Influenced by her family, Liang Xiaoman, who is a post-90s generation, has always insisted on practicing Cantonese embroidery, and it is her pursuit to integrate contemporary painting concepts to innovate.
Liang Xiaoman's mother, Liang Xiuling, the representative inheritor of Guangdong embroidery.
Kapok wide embroidery works.
Liang Xiaoman integrates Cantonese embroidery into jewelry design.
On Beiting Road in Guangzhou's Panyu District, young figures hurried past, surrounded by the most concentrated places in Guangdong universities. Decades ago, it was also in full swing, with the most famous "North Pavilion Embroidery Society" in Guangdong Embroidery, which gathered thousands of embroiderers in its heyday.
Liang Xiuling, the representative inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage project Guangdong embroidery, grew up here, from the age of five or six to learn Cantonese embroidery to innovate techniques and establish the "Nanyue Guangdong Embroidery" brand, she witnessed the fading of Guangdong embroidery from its heyday and re-sprouting in modern times. Infected by his mother, Liang Xiaoman, a post-90s non-hereditary heir, came into contact with Guangdong embroidery at the age of five or six, and when he grew up, he integrated modern design concepts with traditional skills, so that Guangxiu "flew out" of the picture frame, combined with home design such as screens, sofas, and background walls, and entered people's daily lives.
This exploration and innovation go hand in hand. If you say, Liang Xiuling's mission is to make Guangxiu come alive and passed on. Then Liang Xiaoman is to use Guang embroidery and go out.
Explore and innovate
● Liang Xiaoman's small goal: not only to have traditional craftsmanship, but also to have innovative masterpieces.
● Wide embroidery and screens, sofas, background walls and other home design integration, into life.
● Seeking cross-border is a commonality of the new generation of inheritors.
● Liang Xiuling let Guangxiu come alive and pass on, and Liang Xiaoman used Guangxiu and went out.
Guangxiu home into life
In Beiting Village, Xinzuo Town, Panyu District, Guangzhou, there was a saying that "not knowing embroidery is not a Beiting woman". Since the Qing Dynasty, the family of Liang Xiuling, the representative inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage project Guangdong embroidery, has used embroidery as a source of livelihood, and she is the fifth generation of the family. Since coming to this world, Liang Xiuling has become acquainted with Guangxiu. At the age of three or four, she began to help her mother thread needles and threads, and by the age of five or six, she had to practice canton embroidery almost every day, and her childhood seemed to be spent on the embroidery rack, which lasted for nearly 40 years. Every generation has had a similar experience. When Liang Xiaoman was a child, he often saw this scene: his mother kept sitting in front of the embroidery rack, fiddling with needles and threads in her hands. She moved a stool and sat opposite, watching her embroidery, occasionally helping her mother thread needles and threads. "I was curious about what attracted her and made her keep playing with me against the shelf." Like his mother, Liang Xiaoman began to contact Guangdong embroidery from the age of five or six, embroidering some simple small flowers and grasses, and at the age of ten, he could independently complete a Guangdong embroidery work.
Not only the mother, but also the grandmother's generation everyone can embroider, almost every household has embroidery girls and embroidery racks. Many people take goods from the embroidery company, weigh the weight of the material, and directly take the order home to make a living, and they make a living from extensive embroidery. Later, due to the narrowing of foreign trade orders, many embroidery ladies in Beiting Village found another way out, some returned to agricultural work, and some turned to bead embroidery, but Liang Xiuling has not put down Guangdong embroidery. Influenced by the family environment, Liang Xiaoman has also insisted on practicing Cantonese embroidery. In junior high school, she was tired of traditional themes such as peonies, peacocks, and phoenixes, and became obsessed with anime, and wanted to embroider an anime work with cantonese embroidery. Due to the rich color of anime, no one has ever done such a subject, she has to study colors and techniques from scratch, and then integrate contemporary painting concepts to innovate. From the beginning of the draft to the production of the first anime embroidery work "Anime Angel", it took a total of 3 years. "Fortunately, my mother encouraged and supported me, which gave me a sense of confidence." This also allowed her to see the interesting light of Guang embroidery. "If I had been embroidering traditional themes, I might not have been able to stick with it." Embracing the interest in Guangdong embroidery, Liang Xiaoman University chose the environmental art design major, hoping to combine Guangdong embroidery with home design such as screens, sofas, and background walls, so that Guangdong embroidery can "fly out" the picture frame into people's lives.
Just walking into the Guangyi Studio in Panyu, you can see a screen work that combines Guangdong embroidery and painting, which together presents the partial effect of "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains". As soon as the light fell, the embroidery threads on the top of the mountain refracted the light of the screen. Different from the traditional whole embroidery, Liang Xiaoman integrates hand-painting and embroidery in his works, which not only reduces the cost of man-hours, but also adjusts the embroidery ratio according to demand, making the embroidery furniture better cleaned and cleaned. There are more and more Guangdong embroidery derivatives created, and Liang Xiaoman has opened his own studio in the original handicraft street in Baiyun Sanyuanli, and has also brought Guangxiu into attractions such as Yuyin Mountain House, so that more people can see and perceive the beauty of Guangdong embroidery.
Cross-border innovation into the market
Seeking cross-border is the commonality of the new generation of inheritors. In June 2019, Guangzhou Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center and Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts jointly held the Guangzuo New Generation Tsinghua Creative Design Work Camp with the theme of "Enhancing Inheritance and Design Capabilities", and gathered 20 Guangzuo New Generations, of which Liang Xiaoman was one of them.
Influenced by the family, the intangible cultural heritage skills have been fortunately passed down, but how to open the eyes and use creative design to dialogue with the market is what Liang Xiaoman is curious about. During this time, Liang Xiaoman also participated in the Guangdong embroidery project of the Snowflake Show Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Fund of Tsinghua University, and designed a series of works with the theme of masks.
Contact with Cantonese embroidery craftsmen such as Chao embroidery made her interested in three-dimensional embroidery. "The three-dimensional embroidery of tide embroidery is mostly based on cotton pads on the cloth and then embroidered, while the three-dimensional embroidery of Guangxiu is embroidered with a needle." Liang Xiaoman said as she showed her butterflies made of wide embroidery and beautiful insect longan chicken patches growing on longan trees. "This butterfly can be picked up, I used some copper wire to shape, and the wings can be bent and deformed."
This series of mask design is based on insects, before the design she viewed a lot of information, but afraid to do too realistic, less design sense, in the later stage simply put the information aside for creation. There is a time when a work combines Guangzhou's classic embroidery, bead embroidery and a variety of intangible cultural heritage techniques.
Cross-border cooperation with Shanghai fashion designers, Hanfu brands, Cantonese embroidery of traditional patterns... When it comes to the projects handled in the second half of last year, Liang Xiaoman is like a family treasure. In those days, she embroidered from nine o'clock in the morning to one o'clock in the morning almost every day, which can only be described as "tired". Only five extensive embroidery of traditional patterns have been re-embroidered for nearly half a year. During this period, it is not only necessary to restore the exact same stitching method according to the work, but also to shoot a video and record the stitching technique.
In her opinion, Guangdong embroidery is not only a painting and a work, but also can be combined with fashion and become accessories to carry around. Because of the high labor cost and the high cost of silk thread, the price of a large Cantonese embroidery work is usually 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, which is inconsistent with the consumption level of young people. Realizing this, Liang Xiaoman integrated Cantonese embroidery into jewelry design, including earrings, necklaces, hair bands, etc., each priced for only a few hundred yuan. It was a hit and sold out quickly. "Not only is it sold out, but it still owes a few deals." Liang Xiaoman said that last year, these jewelry were also favored by the Guangdong Provincial Museum, and linked with the Lychee Culture Exhibition and the Three Cities Chronicle in the museum, and exhibited and sold in the museum.
"We also work with car brands such as Hongqi to decorate the roof, doors and armrests with Cantonese embroidery techniques and display them in flagship stores, where guests can customize them according to their needs." Liang Xiaoman said.
Basically every year, Liang Xiaoman will set a small goal: both traditional craftsmanship and innovative masterpieces. For example, this year, she is ready to make four traditional pieces, creative cooperation with the brand, and extend the design of three-dimensional embroidery.
The core of innovation is in the same vein
Although the forms of expression are different, from the core point of view, innovation is in the same vein as Liang Xiuling and Liang Xiaoman's mother and daughter.
In the 1980s and 1990s, affected by the machine embroidery process, the foreign trade orders of Guangzhou embroidery gradually shrank, and many embroidery ladies in Beiting Village found another way out, and Liang Xiuling chose to insist. "My ideas have always been simple, even if embroidery didn't make money for a long time. But I love it, just embroider it one by one, and I believe that one day someone will like it. ”
Many writers often go through the "drawer literature" period before becoming famous: when their works are not recognized, they still work hard, and put them in the drawer when they cannot be published after writing. Liang Xiuling also went through a similar period: the embroidered embroidery was not cared for, it was first placed in the cabinet, packed in a plastic bag, and then waited.
In the days when the market was sluggish, Mr. You was responsible for raising the family, and Liang Xiuling got more time to sink down and study the Guangdong embroidery needlework. When she can't figure it out, she will also go to various places to see paintings from the past, oil paintings, Chinese paintings, and all kinds of embroidery methods. Watched and practiced, practiced and watched.
This persistence comes from an unwillingness to repeat the past.
In the past, there was a model for receiving orders, and the embroiderer only needed to embroider according to the template drawings, and could not change the style and color according to personal wishes. Every piece of clothing is similar, only some are a little better and a little worse by hand, but the color is the same.
Exposed to a variety of designs, Liang Xiuling realized that it was not okay to repeat the past. According to her own ideas, she began to use the technique of extensive embroidery to restore the smudge of ink painting and reproduce the expression of light and shadow of oil painting. By observing and imitating the layers of Rendering of Chinese paintings, using silk threads from bottom to top, layer by layer to lay out the feeling of blending.
Although new artistic elements are integrated, Guangdong embroidery does not depart from the original things, but only reflects the aesthetic styles of different eras. Kung Fu pays off. In 2006, Guangxiu was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list, Guangxiu gradually returned to the public vision, and Liang Xiuling also took out the Guangxiu hidden in the cabinet. Looking back on these days, Liang Xiuling never regretted it. She has always had a belief that no matter what the market is, she must do her best to pass on the family craft. "This is not only me personally, nor is it my family's craftsmanship, but also a treasure of Chinese culture."
Out of her keen attention to business, as early as more than ten years ago, Liang Xiuling registered the brands of Nanyue Guangxiu and Liang Xiuling Guangxiu. When I first got into the business world, there was no shortage of opposition around me.
"If you only close the door and bury your head in the embroidery, no one knows, how to go far, how to integrate into the modern era, is it not going to go out of business?" 」 After wandering for a long time, Liang Xiuling decided to increase publicity, and the construction of the brand can ensure the quality of the product and prevent the emergence of counterfeit and shoddy products.
Influenced by his mother, Liang Xiaoman also continues to try, hoping to extend another intangible cultural heritage brand specializing in product innovation and creative design.
It is hard to find people who have passed on their hearts
Heritage and innovation coexist with each other.
"If the intangible cultural heritage is to be passed on, the market must be opened to a virtuous circle." For more than a decade, Liang Xiuling has taught many apprentices, but in the past two years, the market affected by the epidemic has generally been sluggish, and some people have given up halfway considering that they want to make a living. Some people learned a little bit and taught everywhere under the sign of Liang Xiuling's apprentice.
Cantonese embroidery skills are easy to get started and difficult to learn. Most people can learn the basics, but to be proficient requires years of practice, not only to have skills, but also to have their own understanding and aesthetics.
Short-term basic stitching learning will frame students in the rules, and feel that they must follow a certain stitching method to be wide embroidery. But in fact, it is not, canton embroidery can have more flexibility in the application, transformation, sometimes the two stitches can be fused, alternate use of each other.
Liang Xiaoman found that some people only studied a course, did not have long-term training, and after the guidance of the teacher, they may form a solidified cognition. The technique only stays on stitching, does not translate into personal application, and does not delve into patterns or artistic treatments. Embroidered for two or three years, it is difficult to form their own style.
Even if some people spend a long time to learn the fine embroidery skills, they will be trapped in the step of "finding a way out" and "supporting themselves". "Do other work, pay every month. But it is difficult to become famous in embroidery, and it is also difficult to support yourself. "Liang Xiuling said frankly that even if the family has continued to do embroidery for several generations, there are many activities and order cancellations in the context of the epidemic, and the market situation is not very good, let alone new people to open up the market, it is difficult to see the prospects." How to make them willing to enter this industry and pass it on with their hearts, I am also confused. ”
Under the dilemma, promoted by the Guangzhou Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, the inheritance of Guangxiu embroidery starts from "entering the campus" and is comprehensively carried out in kindergartens, primary schools, middle schools, vocational schools, colleges and universities.
Of course, the atmosphere of inheritance is also inseparable from the full support of the family. Many years ago, in order to expand her career, Liang Xiuling founded the Liang Xiuling Embroidery Art Museum, and a variety of things came pouring in, and she was too busy to come. Liang Yunhong, who has been taking on the responsibility of supporting his family and engaged in construction projects, was inspired by his wife's love for Guangdong embroidery, gave up his job as a construction engineer, and sold the machines in the factory to help his wife take care of the embroidery art museum.
Now Liang Yunhong is responsible for receiving orders and talking about cooperation, and Liang Xiuling is responsible for the creation of works and strictly grasping quality. Daughter Liang Xiaoman and son Liang Kewei also joined the team of inheritance and innovation, becoming the sixth generation of guangxiu.
In the past two years, due to the impact of the epidemic and the reduction of large-scale cultural tourism activities, Liang Xiuling temporarily closed the embroidery art museum covering an area of more than 1,000 square meters, leaving several small sales points. She plans to wait for the market to recover, find a bigger venue, and re-hang the works.
Written by: Nandu reporter Wang Meisu Intern Chen Wuhong Courtesy of the interviewee