A wonderful journey of Chinese embroidery
Suzhou embroidery has a history of more than 2,000 years, and the legend comes from Zhong Yong’s granddaughter “Nuhong” who made the first embroidered clothes [5]. In ancient times, Taibo and Zhongyong, the sons of the ancient prince of Zhou, came to the area of Suzhou, south of the Yangtze River, and established the state of Wu, and the local people had the custom of cutting off their hair and tattoos. Zhong Yong, as the monarch of Wu, wanted to break this bad habit, so he consulted with the elders. Unexpectedly, their discussion was heard by the granddaughter Nu Hong, who was sewing clothes. She listened while sewing, distracted, accidentally, her hand was pricked by a needle, and a small drop of bright red blood suddenly soaked into the clothing, and gradually faded into a small flower, so the female red had an inspiration: embroider the dragon pattern on the clothes to replace the tattoo. In order to commemorate the inventor of embroidery, women engaged in textile, sewing, embroidery and other activities are still called “female red”.
Especially at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, in the trend of learning from the West to the east, Suzhou embroidery also showed signs of innovation. During the Guangxu period, the skilled artist Shen Yunzhi was famous in Suzhou embroidery, and she dissolved the characteristics of Xiao Shen’s simulation in embroidery, and created a new “simulation embroidery”. Later, her work “Portrait of the Empress of Italy” was presented to Italy as a national gift, causing a sensation in the Italian government and the public, and “Statue of Jesus” won the first prize at the “Panama-Pacific International Exposition” held in the United States in 1915, and the price was as high as 13,000 US dollars. When “Portrait of an American Female Volbek” was exhibited in the United States, it was unprecedented. Shen Shou’s “simulated embroidery” is well-known at home and abroad, opening up a new page of Suzhou embroidery.
After more than 2,000 years of development, Suzhou embroidery has formed an independent embroidery style, but the times continue to progress, and art also needs to keep pace with the times. In the face of various new situations, Suzhou embroidery enterprises have reformed, put forward the concept of Suzhou embroidery gift commercialization and Suzhou embroidery home decoration design, so that the traditional folk Suzhou embroidery craft is no longer luxurious, but into thousands of households.
