Embroidery (刺绣)is an important traditional art f in Chinese culture. The most famous embroidery styles (风格) are Su embroidery from Suzhou, Shu embroidery from Sichuan, Xiang embroidery from Hunan and Yue embroidery from Guangdong. Shu embroidery has (long) history of all.
Since modern machines can make cheaper embroidery (produce) today, fewer people buy hand—made Shu embroidery ones. There are also very few young embroideries. The skill is danger.
Meng Dezhi, a national—level inheritor(传承人) of the art form, has made Shu embroidery for forty years. She used to (work) at the Chengdu Shu Embroidery Factory. But in 2006, the factory went broke and Meng lost her job. To save the art, Meng volunteered (teach) Shu embroidery to others. So she opened her own workshop.
Embroidery takes time and patience. Workers need to d each silk thread(线) into more than ten or even thirty pieces. Each piece is thinner than a single human hair. What hard work it is! In 2016,Baidu sent Meng an invitation to make a homepage logo for Qixi Festival. It was a small logo, it required the use of 45 kinds of sewing techniques (针法) and 35,000 stitches (针).
Meng is teaching in different universities and communities to save Shu embroidery. Often,videos of making Shu embroidery ( share) by her online and they interest many people. She believes that Shu embroidery stand for thousands of years of Sichuan culture and we should protect it with lot of hard work. "I feel that I have the responsibility(责任) to pass on Shu embroidery skills to young people, to let it run from generation(一代人) to generation," She said.
