At the beginning of the lanterns, the weather in Suzhou was a little cool, but Yao Jianping didn't feel the cold wind blowing outside the window at all, and was concentrating on fiddling with the silk thread in his hand. Sharp needles with threads thinner than a human hair pass through the gauze in front of them, and the dense stitches gradually join together to form a portrait.
Yao Jianping looked up from time to time and carefully looked at the photos placed aside, carefully checking the difference with the embroidered portraits, but at this time there was a knock at the door, Yao Jianping turned her head sharply and found that it was Director Li of the unit, who took some fruit in his hand and walked straight towards her.
"Jianping, how is it? Can it be completed before the 11th?" After speaking, Director Li put the fruit next to Yao Jianping, and then bent down to check the embroidery, she reached out and touched the eyes of the characters, looking at the eyes of the characters in the photo, she was shocked, she turned her head to Yao Jianping and said: "I'm afraid that the embroidery of your eyes is not someone who wants to come, how much effort do you have to make!"
Yao Jianping took a bite of the apple, wiped his hands and replied: "It's finishing now, and it is estimated that it will be completed in two days." This portrait embroidery, I probably calculated, there must be hundreds of millions of stitches. ”
Director Li was amazed by this sentence, she lifted her glasses, reached out and patted Yao Jianping's shoulder and said: "Queen Su Xiu really lives up to her reputation, and the President and Mrs. of Mexico will be satisfied with this 'national gift'." ”
Two days later, Yao Jianping took the scissors and cut the last silk thread, and the masterpiece was finally completed, and she carefully removed the embroidery from the embroidery stand and carefully put it into a box to be framed.
At this moment, although it was already done, her hanging heart did not let go, because according to the instructions of her superiors, she needed to personally send this embroidery to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, and to present it to the Mexican president and his wife as a state gift before they left Beijing.
Yao Jianping didn't dare to delay for a moment, and during the framing period, she hurriedly packed her luggage to Beijing and booked a ticket for the next day. According to the work arrangement of the unit, the workers in charge of framing will work overnight to ensure that the embroidery will be delivered to Yao Jianping at noon the next day.
The waiting time is always a little anxious, and Beijing is also worried about the progress, so they will come to inquire every once in a while, and it is not until Yao Jianping gets on the plane that he relaxes. The embroidery could not be checked in, so it could only be put in the suitcase, and it was carefully cared for along the way to Beijing.
The next day, when the sun shone into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yao Jianping had already appeared in the reception hall with the "national gift", and the staff in charge of docking looked at the lifelike portraits and ingenious stitches after getting the embroidery, and couldn't help but admire: "The president and his wife will be amazed when they see it." ”
In the 70s of the last century, Yao Jianping, who was just six years old, watched her mother sit in front of the embroidery frame every day and keep flying up and down the needle and thread in her hand.
So, taking advantage of the mother's inattention, the immature little hand pinched a small needle and thread, carefully passed through the gauze, and followed the mother's example, stretched out the fleshy little hand and touched the embroidery.
This scene happened to be seen by the mother who was standing back with water, at such a young age, but with such interest, the mother lovingly touched her daughter's head and asked softly: "Does Pingping like embroidery?" At this moment, Yao Jianping raised a childish smile and said in a milky voice: "I like it." ”
Hearing her daughter's joyful answer, her mother decided to train her embroidery skills with her heart, and learned to Xi by dividing a silk thread into ten, twenty, and one hundred.
However, what her mother didn't expect was that Yao Jianping showed an unusual talent in this, and in just two years, she was able to divide the silk thread into 128.
The mother was very pleased with this, she believed that her daughter would become an embroidery master under her training, so in addition to her education on weekdays, Yao Jianping also abided by some ordinary people who could not follow the rules.
For embroidery girls, the most precious and precious is a pair of hands, in addition to soaking hands to apply hand cream every day, but also pay attention to the protection of opponents in daily life.
However, these are a kind of constraints for young Yao Jianping, who likes to play with children. One day after school, Yao Jianping took his little friend home to see his mother's newly raised chicken, the tender yellow feathers were very soft to the touch, and the little friend couldn't put it down, and he didn't want to put it down for a moment, so he put it in his pocket.
It was getting dark, and when it was time to go home for dinner, the little friend remembered the chicken in his pocket and hurriedly took it out, but the chicken that was originally alive and kicking had closed his eyes and stopped breathing at the moment.
You must know that these chickens were bought by her mother to be raised for money, and in a panic, Yao Jianping picked up the dead chicks and hid them in the cracks in the stones next to the wall.
At this time, the mother returned home and was ready to feed the chickens before cooking, but when feeding the chickens, she found that one was missing, so she questioned Yao Jianping, who was already weak-hearted, couldn't stand her mother's intimidation, and told her mother what happened after a while.
As she expected, her angry mother pulled her to stand in the corner and scolded her fiercely: "It doesn't matter if you are punished today because a chicken is dead, the embroidery girl's hands can't touch dead things, you haven't learned yet, just touch these things, and your hands will lose their aura." ”
At this time, Yao Jianping remembered that when she first learned Suzhou embroidery, her mother told her not to touch dead animals, and she only felt that her mother was hypocritical, but now she sees her mother so angry, but she feels that this rule should have its own reason.
It was also from this time that Yao Jianping had a little awe of Suzhou embroidery, and she was more attentive to embroidery Xi.
After graduating from high school, Yao Jianping gave up the opportunity to study in college, but was admitted to the local craft school in Suzhou with his already perfect Suzhou embroidery skills Xi
Three years later, Yao Jianping was assigned to work as an embroidery master in a garment factory, which was a disappointing job for her who had loved Suzhou embroidery since she was a child, and she hoped that her embroidery works could become works of art, rather than simply unappreciated fabric patterns.
So, Yao Jianping met her mentor in her life, Xu Zhihui of Suzhou Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute, Xu Lao loved this girl who loved Suzhou embroidery very much, not only taught her Suzhou embroidery techniques, but also let her come to work in Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute, where she could completely immerse herself in the world of Suzhou embroidery, and study how to make a stitch and a thread into a pleasing work of art.
Here, Yao Jianping has created a number of huge Suzhou embroidery works, among which the picture of "Magnolia Fragrance", which is 12.5 meters long and 4.7 meters long, can be said to be the world's largest Suzhou embroidery technology.
Because of this, Yao Jianping let Su embroidery enter the palace of art, became a work of art and was collected by many art institutions, and at the same time, it also made the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pay attention to the charm of Su embroidery, and decided to give him as a national gift to other countries friendly with the mainland.
A few years ago, Yao Jianping, who was about to retire, received a phone call from someone claiming to be a staff member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and said to her in a sincere tone: "Mr. Yao, the President and his wife of Mexico will visit China in the middle of next month, and we hope that you can make a Suzhou embroidery work and give it to them as a national gift." ”
Hearing the "national gift", Yao Jianping's nerves tensed all of a sudden, she knew that this was a difficult task, and this gift should not only represent the friendship of the mainland, but also the artistic content that the other party could appreciate.
After thinking about it, Yao Jianping finally fixed the content of his creation on a group photo of the Mexican president and his wife, if the group photo is placed on gauze in the way of Suzhou embroidery, this not only makes the photo more warm, but also can become a witness to the relationship between the two.
However, according to the delivery date set by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yao Jianping only has 40 days to produce, in order to rush the work, she quickly set up a team of 40 people in the research institute, strictly divide labor, perform their duties, and complete the task as soon as possible.
Embroidery is an extremely time-grinding work, in order to catch up with Yao Jianping often work overtime in the unit until late at night, embroidery in a race against time, in the final sprint stage, she even sat in front of the embroidery frame for more than ten hours, often back to his senses, it was already late at night.
Finally, the hard work paid off, Yao Jianping completed the task as scheduled, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also sent the portrait to the Mexican president and his wife at the appointed time.
The moment he saw the embroidery, the Mexican president was amazed, and he looked at the embroidery carefully, unable to believe that it was actually a stitch and thread.
"This is amazing!" said the Mexican president, who could no longer express his shock at the embroidery, praised the greatness of Chinese embroidery art again and again.
Eventually, the embroidery, titled Peña and Rivera, followed the president and his wife on the plane back to Mexico.
A month later, when Yao Jianping was instructing her students in embroidery, she received another call from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and this time, instead of a commission, they received a letter of thanks from the Mexican president.
The content of the letter is to thank Yao Jianping, the creator of this embroidery, who likes this embroidery very much, and they feel honored to have such an embroidery.
When she saw this letter, Yao Jianping couldn't help but shed tears, she had given embroidery to many national leaders, and it was the first time to write a letter to thank her, she felt extremely excited.
Now Yao Jianping has more awe for the creation of Suzhou embroidery, and it is extremely difficult for traditional skills to rejuvenate in modern society, however, with their own efforts, Suzhou embroidery has now become a work of art.
In the future, she hopes that more people will be infected by the charm of Suzhou embroidery, join the Suzhou embroidery industry, and continue to carry forward this intangible cultural heritage.