The Reverse Embroidery Of The Yao Nationality, A Century Old Intangible Cultural Heritage In Xing'An, Guangxi, Creates A New Life Style

"The phoenix crown that I inherited from my elders has a history of more than 200 years. The elders told me that the pattern on the top of the phoenix crown is the Yao King Seal embroidered on the reverse side, which must be passed on." Recently, Deng Zhengjiao, 75, sat at home in Huajiang Yao Township, Xing'an County, Guilin City, Guangxi, wearing traditional Yao costumes and displaying her "heirloom".

The "family heirloom" of Deng Zhengjiao's family is a towering phoenix crown, which weighs five kilograms. Supported by a wooden skeleton, it is covered with an exquisite embroidered square scarf with reverse side. The square scarf is surrounded by tassels, colored beads and sterling silver pendants, demonstrating a different aesthetic. Whenever the festival is held, Deng Zhengjiao will wear a phoenix crown to attend the event to show the traditional craft beauty of reverse embroidery.

Deng Zhengjiao wore a phoenix crown with a history of more than 200 years to show her innovative reverse embroidery pattern. Photographed by Zhou Lishuo

Yao embroidery can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. The book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Nanman recorded that the ancestors of South China had "good five color clothes" and "colorful clothes". Reverse embroidery is the representative of Xing'an Yao embroidery. In Huajiang Yao Township, local Yao people like to use red, yellow, green, white, blue and other colored silk threads or cotton threads to reverse embroider on black or indigo bottoms, and pick out various abstract and exquisite patterns to embroider on clothing cuffs and hats. In 2016, Xing'an Yao embroidery was included in the sixth batch of representative intangible cultural heritage projects at the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region level.

Embroidery has a variety of patterns, from flowers and trees, birds and animals, to geometric patterns and figure patterns. The changing effects between simple and complex patterns make the patterns clear, the composition image, and the colors colorful. Yao people embroider what they see in their life into patterns, just like a wordless book recording the legend and folk culture of Yao people for thousands of years.

For more than 60 years of embroidery, Deng Zhengjiao never stopped the idea of reverse embroidery innovation. She transformed the living room on the first floor of her home into a small exhibition hall to display the collection of traditional reverse embroidery clothing and self-made embroidery, with patterns ranging from traditional to innovative, and categories including wallet, shoulder bag, apron, handkerchief and other special tourist souvenirs. In 2017, Deng Zhengjiao was identified as the representative inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage project (Xing'an Yao embroidery) in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

"I am old, but this craftsmanship cannot be lost. I have taught my daughter and granddaughter the technique of reverse embroidery, hoping to pass it on." Deng Zhengjiao said that in recent years, she often went to the campus with a group of Yao women with exquisite craftsmanship, and provided materials free of charge to guide children to learn.

On the King Pan Festival, Yao women showed their reverse embroidery skills on the spot. Photographed by Jiang Fenghui

In the face of tourists from Beijing, Guangdong and other places who come to learn about reverse embroidery, Deng Zhengjiao will personally teach them their craftsmanship. "When I first taught you how to do reverse embroidery, I would teach you how to embroider 'octagonal flower'. It is simple and beautiful, and it is also a unique pattern of the Yao people, meaning 'the sun'. I hope more young people can pass on this skill and learn about the Yao culture from it," said Deng Zhengjiao.

According to the official introduction of Xing'an County, the annual King Pan Festival is a great opportunity for Yao compatriots to show their negative embroidery. In addition to fixed-point sales, the local government also uses e-commerce sales, characteristic tourism experience and other ways to let each piece of Yao embroidery go out of the Yao village and sell it to markets at home and abroad, so as to better carry on the Yao embroidery and broaden the way for Yao villagers to become rich.

(Source: China News Network)