Xiang Embroidery [Specialty of Changsha, Hunan]

What is Xiang embroidery? Authentic Specialty of Changsha, Hunan: Xiang Embroidery

Summary:Do you want to know what Xiang Embroidery is? This article is a specialized article that provides a detailed introduction toHunan Changsha specialty - Xiang embroidery. It was compiled and edited by the editorial team of China Specialty Network after reviewing and collecting relevant information on Xiang embroidery. The full text takes about 13 minutes to read, mainly including the basic introduction of Xiang embroidery and the product characteristics of Xiang embroidery? How did the history of Xiang embroidery come about? The awards and honors of Xiang embroidery

Basic Introduction of Hunan Embroidery

One of the excellent traditional crafts of the Han ethnic group, Hunan embroidery is a general term for Hunan embroidery products with distinct Hunan Chu cultural characteristics centered in Changsha, Hunan. It is a folk craft with Hunan Chu cultural characteristics carefully created by the hardworking and intelligent Han working people in the long process of human civilization development. Over the past half century, archaeologists have discovered numerous silk fabrics and textiles such as hemp, brocade, and silk in Hunan, Hubei, and other places. Many of them are embroidered, providing us with rich and valuable physical materials for understanding Chu culture and Chu silk embroidery. The excavation of a series of dazzling ancient embroidery pieces buried underground in Hunan and the former Chu region is of great significance for the world to further understand the origin and evolution of Hunan embroidery and its embroidery tradition

Xiang embroidery is an outstanding handicraft created by the people of Hunan, with exquisite skills and unique artistic style. Chinese embroidery is usually a fine craft embroidered with materials such as real silk, hard satin, interwoven soft satin, transparent glass yarn, nylon and real silk, cotton thread, etc. Hunan embroidery mainly uses real silk thread to embroider patterns on real silk fabrics. It is not only a precious art piece for appreciation, but also a beautiful and practical daily use product. The main varieties include single-sided embroidery, double-sided embroidery, strip screens, screens, picture sheets, duvet covers, pillowcases, bed covers, cushions, tablecloths, handkerchiefs, various embroidered clothes, as well as various daily necessities such as palace fans, embroidered shoes, handkerchiefs, scarves, etc. Each variety can be embroidered with landscapes, flowers and birds, animals and beasts, portraits of people, and other images. Appreciating and playing with Hunan embroidery crafts and artworks in my spare time is refreshing and enjoyable, and the taste is indescribable. Home decoration also reflects taste and personality through Xiang embroidery. Wearing handmade Hunan embroidery clothing that is simple, elegant, and modern can also give people a sense of wealth, elegance, and detachment

Xiang Embroidery, as one of the four famous embroideries in China, centered in Changsha, Hunan Province, is an embroidery handicraft developed on the basis of Hunan folk embroidery technology, absorbing the essence of Suzhou embroidery and Guangdong embroidery, thus forming its own unique style, emphasizing realism, simplicity and beauty, and vivid image. The characteristic is fine silk, which is then steamed with soapberry seed solution, wrapped and wiped to prevent fuzz. Its light is finer than the eyes on the hair. Xiang embroidery is good at using shades of gray and black and white colors in color matching, combined with appropriate contrast of light and dark, to enhance texture and three-dimensional sense. The structure combines reality and virtuality, and is good at using blanks to highlight the theme, forming a simple and elegant quality like Xiang embroidery ink paintings. The traditional themes of Xiang embroidery are lions, tigers, squirrels, etc., with tigers being the most common

Characterized by rich layers of coloring and embroidered works resembling paintings. Has won awards at world expos such as Panama and Chicago. There is a saying in folk culture that goes' Su Mao, Xiang Hu '. Xiang embroidery features lion and tiger fur patterns that are strong and upright, with a divine eye that can be almost indistinguishable from reality. Nowadays, it has developed into double-sided full different embroidery with different colors, shapes, and surfaces

How did the history of Xiang embroidery come about

Xiang embroidery is a general term for Hunan embroidery products with distinct Hunan Chu cultural characteristics centered in Changsha, Hunan. It is a folk craft with Hunan Chu cultural characteristics carefully created by the hardworking and intelligent people of Hunan in the long process of human civilization development. Its history dates back over 2000 years to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. According to records, the exquisite dragon and phoenix patterns and delicate embroidery techniques discovered in the Chu tomb in Changsha in 1958 have long been admired by people. In 1972, more than forty embroidered garments were unearthed from the ancient tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in Mawangdui, Changsha, indicating that Hunan embroidery, also known as Xiang embroidery, had developed to a high level in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2100 years ago

"The brilliant Chu embroidery and Mawangdui Han embroidery are not only proud chapters in the history of Chinese embroidery, but also the initial source of the natural development of Xiang embroidery." In the long history of craft culture, analyzing the cultural connotations of embroidery craft, the above points are very correct. It is undoubtedly of positive significance for exploring the inheritance and opening up of Xiang embroidery, a type of embroidery that was formed and widely influenced under specific historical conditions. In addition, Hunan embroidery, based on Hunan folk embroidery, also drew on the advantages of embroidery styles such as Su embroidery, Yue embroidery, and Jing embroidery, and developed into a rising star in the embroidery art of the Qing Dynasty

Xiang embroidery developed on the basis of folk embroidery in Hunan. Hunan folk people have been able to embroider for a long time. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, many women in Changsha County were engaged in embroidery. In the 24th year of the Guangxu reign (1898), Wu Hanchen, the son of excellent embroiderer Hu Lianxian, opened the first self embroidered and self sold "Wu Caixia Embroidery Workshop" in Changsha. The works were excellent and spread to various places, making Hunan embroidery famous throughout the country. During the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, Yang Shizhao, a painter from Ningxiang, advocated Hunan folk embroidery. He went deep into embroidery workshops for a long time, drew embroidery drafts, and created various needlework techniques, which improved the artistic level of Hunan embroidery. In the late Guangxu period, folk embroidery in Hunan developed into a unique embroidery craft system, becoming a handmade commodity with independent style and strong local color that entered the market. At this time, the specialized term "Xiang Embroidery" emerged. Afterwards, Xiang embroidery continuously improved its skills and became a well-known embroidery product both domestically and internationally. In the 1930s, the output value of Xiang embroidery reached as high as 800000 silver yuan, with one-third of the products exported. In the "Embroidery" section of the 1935 General Report of the West Lake Expo, Hunan embroidery accounted for half of the space. In the decades after liberation, Hunan embroidery made significant progress, standing proudly among the "Four Famous Embroidery" with its unique style and superb embroidery art, becoming the "artistic calling card" of Hunan and even the country. Hunan embroidery exports up to 5 million US dollars annually

Since the 19th century, with the development of the commodity economy of Xiang embroidery, through the continuous exploration of many embroidery artists and the dedication of a large number of outstanding Chinese painters, Xiang embroidery has absorbed the essence of painting, embroidery, poetry, calligraphy, gold and stone and other arts in China's ancient culture, thus forming a embroidery thread based on Chinese painting, with dozens of stitches and a variety of color scales, giving full play to the expressiveness of stitches on all kinds of substrates, and delicately depicting the self characteristics of the appearance and essence of objects

Awards and honors of Xiang embroidery

Xiang embroidery has attracted people both at home and abroad with its unique charm of tinkering. In 1910, it was praised at the Nanyang Promotion Conference as "ink and brush without trace" and "flower hairpin with square pattern, thread and thread eliminated by trace". At the International Exposition held in Chicago, USA in 1933, Xiang embroidery stole the show. A half body Hunan embroidery portrait of US President Roosevelt presented by Changsha Jinhua Li Xiu Zhuang has caused a sensation. Hunan Provincial Chairman He Jian instructed to present it to Roosevelt in his personal name, which became a well-known story. The embroidered statue is currently housed in the Alexander Museum in Chicago

Xiang embroidery is a fine craft embroidered from hard satin, interwoven soft satin, transparent glass yarn, nylon and other raw materials. Embroidery products include both precious appreciation artworks and aesthetically pleasing daily necessities. The main varieties include screens, paintings, duvet covers, pillowcases, bedspreads, cushions, tablecloths, handkerchiefs and various embroidered garments. Xiang embroidery is characterized by rich layers of coloring and embroidered works resembling paintings. Has won awards at world expos such as Panama and Chicago. There is a folk saying of "Su Mao, Xiang Hu". Xiang embroidery features lion and tiger fur patterns that are strong and upright, with a divine eye that can almost be indistinguishable from reality. Nowadays, it has developed into double-sided embroidery with different shapes and faces