Simple and elegant landscapes, colorful and luxurious peonies, horses with natural textures, and smart and elegant goldfish...... Who would have thought that these works of outstanding skill and ingenuity were all embroidered with silk threads. If it weren't for the close observation of the surface material with your eyes, I would have thought that I had come to a large-scale art exhibition.
This is the Tianjin Lianshengzhai Embroidery Art Museum, which is located in the ancient culture street on the bank of the South Canal. More than 100 years ago, Suzhou embroidery master Shen Shou came to Tianjin to pass on the art, and later Lian Shengzhai inherited the embroidery skills, and the development has so far, the expression techniques are eclectic, and the subject matter has been expanding, becoming a representative of exquisite embroidery in the north, and has been included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Tianjin.
The canal is more than 100 years old
Speaking of the development history of Lianshengzhai embroidery, manager Wu Qingying sighed a lot. In the 1980s, the Ancient Culture Street was completed and opened, and Lianshengzhai operated a small shop here. Up to now, in addition to a large shop on the main street of Ancient Culture Street, a three-story Lianshengzhai Embroidery Art Museum has also been opened in the Mazu Garden a few steps away, with Wu Qingying as the director.
Speaking of the earlier history of "Jinpai" embroidery, it can be traced back to more than 100 years ago. Shen Shou, a master of Suzhou embroidery, came to Tianjin to open a study institute and cultivated the first batch of Tianjin embroidery talents. Lianshengzhai was originally opened at the end of the 19th century a time-honored brand, operating a clothing business, after several years of changes, and later the operator specializes in embroidery art so far, gradually, "Lianshengzhai" brand and embroidery art firmly linked.
The embroidery lady in the store talked to reporters that about 20 years ago, there were still surviving old people who came to the Lianshengzhai store and told them about the past of learning embroidery in the Shenshou Workshop, and saw that Lianshengzhai could pass on this skill, and the business became more and more prosperous, and the old man's heart was full of emotion and relief.
Lianshengzhai embroidery art absorbs the strengths of others, especially in recent decades, fully absorbing the techniques of the four famous embroidery and several other masters, and integrating photography, oil painting and other artistic styles, according to the needs of different groups, and constantly expanding the scope of the subject, so that the artistic expression of traditional embroidery has been greatly improved. "A few decades ago or earlier, embroidery was mostly a daily object, such as curtains, handkerchiefs, bridal clothes, ornaments, etc., and only later did it slowly develop into pure works like painting." Wu Qingying told reporters.
In fact, it is this kind of advancing with the times that Lianshengzhai embroidery has a stronger vitality. With the lively and changeable stitching, we have practiced the embroidery style of "flat, light, qi, even, harmonious, smooth, fine and dense", which is fine, elegant and clean, and is welcomed by the market. Many foreign merchants come to the store to customize works, and the price is expensive.
A long scroll of Mazu stories
In addition to commercial operations, Lianshengzhai also planned some "large-scale" works, such as the reproduction of the famous painting "Qingming Riverside Map", the reproduction of the "Luhe Supervision and Transportation Map" showing the busy transportation and prosperity of the Sancha River Estuary in Tianjin, and the 12-meter-long scroll created according to the legend of Mazu, etc., all of which can be called masterpieces, and visitors are all amazed.
Wu Qingying told reporters that most of the embroidery teachers currently working in the museum are from Suzhou. Suzhou, like Tianjin, is a historical city that grew up by the canal, from the green and pink Jingu to the hazy Gusu, a canal connects the two places and nurtures the deep embroidery art of the two places.
Brilliant and meticulous
Yu Xingying, with more than 40 years of experience in Suzhou embroidery, currently serves as the technical director of Lianshengzhai. More than 20 years ago, she came to Tianjin from Suzhou, took root, and presided over and participated in the creation of many masterpieces and masterpieces with her profound embroidery skills, along the artistic style and value orientation of Lianshengzhai.
Yu Xingying
When the reporter visited, Yu Xingying was embroidering a flower and bird work, splitting silk, threading needles, walking needles, and changing threads, skillful, meticulous, and accurate. When she was seven or eight years old, she learned to thread needles with her mother, did some simple embroidery work, and after graduating from junior high school, she engaged in embroidery full-time until today.
A silk thread looks very thin, but in fact it can be split into 16 silks, and each silk is composed of 32 hairs, this "hair" is the most primitive silk spit out by the silkworm baby. When embroidering, it is necessary to change different silk threads according to different parts and colors, so it is necessary to keep threading needles and threads, which is a test of the embroiderer's eyesight and endurance.
In Yu Xingying's narration, the most exquisite is the embroidery of the goldfish tail, to create the elegant posture of the goldfish swimming in the water, the presentation of the tail is very important, at this time the lines can not be too thick, each line has only two or three hairs, that is, only two or three silks spit out by the silkworm baby. "The lines have to be thin enough, and this can't be compromised." She said.
The creation of several large-scale works in the museum is a proud work of Yu Xingying's participation. When embroidering the "Qingming Riverside Picture", in order to faithfully reproduce this masterpiece, she and several other embroiderers worked for more than two years before it was completed. "The main reason for the "Qingming Riverside Picture" is that there are many characters, houses, buildings, boats and bridges, and the color seems to be single, but in fact, it is really embroidered, and the color is also very rich, which needs to be pondered." Yu Xingying introduced.
"Luhe River Supervision and Transport Map" is a masterpiece of the Qing Dynasty that shows the busy transportation of the Sancha River Estuary in Tianjin, and is now in the National Museum. On the second floor of the Lianshengzhai Museum, the embroidery works reproduce this masterpiece, boatmen, officials, boats, three forks, farmland, shops, wine flags, the content is sprinkled and vibrant, and the color, light and shade, and composition of the embroidery are not inferior at all, as if bringing people back to the canal era when boats shuttled and merchants came and went.
Lianshengzhai Embroidery Art Museum, located in the Mazu Cultural Park, two 12-meter-long Mazu story scrolls, is another big production. "We organized more than a dozen embroiderers at that time, and it took more than three years to complete, and some overseas tourists were shocked after seeing it, saying that they couldn't imagine that there was such a work in Tianjin!" Wu Qingying said.
The dilemma of inheritance and the courage to persevere
"A painter's stroke, an embroiderer's thousands of threads." Wu Qingying said a word, exhausting the ups and downs of the embroidery industry.
Yu Xingying said that the embroidery industry needs to be able to endure the most, "You have to be able to sit still, so you can do this job!" She lost count of how many times the ancient culture street outside the store was crowded and lively, and she and her embroidery companions had no time to care, just sat in the room, facing the thin needles and threads.
Sitting for a long time, sitting upright, staring, over the years, almost every embroiderer's cervical spine and lumbar spine are overstrained, and "eyesight" has also been tempered. Recently, Yu Xingying's daughter just got her a pair of glasses, and the prescription is a little higher than the original one.
From Wu Qingying's point of view, embroidery, in addition to the meticulousness and patience unique to women, also requires a flexible and creative mind. "If you don't have a mind, you can't do embroidery." According to the different preferences of the old, middle-aged and young people, they have launched different styles of works and expressed different themes, which have been well received by customers and recognized by the market.
Yu Xingying told reporters that a few decades ago, embroidery was a means for many embroiderers to make a living, but at present, people have more job choices, and there are fewer young people who are willing to join the embroidery industry. At present, embroidery, like many other intangible cultural heritage items, is facing the problem of inheritance.
"Most of today's girls don't want to engage in this industry. Some students came to study with me for a few days, but then they stopped coming, and the children couldn't sit still. Yu Xingying said helplessly.
In order to inherit this intangible cultural heritage skill, all levels and departments in the urban area have given corresponding support. In June 2009, Lianshengzhai was awarded the title of "Tianjin Time-honored Brand"; In August 2012, it was awarded the honorary title of "Advanced Unit of Inheritance and Innovation of China's Time-honored Brands"; In 2014, the Lianshengzhai Embroidery Art Museum was established; In 2017, it was included in the list of representative items of municipal intangible cultural heritage......
Lianshengzhai has established cooperative relations with Tianjin Polytechnic University, Sino-German University of Applied Sciences and other universities, and has become a training base for students of related majors in the school. Embroidery teachers such as Yu Xingying are also often invited to teach at the school.
Yan Zhaoyi, a sophomore student in the Department of Fashion Design of Tianjin Polytechnic University, learned about the art of Lianshengzhai embroidery when she studied textile intangible cultural heritage in the school elective course. Xiao Yan was "circled fans", and later followed Yu Xingying to learn embroidery, for this post-00s girl from Guangdong, the embroidery teacher's evaluation is "smart and studious".
"I studied embroidery and my family is very supportive. I want to use my personal participation to contribute to the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. From my professional point of view, it is also a rare social practice and extracurricular accumulation. Yan Zhaoyi told Jinyun News reporters.
Nowadays, many foreign research groups and tourists will take Lianshengzhai as one of the check-in places when they come to Tianjin. Lianshengzhai embroidery, a valuable skill of Jinmen, is in a diversified form, continuing its vitality and vitality.
Embroidery teachers teach at Tianjin Polytechnic University
"The art of embroidery, seeing the money is slow, which requires people to be able to sit down and love this business in order to pass it on." Wu Qingying said.
(Jinyun News reporter Chen Qingpu)