In history, what is the story of Xu Chiguang?

Teacher Xu Chiguang, a master of Cantonese embroidery, is currently the only remaining flower guy in Cantonese embroidery, a famous Cantonese embroiderer, and a representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project Cantonese embroidery (Cantonese embroidery).

The red lily adds crimson color with the fingers, and the white goose shines with the needle, the skillful hand of this pair of flying needles is not from the slender embroidery woman, but a male embroiderer, he is the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage of Guangxiu Xu Chiguang, the "last flower guy (male embroiderer)" in the traditional industry of Guangxiu. Spread in the Pearl River Delta area of the embroidery has a history of thousands of years, the Tang Dynasty is recorded in the book, the South China Sea embroidery girl Lu Meiniang can embroider the Lotus Sutra on a foot of silk, the craftsmanship is incomparable, famous for the government and the opposition. With the expansion of the Maritime Silk Road, Guangxiu gradually developed with Guangzhou as the center, and the Ming and Qing dynasties gradually reached the whole province, and the products were exported overseas. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the first Guangxiu Guild was established, and the embroidery village and embroidery workshop were set up in the area of Zhuangyuan Fang and Shamian, and there were about 3,000 male embroiderers when the Splendid Embroidery Line was at its peak, and the male workers who specialized in the core part of the embroidery industry have since become the backbone of the industry, commonly known as "Hua Lao (male embroiderer)." Our Xu family engaged in embroidery from our great-grandfather, that is, Xu Liancheng, he left his hometown in Longtan Township, Xinhua, came to Guangzhou, found the embroidery family, his great-grandfather devoted himself to this industry, apprenticeship, became a member of Guangxiu. Xu Liancheng was smart and honest and was recruited by the master as a son-in-law, so the Xu family developed into an embroidery family, and his son Xu Rong and his grandson Xu Song were all good. Born in 1932, Xu Chiguang is the fourth generation of the Torch family. I joined the embroidery industry in Guangzhou, from the second year of the Japanese invasion of China, why do you have to embroider at the age of six or seven, the reason is that your family environment at that time, as well as the situation in the whole Guangzhou are at the end of the road, plus the two or three thousand people in our industry, at that time a lot of death, the whole Guangzhou City has become a dead city, what industry has stopped, we can only rely on wild vegetables to survive. At that time, I had to add a stool to sit on this kind of stool, so now I am used to sitting higher than others, so I go to embroider, I don't know if I don't want to die or what, I embroider desperately, and within a year or two, about a year or so, I have mastered all the skills, which is mastered in the embroidery process. In three or five years, my parents and brothers have been surpassed by myself, so that not only do I have work, but I also take the lead. Once, Xu Chiguang received a job embroidering tigers, he didn't know how to embroider tiger's eyes and beard, so he went to the grocery stall at night to rummage through old books, read tiger paintings, and then go home to embroider after memorizing. One night, we hurried to work, and found that the wick was burning and burning, snapping, and sparks were shining, so that the embroidery was scorched everywhere, and burned into a grain, so what should I do, this situation occurred, fortunately, that one was a tiger on the mountain, a tiger pressed the mountain, looking back, the mountain was layered, only to add it by myself, with some cedar trees, the embroidery was about one foot eight, with some fir trees, high one by one to cover, where there were holes, there were cedar trees, and then embroidered the leaves horizontally, and covered those holes, Delivery was made the next day. The young Xu Chiguang not only has a pair of skillful hands, but also has a seven-trick exquisite wisdom, through years of hard work, he has practiced solid basic skills, and gradually mastered the traditional craft of Guangxiu. The traditional Cantonese embroidery composition is full and rich, rarely left blank, the color is rich, full of southern atmosphere, often recognize the Lingnan scenery such as lychee, red cotton, three birds (chicken, duck, goose), peacock, etc. as the theme village, and the auspicious meaning and good wishes into it, reflecting the folk interest and the enthusiasm and innocence of the local people, and pay attention to the change of light and shadow, strong three-dimensional sense. Green is here, this side receives light, and when you receive this light, when you fall here, the lychee will be even more, and the sense of light will be revealed. After the selection of the draft, the embroiderers tend to discuss together, study the applicable color and stitching, pay special attention to the pattern method to follow the nature, the figures, birds and beasts, the shape and spirit, after the embroiderer knows, you can start to draft, the traditional practice is to put the sketch on the back of the embroidery, light transmission for manual coloring. On the embroidery frame, Cantonese called "frame", the steps are divided into willow, roll frame, insert the horizontal head, sewing the edge of the bamboo, tie the edge of the belt, after the embroidery to play two or three times, the sound is crisp and pleasant, indicating that the roll is tight and smooth. Then the most core embroidery, embroidery needs to be prepared before embroidery. It is best to use Guang Velvet for wide embroidery, and Guang Velvet has been practiced, and there are more than nine percent of the ripeness, which can be thick and fine, and should be thick but not fine. Guangxiu has "light, bright, Qi, dense, clean, even" six-character formula, the needle pays attention to the "needle hand", "needle" that is, the needle step is uniform and smooth, "hand treasure" refers to the needle is smooth and smooth, the embroidery surface shines like a jewel, there is another major feature of Guangxiu, good at "leaving the waterway", that is, leaving a line of embroidery in the overlapping or connected places, so that the picture texture is clear and layered. "Qin Gao Cheng Carp" this product is pure velvet, why use pure velvet, because it does not need to be colorful, mainly to show the stitches and lines of our embroidery, such as the fish, we use a bundle to bite the needle, indeed bite very neatly, like machine embroidery so neat, and there is a sense of light, this is the natural "needle hand treasure" problem. In the 50s of the 20th century, all walks of life set off a cooperative upsurge, Guangxiu prospered again, and the number of employees recovered to more than 3,000 people, Xu Chiguang also ushered in the golden age of life, he successively joined the Qilan embroidery group, Yifeng embroidery society and other organizations, in his early twenties, he became the youngest of the eight eight-level workers in the embroidery society, and was appreciated and guided by Yu De, Huang Mei and other predecessors. He Huang Mei had become the president at that time, he asked himself that there is an eight-sided rotation stitch, why not teach you, he said, okay, I also like to learn, he asked people to paint a cockscomb, embroidered in the factory, after the embroidery, the "Yangcheng Evening News" reporter Chen came to take pictures, published in the "Yangcheng Evening News", indicating that Huang Mei taught herself. In 1959, Xu Chiguang was transferred to the Guangzhou Institute of Arts and Crafts, because of its comprehensive and exquisite skills, painting theory, embroidery and reasoning, and good communication and coordination, coupled with bold innovation, thus becoming the core backbone of the Institute, often in the creation of large-scale embroidery painting as a technical guide, this period, Xu Chiguang also and Lingnan famous painter Liang Ji to establish a long-term close cooperative relationship, one is exquisite embroidery skills, one is outstanding painting, the two complement each other, created many wonderful works with the theme of Lingnan scenery, such as "Bauhinia Peacock", " Red Lily White Goose", Song Yong Goose", "Bamboo Newspaper Peace", "Little River Youyou" and so on. Because Liang Ji's paintings have long been very suitable for making Cantonese embroidery artwork, why, because he learned Gongbi painting, is a Gongbi painting artist, and now his books, our factory has all embroidered. "The bird is young and the color is good, and Qingxuan enters the house to see the clothes", this unique Lingnan charm of "Bauhinia Peacock" was selected to be displayed in the Guangdong Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing with the artistic charm of "originating from Chinese painting higher than Chinese painting". We emphasize the peacock as the main embroidery feature, the peacock as the embroidery characteristics of the embroidery, why the peacock, because the peacock itself is colorful, for example, the peacock tail, those feathers are red and green, very beautiful, we embroider the red and green together, twist the thread to embroider the feathers, this embroidery method is not available in other embroidery species. Another classic masterpiece of Cantonese embroidery, "Red Lychee and White Goose", was embroidered by Xu Chiguang and six veteran Cantonese embroiderers, using the stitch method passed down from generation to generation in Cantonese embroidery, and breaking through the traditional embroidery method of lychee with punching needles. Liang Guikai said: "In the middle of embroidering the "Red Lili White Goose", we have to hurry, because we generally want to make such a big product now, it will take more than a year, that is, according to the calculation of working hours, it will take more than a year, then we have just recovered, and the hand is born, and the age is also old, the embroidery is not so fast, at the beginning everything has to be organized, even if it is the velvet, but also to gather the previous together, it takes some time to prepare the velvet, and it takes some time to pass the draft, so it was very busy at that time. "In the past, the first one, the lychee embroidered before was also, are stacked embroidery, embroidered a grain, and then embroidered a grain, embroidered a grain nearly five needles, then the working hours are long, to five needles, I changed it to a needle at that time, the grain to beat the needle, the word to punch, around a circle to stab, is a grain, is a needle to complete, so that the first three-dimensional sense, and fast, but also improved its effect, like we embroider this white goose, the big wing with a bundle bite needle, the two wings are also bundled with a needle, the third layer of wings is with a bundle of needles, why so, Because the bundle bite needle is very emphatic decorative, that layer by layer feeling, this is a folk craft characteristic, like the eye, we emphasize the use of twist needles to express it, so that its eyes are very smart, very spiritual, mouth and goose comb those, we have to take into account its light and dark place, with light with depth to express, goose feet on the front of a little scales, those scales on the surface look like a set of one, we embroider called "do shrimp shell", no matter what embroidery, the most difficult or mouth and claw eyes. In addition to the theme of flowers and birds, Xu Chiguang is also good at embroidering portraits, during the "Cultural Revolution", Xu Chiguang embroidered a "Chairman Mao to Anyuan", the original is a widely circulated oil painting at that time. I thought, it's better to find some embroidery work, so I painted the portrait of Chairman Mao hanging outside, the three of us embroidered, Mao Feixiong, Wu Rong, and myself. Embroidery honed Xu Chiguang's qualitative, more like a lamp, always illuminating Xu Chiguang's heart, no matter the ups and downs of the world, he is still quiet, indifferent and determined, just like the person in the painting, the same black and white work, there is also a "Einstein" head. If you talk about your favorite, it can be said that "Einstein" head, although it is not big, the whole picture is eight inches, it is a bust, but the expression is in place, although embroidered on the photo, but he used the rotation pattern, this rotation pattern is combined with the old man, the effect of the pattern is very good. This portrait was made on the occasion of the centenary of Einstein's birth, and was well received at the National Portrait Embroidery Conference. The embroidered image of the figure is both physical and spiritual, and the "Dongshan Good News Map" created by Xu Chiguang allows us to explore its subtleties. This "Dongshan Baojie Tu" is a famous painting, when embroidering these figures, it should be tangible and expressive, just like these two old people he is playing chess here, his mood and performance are placed on this game of chess, so this demeanor, we need to show it when embroidering. When we represent these characters now, especially women, we can't embroider so old, use straight lines, according to the straight lines of the bridge of the nose. When embroidering to these two old people, then use the rotation pattern, so the rotation pattern has one benefit, one is to express the facial muscles; Secondly, we are very particular about the pattern, which can be shown in this regard. Xu Chiguang is not only good at using traditional stitches according to various themes, but also boldly explores and innovates in long-term practice, creating a variety of new stitches such as chicken needles and girl needles, just keep laying out like this, like the arrow dogs, those are called arrow hairs. We raise dogs, call those arrow feathers, but the chick embroidered like this is still not very similar, to overlap, embroidered after these stitches and then crossed up like this, to overlap like this, the effect is very similar, really like hair out of the flesh.