The embroidery lady is embroidering (courtesy of Jianhe County Rong Media Center)
Central Broadcasting Network Guizhou May 5 news A stroke, a cut, a needle and a line... The day and night of a "craftsman" are intertwined.
In Jianhe County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, there is such a skilled craftsman, she uses the scissors needle and thread in her hand and the calluses in her palm to condense 39 years of time at her fingertips, silently telling the craftsman's persistent truth. Won the first prize of the Guizhou Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Project - Paper-cutting Embroidery Technique Competition for two consecutive years. She is a national non-hereditary inheritor who is active in the paper-cutting world, shining herself and illuminating others, a master of Miao paper-cutting craftsmanship, and the winner of the 2022 Guizhou "May Day" Labor Commendation - Jiang Wenying.
Early in the morning, taking advantage of the good weather, Jiang Wenying came to Pan Huahe's home in Wuhe Village, Gedong Town, Jianhe County, to collect the embroidery pieces ordered.
Pan Huahe has been working with Jiang Wenying for 15 years and has a relatively stable income every month. There are 15 embroidery girls in the village who have cooperated with Jiang Wenying for a long time like Pan Huahe.
Jiang Wenying (third from left) and villagers exchange embroidery and paper-cutting skills (Courtesy of Jianhe County Rong Media Center)
Regardless of the wind and rain, the spring and autumn order, as long as there is time, Jiang Wenying will take the initiative to collect embroidery pieces, settle wages and bring new orders. In recent years, under the influence of Jiang Wenying, more than 10 embroidery girls in the village have joined the ranks of making money.
Jiang Wenying said that what she was most happy to see was every time the salary was paid to the embroidery girls, because the embroidery girls' smiles from the heart were particularly infectious, which proved my value and significance.
In the more than thirty years of paper-cutting creation, Jiang Wenying has not remembered how many scissors and embroidery needles she used, but the thick calluses on her hands do remember that there are traces of time polishing, recording how she went from a flower girl to a qualified embroidery lady.
Jiang Wenying (middle) guides students in paper-cutting skills (Courtesy of Jianhe County Rong Media Center)
She has always had a wish, that is, to help those rural embroiderers who have no way to get rich, and transform their finger skills into fingertip economy.
In the heart of Pan Siying, an embroidery lady in Wuhe Village, Gedong Town, Jianhe County, Jiang Wenying is not only her sister, a leader who earns money, but also her own teacher, she said: "Teacher Jiang Wenying is not only highly skilled but also very patient, often teaching us to embroider new patterns. In the past, we all embroidered ourselves and wore themselves, but since we met her, we found that the craftsmanship we were accustomed to could be turned into a money-making job. ”
For a creative embroidery lady, creative inspiration is particularly important, however, inspiration does not fall from the sky, sometimes it originates on the way to wade through mountains and rivers, sometimes appears in the silence of solitude embroidery and paper cutting, it sometimes occurs in the story of the old woman's word of mouth, and sometimes it happens between the lines of the family and country events... In order to grasp these sources of creation, Jiang Wenying will always rush to his own creative world for the first time, recording it with a drawing, a cut, a needle and a line, even in the dream of sleeping in the middle of the night, even in the half-eaten table, she said: "Labor can make people forget all their troubles, can make people concentrate." Do one thing carefully one day, then do this one thing well in one year, and in the last ten years and twenty years you will even do one thing for a lifetime, so you have become a craftsman. ”
Embroidery pattern on clothes (courtesy of Jianhe County Rong Media Center)
A work from the stroke of the stroke to the needle work, a total of eight or nine processes such as drawing, picking and cutting, threading, etc., most of the time in order to create a satisfactory work, Jiang Wenying had to reduce his meal time and even rest time, often sleep less than 4 hours or even all night.
Due to long-term immersion, paper cutting and staring, Jiang Wenying's fingers often hurt and stiffened, and even scissors could not be used in the worst cases. But her love of paper-cutting overcame everything, and in the end she won everyone's praise and respect with a decade of craftsmanship and the pursuit of the ultimate craftsmanship. Jiang Wenying has also been awarded more than 10 national, provincial and state honors.
"Teacher Jiang taught us a lot of things and truths, and let us understand the meaning of inheritance. In the future, I will also give what I have learned to the children, so that our Miao culture will be passed on from generation to generation and carried forward. Speaking of Jiang Wenying, the embroidery lady Pan Genmei said with respect in her eyes.
Villagers select embroidery pieces at Jiang Wenying's stall (Courtesy of Jianhe County Rong Media Center)
Jiang Wenying is particularly good at creating paper-cut works on the theme of Miao mythology, and his original ecological and clumsy aesthetic national complex has been favored by people at home and abroad, and his works have been widely circulated. In order to inherit the Miao embroidery culture and transform this cultural resource advantage into an economic advantage, Jiang Wenying helped a number of enterprises to train Miao women to achieve the purpose of inheritance and entrepreneurship to get rich.
Over the years, she has joined hands with more than 40 embroidery girls to create the Jianhe County Miao Paper-cutting Art Garden, which has driven more than 200 people from the surrounding masses to employment.
Whenever it comes to paper-cutting, Jiang Wenying is always full of hope and determination, she said: "Life is endlessly passed on. I firmly believe that my career can continue to persist, and now that the national policy is so good, it is more worth it for me to let this craft enter the villages and villages, into the campus, and let this skill be inherited for a long time. (Wu Changlian, Yang Jiameng, Wu Ling)