have been established in Xinren, Honglin, Linquan and other townships, and the order products are sold online and offline to the market inside and outside the province, becoming a cultural industry for local Miao villagers to increase their income and become rich.
According to the person in charge of the Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism of Bijie City, at present, the city has incorporated traditional culture such as Miao embroidery into the extracurricular practical activities of the school in townships where the Miao population is concentrated, and regularly arranges for the inheritors to conduct centralized teaching. Encourage Miao families to educate their children to love Miao culture from an early age, and take Miao embroidery and batik as essential skills. They also set up a Miao embroidery intangible cultural heritage exhibition hall in villages with good development in the Miao embroidery industry, and set up experience areas and sales areas to attract tourists to participate in the experience. At the same time, the use of network live broadcasts and other ways to let more young consumers know Miao embroidery, a cultural boutique in the mountains of Guizhou.
(Reporters Lu Shen and Chen Guanhe)
Source: Guangming Daily