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Continuing thread of an ancient tradition
By Wu Huixin |
November 21, 2012, Wednesday
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HANGZHOU has a long tradition of embroidery, and is famed for its own intricate and time-consuming style. Chen Shuiqin is an acknowledged expert and has dedicated her career to helping preserve and seeking to revive the craft, Wu Huixin reports.
Hand-made embroidery is considered by many people a typical representation of Chinese traditional crafts. With an abundance of silk and an ancient tradition of needlework, Hangzhou has developed its own variety of the skill.
During the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), Hangzhou, as the capital city, became home to craftsmen and craftswomen making embroidered robes for emperors and officials. One concubine of Emperor Song Gaozong was renowned as a particular expert at embroidery, and her work was later collected by Museum of London.
Of course, folk arts cannot flourish without craftsmen and craftswomen, who devote their creative energies to the skill and pass on the tradition.
Chen Shuiqin - renowned as a "National Crafts Master" - has dedicated her working life to hand-made Hangzhou-style embroidery for half a century, and still insists on stitching at the age of 67.
To create intricate pieces she uses tiny needles and sometimes separates a single thread into several finer ones, each thinner than a human hair.
Embroidery is a time-consuming craft and Chen can spend a year on a major work. The piece she is doing now is an elaborate, multicolored, double-faced piece. On the front is a cat looking straight ahead, while on the reverse side it lies sleeping.
"I started stitching this work at the end of last year, and I still haven't completed it yet. My eyesight for close-up objects is not as good as it was, so maybe this will be my last boutique craft work," says Chen.
Animals are Chen's favorite theme. Whether a cat or dog, she aims for realism with a fluffy 3D look.
Embroidery calls for great dedication, as there must not be even a single sloppy stitch, says Chen. Every day, Chen concentrates all her energy on the silk cloth and ceaselessly threads till 10pm.
She says this comes easier to older generations than young people in the high-tech modern world.
"People from my generation are calmer than the modern youth. Patience is needed for creating embroidery."
Chen's works have been displayed in museums in China and overseas, and presented as gifts to a German president and Zhejiang's sister province of Shizuoka in Japan.
Chen began her career in the craft when she enrolled in the hand-made Hangzhou-style embroidery department of the then Zhejiang Crafts and Arts School in the early 1960s.
At that time, folk crafts were scattered and lacked organization. In response, the national government established schools and rallied craftsmen and craftswomen throughout China to revive these folk treasures.
It was not easy for Chen because, as the eldest child of her family, she had to take care of her eight sisters and brothers. Fortunately, the school allowed students to combine studies and other work.
All the students learned the craft from scratch and Chen's abilities saw her assigned to learn the toughest kind of Hangzhou-style embroidery.
After graduation, she entered Zhejiang Crafts and Arts Institute to research and innovate in embroidery.
But when the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) began, crafts industries were affected. Chen had to give up her cherished embroidery because in 1970 the institute was forced to disband, its teachers sent to a local radio factory as workers.
However, three years later, then Premier Zhou Enlai suggested reviving those crafts. "When a truck brought us back to the institute office building, I was so happy to take up my needles again. I picked up the skill very quickly again," says Chen.
However, like other traditional crafts, embroidery gradually declined after China reformed and opened in the early 1980s. While 34 students graduated from the embroidery department alongside Chen, in the following decades, only three people - including Chen - persisted with the craft.
With fewer and fewer people involved in this old craft, she began to recruit apprentices with the aim of handing down the heritage.
But most quit during the apprenticeship due to the difficulty of the craft. Only four have continued threading, including two who have received the title of "Provincial Crafts Master" and two who hold the "Hangzhou Crafts Master" title.
Recently, the craft received a boost as Chen recruited five new apprentices with the help of the municipal government.
"I will bring them on according to their characters and help them form their own styles, which may innovate and enrich the features of Hangzhou-style embroidery," says Chen.
Embroidery calls for great dedication, as there must not be even a single sloppy stitch. People from my generation are calmer than the modern youth. Patience is needed for creating embroidery.
Hand-made embroidery is considered by many people a typical representation of Chinese traditional crafts. With an abundance of silk and an ancient tradition of needlework, Hangzhou has developed its own variety of the skill.
During the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), Hangzhou, as the capital city, became home to craftsmen and craftswomen making embroidered robes for emperors and officials. One concubine of Emperor Song Gaozong was renowned as a particular expert at embroidery, and her work was later collected by Museum of London.
Of course, folk arts cannot flourish without craftsmen and craftswomen, who devote their creative energies to the skill and pass on the tradition.
Chen Shuiqin - renowned as a "National Crafts Master" - has dedicated her working life to hand-made Hangzhou-style embroidery for half a century, and still insists on stitching at the age of 67.
To create intricate pieces she uses tiny needles and sometimes separates a single thread into several finer ones, each thinner than a human hair.
Embroidery is a time-consuming craft and Chen can spend a year on a major work. The piece she is doing now is an elaborate, multicolored, double-faced piece. On the front is a cat looking straight ahead, while on the reverse side it lies sleeping.
"I started stitching this work at the end of last year, and I still haven't completed it yet. My eyesight for close-up objects is not as good as it was, so maybe this will be my last boutique craft work," says Chen.
Animals are Chen's favorite theme. Whether a cat or dog, she aims for realism with a fluffy 3D look.
Embroidery calls for great dedication, as there must not be even a single sloppy stitch, says Chen. Every day, Chen concentrates all her energy on the silk cloth and ceaselessly threads till 10pm.
She says this comes easier to older generations than young people in the high-tech modern world.
"People from my generation are calmer than the modern youth. Patience is needed for creating embroidery."
Chen's works have been displayed in museums in China and overseas, and presented as gifts to a German president and Zhejiang's sister province of Shizuoka in Japan.
Chen began her career in the craft when she enrolled in the hand-made Hangzhou-style embroidery department of the then Zhejiang Crafts and Arts School in the early 1960s.
At that time, folk crafts were scattered and lacked organization. In response, the national government established schools and rallied craftsmen and craftswomen throughout China to revive these folk treasures.
It was not easy for Chen because, as the eldest child of her family, she had to take care of her eight sisters and brothers. Fortunately, the school allowed students to combine studies and other work.
All the students learned the craft from scratch and Chen's abilities saw her assigned to learn the toughest kind of Hangzhou-style embroidery.
After graduation, she entered Zhejiang Crafts and Arts Institute to research and innovate in embroidery.
But when the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) began, crafts industries were affected. Chen had to give up her cherished embroidery because in 1970 the institute was forced to disband, its teachers sent to a local radio factory as workers.
However, three years later, then Premier Zhou Enlai suggested reviving those crafts. "When a truck brought us back to the institute office building, I was so happy to take up my needles again. I picked up the skill very quickly again," says Chen.
However, like other traditional crafts, embroidery gradually declined after China reformed and opened in the early 1980s. While 34 students graduated from the embroidery department alongside Chen, in the following decades, only three people - including Chen - persisted with the craft.
With fewer and fewer people involved in this old craft, she began to recruit apprentices with the aim of handing down the heritage.
But most quit during the apprenticeship due to the difficulty of the craft. Only four have continued threading, including two who have received the title of "Provincial Crafts Master" and two who hold the "Hangzhou Crafts Master" title.
Recently, the craft received a boost as Chen recruited five new apprentices with the help of the municipal government.
"I will bring them on according to their characters and help them form their own styles, which may innovate and enrich the features of Hangzhou-style embroidery," says Chen.
Embroidery calls for great dedication, as there must not be even a single sloppy stitch. People from my generation are calmer than the modern youth. Patience is needed for creating embroidery.
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