Source: China Culture Daily Author: Liu Xiao
- Yao Jianping is creating (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
Embroidery is a traditional Chinese handicraft skill, jade gold wisps, embroidered into song and dance clothes, exquisite embroidery not only won the love of Chinese, but also spread to all over the world. Suzhou embroidery is one of the representative schools of Chinese embroidery technology, has a history of more than 2,000 years, a needle, a thread in the hands of the embroidery girl as if given life, the interpretation of thousands of years of home and country, all kinds of scenery.
Suzhou, Jiangsu Province is the hometown of Suzhou embroidery, where there are thousands of embroiderers, Yao Jianping, a master of Chinese arts and crafts and a representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project (Suzhou embroidery), is one of them. From a primary school apprentice to a master craftsman, and now a professor at Nanjing University, Yao Jianping has "turned around" several times, but her original intention of inheriting and promoting the art of Suzhou embroidery has never changed. For decades, exhibitions, speeches, and ...... She has visited Europe many times to spread the art of Suzhou embroidery, and has contributed to the promotion of China's excellent traditional culture to "go global", and has achieved remarkable results.
"I have never regretted taking this path"
Yao Jianping grew up in a Suzhou embroidery family in Zhenhu, Suzhou, and when she was seven or eight years old, under the influence of her mother, she picked up an embroidery needle and followed her mother and cousin to learn embroidery skills. By the age of 12, she was already able to complete an embroidered tie on her own. Until now, she has not let go of this embroidery needle, and Suzhou embroidery has run through her life.
In 1986, 20-year-old Yao Jianping entered the embroidery class of Suzhou Arts and Crafts School, and after graduation, he was hired as an embroiderer by Suzhou Silk Garment Factory. In 1990, Yao Jianping met her embroidery art on the road of "Bole" Xu Zhihui, the proficient in animal embroidery and figure embroidery Suzhou embroidery master just retired from the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute, its exquisite Suzhou embroidery skills let Xiao Jianping impressed and worshipped, after several twists and turns, and finally she wished to worship Xu Zhihui as a teacher. "At that time, the teachers of the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute were not allowed to take students from outside the system, and it was only after Teacher Xu retired and left the system that she agreed to accept me as an apprentice." Yao Jianping recalled.
From basic formation to portrait embroidery, Yao Jianping is fascinated by absorbing the essence of embroidery accumulated by Mr. Xu throughout his life.
"In four years, more than 1,400 days and nights, regardless of the cold or heat, I practiced embroidery for more than 12 hours a day. Under the oral teaching of Mr. Xu, I gradually realized that embroidery should integrate the aesthetics of painting, the light and shadow changes of photography, perspective and color expression, and present it in the works through the use of various stitches. Yao Jianping was full of emotion when she recalled this arduous study experience.
In 1994, she continued to study Suzhou embroidery skills and began a long creative road. In 1996, her eight-month work "Meditation - Portrait of Zhou Enlai" won the first prize at the first Suzhou Embroidery Exhibition held in Zhenhu, which aroused the appreciation of the industry. Her subsequent works have also won many awards, and she has begun to go to the whole country and the world. "Ten years of sharpening a sword, it is these recognitions that make me firmly take the road of high-quality Suzhou embroidery and be an excellent inheritor of Suzhou embroidery." Yao Jianping said, "I often describe myself on the road of embroidery is 'because of love and persistence', from the young unconsciously embroidered with my mother, to later I apprenticed to learn art, it can be said that embroidery has been integrated into my life, I have never regretted taking this road."
"All of a sudden, I felt that the world was vast"
A strand of silk thread, a few pieces of fragrant fragrance, slender hands, flying threads, lifelike animals, and the majestic Great Wall can all be displayed by Yao Jianping on her embroidered cloth. Engaged in Suzhou embroidery for more than 30 years, Yao Jianping not only inherited the traditional skills and techniques accumulated in Suzhou embroidery for more than 2,000 years, but also created the "melting needle embroidery" process - eclectic, absorbing the strengths of others, integrating the lines, structure, color, light and shadow changes of painting and photography into the creation of Suzhou embroidery, and organically combining with traditional flat needle embroidery, random needle embroidery and other techniques, emphasizing the natural transition of light and shadow, pursuing the richness of color, and grasping the characteristics of the times and closely following the pulse of the times in the subject matter. "To inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture, we must adhere to creative transformation and innovative development. Since the formation of 'Melting Needle Embroidery', I suddenly feel that the world is vast. Yao Jianping said.
The main feature of "melting needle embroidery" is that it is contemporary. "Integrate freehand and realism, and integrate the subtle grace of the beauty of Jiangnan with the passion and unrestrainedness in the culture of innovation. I work "embroidery and embroidery" and "mood, artistic conception, momentum", "needle fusion of hundreds of schools, art opens up a new realm", etc., and pay attention to the color, light and structure of each thread in the embroidery process. Yao Jianping uses modern concepts to redesign embroidery, in her opinion, only by closely combining the lifestyle of modern society, the needs of the times, and the artistic trend, can we continue to innovate and push Suzhou embroidery art to a new height.
Since 1999, Yao Jianping has been invited to carry out cultural exchanges overseas many times. At the invitation of Zoomlion Group in Australia, he went to Sydney to display embroidery art and promote Suzhou embroidery culture; In Europe, her Su embroidery works "Years Like a Song" and "Queen of United Kingdom" were collected by Buckingham Palace as a national gift, successfully bringing Chinese Su embroidery to the West; She has given speeches and held solo exhibitions in many countries and regions, showcasing the beauty of Suzhou embroidery art. Since 1996, Yao Jianping has led the team to participate in the creation of Suzhou embroidery works with the spirit of the times for the motherland many times, and her works have won the gold medal of the highest award of Chinese folk literature and art "Shanhua Award" for 4 times, and won more than 10 international awards, and have been presented to foreign dignitaries and celebrities as a national gift for many times, and she has won the reputation of "national embroidery hand".
In order to promote the development of Suzhou embroidery, introduce and cultivate original talents of Suzhou embroidery, Yao Jianping established Zhenhu Embroidery Research Institute and Yao Jianping Embroidery Studio to create a platform for more young people to understand and learn Suzhou embroidery. In addition, she also founded the "Tsinghua Class" to teach Suzhou embroidery skills at the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts. Over the years, she has brought her works to the National Art Museum of China, Shanghai Art Museum, etc., held several exhibitions of Suzhou embroidery, and spared no effort to promote the exchange and dissemination of intangible cultural heritage.
"Planting the Seeds of Suzhou Embroidery"
At present, Yao Jianping's Suzhou embroidery studio has become famous, and her works not only inherit the art of Suzhou embroidery, but also glow with the brilliance of Suzhou embroidery. Although her Suzhou embroidery studio has received a lot of attention, she is still worried about the inheritance of this craft. Similar to many intangible cultural heritage projects, the inheritance of Suzhou embroidery also faces the problem of a shortage of talents. To this end, Yao Jianping regards the cultivation of Suzhou embroidery talents as his unshirkable responsibility. When she was teaching at Nanjing University, she paid special attention to the teaching of embroidery skills, from creation to teaching, and always worked silently, and called this process "planting the seeds of Suzhou embroidery". She believes that the inheritance of Suzhou embroidery should let young people understand first, and only when they understand it will they like and love, so as to join the inheritance team. In addition, her artistic creation is not slackened at all. She mentioned that in the more impetuous market competition, the arts and crafts category has encountered a bottleneck in development to a certain extent, and relevant practitioners need to have more spirit of exploration, which also requires young people to "sink" down.
"The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is inspiring and inspiring, and it makes our intangible cultural heritage inheritors more deeply feel the responsibility and mission of the times on their shoulders." Yao Jianping said that the creative transformation and innovative development of thousand-year-old traditional handicrafts is to better meet the spiritual life of the people. On the path of creative transformation and innovative development of intangible cultural heritage, she and her two daughters of the "post-90s" actively explored together, using designs closer to life to make intangible cultural heritage "younger", so that Su embroidery could plug in the wings of digital, enter the live broadcast room, turn into digital collections, and go to the "metaverse", exploring in a broader space.
"On the new journey, we will take Suzhou embroidery as the carrier, design as the method, and inheritance as the mission, constantly broaden the boundaries of Suzhou embroidery, tell Chinese stories with more high-quality works, and present a credible, lovely and respectable image of China." Yao Jianping said.
