Yao embroidery

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Yao embroidery

Applicant: Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province

Project No.: 1162

Project No.: Ⅶ - 105

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Guangdong Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province

Protection unit: cultural center of Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County (intangible cultural heritage protection center of Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County)

Introduction to Yao embroidery:

Applicant: Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County, Guangdong Province

Ruyuan Yao embroidery is one of the Chinese Yao embroidery, mainly distributed in the three towns of Bibei, Youxi and Dongping in Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County, northern Guangdong Province.

Yao people living in Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County belong to "Mian language family" Guoshan Yao. They moved from the north in Sui and Tang Dynasties and lived in seclusion for a long time in the deep mountains and forests. Their production methods are mainly slash and burn cultivation and hunting. If the local area is no longer suitable for farming or when the prey is scarce, the Ju people will move to another mountain to live, so they are called "Guoshan Yao". There are books and materials such as Pangu, Panhu legend and guoshanbang in the minority, and their traditional customs and culture are well preserved.

Embroidery is a skill of local Yao women. Since childhood, Yao women have followed their elders to hold needles and wires, and practiced their basic skills by embroidering lace, ribbon and leggings. When you grow up to be a girl, your embroidery skills are mature. The flower bag, purse, sachet and handkerchief are the best gifts for your lover. At the same time, we should also carefully prepare wedding dresses, aprons, flower bags, flower belts, flower hats, headdresses and other gifts for relatives and friends. The wedding dress worn when getting married is the clothing to show the bride's talent. It should be able to shine and surpass others. It is the most attentive embroidery of girls. Married women not only embroider daily necessities for their families, but also teach their craft to the next generation.

Ruyuan Yao's embroidery is based on dark colored cotton cloth, with red, yellow, blue, white, green, black and purple velvet threads to produce patterns, which can be divided into "deep mountain Yao" and "Shallow Mountain Yao". The deep mountain Yao's embroidery has the characteristics of massiness, fullness and delicacy, while the Shallow Mountain Yao's embroidery is exquisite and generous, with light and bright colors and many changes in patterns. Common patterns are mostly drawn from nature, such as square, triangle, diamond, round, water pattern, wave, zigzag, I-shape, double butterfly love flower, double dragon play pearl, rice ear and flowers, etc., reflecting the local people's aesthetic concept and values.

With the development of society, great changes have taken place in the way of life of the local Yao people. Yao embroidery, which is closely related to the traditional social life, has gradually marginalized and is on the verge of extinction, which needs urgent protection.