Embroidery (刺绣) is an important art form in Chinese culture. The most famous embroidery styles are Su embroidery from Suzhou, Shu embroidery from Sichuan, Xiang embroidery from Hunan and Yue embroidery from Guangdong.
Shu embroidery is the oldest of the four. It dates back to the Han Dynasty(206 BC-220 AD). People sold it to other countries through the South Silk Road.
Embroidery takes time and patience. Since modern machines can make cheaper embroidery products today, fewer people buy handmade Shu embroidery products. They are also very few young embroiderers. So the skill is in danger of dying out. To protect the skill, Shu embroidery was added to China's intangible cultural heritage list (非物质文化遗产目录) in 2006.
Meng Dezhi has been making Shu embroidery for forty years. The 59-year-old is a national-level inheritor (传承人) of the art form. She used to work at the Chengdu Shu Embroidery Factory. But in 2006, the factory went broke and Meng lost her job.
Wanting to save the art, Meng wanted to have her own place and teach Shu embroidery to others. It's hard work. Workers need to divide each silk thread (线) into more than ten or even thirty pieces. Each piece is thinner than a single human hair. In 2016, Baidu invited Meng to make a homepage logo for Qixi Festival. It was a small logo, but it required the use of 45 types of sewing techniques (针法) and 35,000 stitches (针).
Meng is trying to save Shu embroidery by teaching in different universities and communities. She believes that Shu embroidery stands for thousands of years of Sichuan culture and should be saved.
"I feel that I have the responsibility to pass on Shu embroidery skills to young people, to let it run from generation to generation," she said.
