Su embroidery is
one of the four famous Chinese embroideries, and is
mainly produced in Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province in
east China. Su is the shortened form of Suzhou, a city
of with moderate climate, which has a prosperous
industry of sericiculture and hence highly-developed
technics of embroidery.
Su embroidery has a history of about 2,000 years,
originating in the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280).
According to historical records, Su embroidery became so
popular during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that people
even named lanes with names associated with silk and its
embroidery. Nearly every family raised silkworms and
embroidered. Su embroidery reached its peak during the
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and Suzhou was named the
Embroidery City at that time.
Su embroidery is known for its delicacy and elegance. It
has a wide range of themes. Its techniques include both
single faced embroidery and unique double-faced
embroidery that looks the same from either side.
Double-sided embroidery has the same pattern on both
sides and uses the same embroidering method that does
not show the joins in the stitches. Basic features of Su
embroidery are simple composition, clear theme, vivid
image, and gentle color. In recent times, Su embroidery
design has absorbed some western painting techniques.
The design is
usually very simple, high lighting a main theme. Its
stitching is smooth, dense, thin, neat, even, delicate
and harmonious, etc. The thin thread is divided into up
to 48 strands that are barely visible to the naked eye.
In terms of categories, Su embroidery has stage
costumes, embroidery fabrics and hanging screens, etc.
Su embroidery products were sent to participate in the
Panama World Fair in 1915. Since then, the style has
become increasingly famous throughout the world.
In the long
history of its development, Su Embroidery has gradually
acquired its unique art style of pretty design,
harmonious color, sprightly lines, lively needlework and
fine workmanship. The embroidery skill is featured with
flatness, tidiness, harmony, colorfulness, smoothness
and evenness. "Flatness" refers to the flat surface of
the embroidery; "tidiness" refers to the neat edge of
the patterns; "thinness" refers to the fine thread which
can be split into its one tenth, one twentieth and even
one thirtieth; "thickness" refers to the close
arrangement of the lines, leaving no sign of the
stitches; "harmony", means the coordination of colors;
and "colorfullness" represents the splendid colors.
There are over one thousand varieties of thread colors,
and each color is further classified into more than ten
types from lightness to darkness. Sometimes a product
will use as many as one or two hundred colors.
"Smoothness" shows that the trace of the threads moves
freely and smoothly, while "evenness" means that the
lines are fairly consistent, whether loose or dense.
Su Embroidery was
listed among the first batch of national intangible
cultural heritages in 2006. Su Embroidery artists have
been making unremitting efforts to carry forward,
protect and develop Su Embroidery, inputting modern
elements into it by incorporating new techniques. With
the ability to recreate pictures of all genres and
styles in the western and eastern paintings and
photography, Su Embroidery is now endowed with more
fashion and modernity.
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