Tang Shenglan and Miao costumes have been dealing with each other all their lives, and she is an embroidery lady with a story.
On March 20, when I first saw Tang Shenglan, she was looking closely at the old embroidery pieces, as if she was caught in endless reverie and shock. "Be sure to remember this pattern." Taking a deep breath, she began to think about how to innovate again on the basis of reproduction, what dyeing thread was needed, and how the needle and thread would be worn
Tang Shenglan
Miao embroidery is not uncommon in the southeast of Guizhou, and embroidery is not uncommon. Tang Shenglan was born in Yangping Village, Cen Song Township, Jianhe County, in the 1960s, where 94 percent are Miao. She embroidered from her mother in elementary school, learned her father to play silver, and practiced a skill. In the 1980s, with the acceleration of the reform and opening up process, the Miao costumes with ethnic customs attracted many foreign merchants. Tang Shenglan also saw the business opportunity, began to go to Beijing, Shenzhen and other places alone to investigate, and bought a large number of old Miao embroidered clothes, embroidery pieces, brocade, silver jewelry to sell to merchants.
Tang Shenglan collected old embroidery pieces
In the process of repeated "buying" and "selling" for a long period of time, Tang Shenglan and some local embroidery girls have gradually realized the value of their own ethnic culture and cultural products. She said, "The most valuable thing about a craft embroidery is its technique and texture, which is the crystallization of wisdom left by the ancestors and the wealth that future generations should cherish." ”
After careful consideration, Tang Shenglan paid more attention to one thing, "How to innovate and inherit?" A decision was also quickly made, "Do it yourself!" ”
In 2008, Tang Shenglan put away the old embroidery pieces, took out his own embroidery, opened a façade in kaili national trade street, and officially established Qiandongnan Jiuli Miaomei Crafts Co., Ltd. in 2009. In order to let more consumers accept and appreciate, she set up the "Miao Mei Silver Jewelry" team, and found another way to combine national crafts with fashion elements and real life, creating a series of handicrafts with cultural connotations and national connotations.
Coincidentally, in recent years, Qiandongnan Prefecture attaches great importance to the development of the Miao embroidery industry, and with the blessing of policy dividends, Miao embroidery products have been greatly improved in terms of development, innovation, design capabilities, etc., and Miao embroidery has gradually developed towards industrialization, marketization and scale.
Riding on this shareholder wind, Miaomei Company has driven more than 800 households such as Danzhai, Taijiang, Huangping, Kaili and other more than 800 households to increase their income with the "company + base + farmer + tourism" model, and the products have been sold to more than 10 countries such as the United States, Britain, Thailand, Malaysia, etc., achieving an annual output value of more than 50 million yuan.
After 20 years of physical collection, the Kaili MiaoMei Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum was officially opened in 2014, which contains more than 1,000 pieces of various Miao supplies collected by Tang Shenglan. The third and fourth floors are dedicated to displaying the old national costumes, the second floor is the modern ethnic costumes and decorative crafts made by her and her team, and the first floor is used to concentrate on the display of Miao Mei's silver jewelry.
"After hundreds of years of precipitation, these old objects have long been covered with traces of age, but it is still difficult to hide their brilliance." Especially when the patterns on the old embroidery pieces are reproduced into modern crafts, in the contrast between ancient and modern, visitors can feel the significance of inheritance. Tang Shenglan said that tourists buying Miao embroidery products has become a fashion.
Tang Shenglan introduced the collected patch embroidery in the Miao Mei Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum
When it comes to future development, she is also particularly confident and determined.
"With the change of generations, the 'couture' hidden in the mountains is destined to return to the public eye." She said that General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Guizhou on the eve of the Spring Festival last year to praise Miao embroidery, praising the embroidery of a needle and a thread, how wonderful, which is a great encouragement to the embroidery lady, and it is really the moment when Miao embroidery is "out of the circle". On the eve of the Spring Festival this year, the New Guofa No. 2 document was issued, which clearly stated that it is necessary to "actively develop cultural industries and tourism industries with national and rural characteristics, strengthen the protection and inheritance of traditional national handicrafts, and create national cultural creative products and tourism commodity brands", which has added new impetus to further making the Miao embroidery industry bigger and stronger.
Guizhou Daily Tianyan news reporter Zeng Shuhui
Edited by Hu Lan
Editor Wang Luyao Shi Yuling