[Dreaming, Modernization, Jointly Drawing a New Vision, the Song of Laborers]

Original title: After more than 20 years of painstaking efforts to hide embroidery skills, plucking Ye Zhong has transformed into an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage at his fingertips (introduction)

Embroider a beautiful world (theme)

Worker's Daily - Xingshengxiang, reporter of China Industrial Network

A needle, a thread... When the needle travels, the original ordinary silk thread transforms into a lifelike portrait on the fingertip of Ye Zhong. Over the past 20 years, with his love for his hometown, "Tibetan embroidery in southern Guizhou", Ye Zhong, the winner of the National May Day Labor Medal and the representative inheritor of Tibetan embroidery intangible heritage in Qinghai Province, has used his small embroidery needle to inherit the intangible heritage on his fingertips and embroidered a beautiful world.

Tibetan embroidery, originated in the 9th century AD, has a long history, unique techniques, simple style, rich categories, various stitches, and beautiful colors. It, together with Thangka and Duixiu, is called the three major arts in Tibetan areas, and is one of the most distinctive embroidery schools in the traditional culture of Chinese minorities.

Smooth lines, exquisite stitches, traditional embroidery, novel design... In the embroidery workshop, the embroiderers are concentrating on threading. Pulling Mao Ye Zhong carefully examined the works of the embroiderers. "The facial expression of this figure is very lifelike. We embroidered layers according to the facial muscle contour in many exploration attempts to make this effect."

Lamao Yezhong was born in Shagou Township, Guinan County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, which is known as the "hometown of Tibetan embroidery". Almost every woman there can embroider. "There are more than 10 traditional stitches in Guinan Tibetan Embroidery, such as flat stitches, string stitches, skip stitches, and convoluted stitches. The patterns created are colorful, smooth lines, vivid characters, and exquisite workmanship, which have high artistic appreciation value and collection value," said Ye Zhong, the plucked hair.

In the past, Tibetan embroidery was mainly used in national costumes, house decoration and other aspects, passed on to the next generation in a natural way, and was deeply "hidden" in the farmyard. "I learned embroidery in order to make clothes for myself." Lamao Ye Zhong said that Tibetan embroidery is the first skill that Tibetan girls need to master. Whether they can embroider beautiful Tibetan clothes was once a sign of Tibetan girls' ingenuity.

"When I was young, I learned embroidery under the instruction of my grandmother and mother. Later, I learned skills in my father's clothing factory. When I was 15 years old, I went out to work and worked as a waiter in a Tibetan restaurant in Sichuan." Lamao Yezhong recalled that because he didn't know how to read, he had to work as a waiter in the kitchen to do the hardest and most tiring work.

Seeing that various embroidery products in tourist attractions outside the city are very popular, Lamao Yezhong gradually realizes that Tibetan embroidery in his hometown should also be carried forward. So she returned to her hometown and her father's clothing factory and began to study Tibetan embroidery.

Under the guidance and support of the local government, Lamao Yezhong and local folk artists went out of the pastoral area to investigate and learn the needlework of the four major Chinese embroideries, namely, Xiang Embroidery, Suzhou Embroidery, Guangdong Embroidery, and Shu Embroidery, so that Tibetan embroidery skills can be innovated, and more highlight the characteristics of Tibetan embroidery itself.

"If your starting point is lower than others, you should work harder than others for two hours every day." A Suzhou embroidery teacher once said this to Ye Zhong, who is pulling Mao, during the study tour, and this has become her motto.

"Look at these two pieces of Tibetan embroidery in Guinan. One is stiff and rough, and the other is flexible and delicate. It is necessary to learn other embroidery methods and constantly explore and innovate to make Tibetan embroidery more and more exquisite." Lamao Ye Zhong compares two Tibetan antelope works. As a representative inheritor of provincial intangible cultural heritage projects, Lamao Yezhong has been thinking about how to make traditional Tibetan embroidery glow with new vitality.

If the Tibetan embroidery industry wants to become bigger and stronger, the product design, quality, category, etc. need to keep improving. Lanmao Yezhong independently designed and developed the "Tibetan Embroidery Sachet" and "Tibetan Embroidery Pendant" series products, led the team to develop the seamless inlay technology, made a more comprehensive upgrade to the embroidery shelf, and applied for an invention patent and a utility model patent.

Shi Yuxiu, a villager in Xiatamai Village, Qiabqia Town, Gonghe County, Hainan Province, was introduced by a friend to learn Tibetan embroidery at the embroidery shop of Lamao Yezhong. "Now I have at least 4000 yuan a month, and I never expected that one day I could live a good life with my skills."

In recent years, Tibetan embroidery quilts "raised in purdah" have been made into clothes, ornaments, Thangkas and other products. Tibetan handicrafts are more exquisite in color matching, more exquisite in embroidery, more rich in theme content, and their works are sold overseas. At the same time of achieving economic benefits, through building a platform for learning technology, mastering skills, and increasing income and entrepreneurship, more and more women in agricultural and pastoral areas joined the Tibetan embroidery industry, and more than 20 skilled apprentices were trained.

"Seeing that women in agricultural and pastoral areas live a good life relying on Tibetan embroidery, I think what I have done is very meaningful." Lamao Ye Zhong said that Tibetan embroidery has formed a development business of "company+farmers", and nearly 100 embroidery mothers have achieved home employment and income growth.

Now, "Guinan Tibetan Embroidery" has gradually developed towards industrialization and marketization, and has basically formed an industrial chain integrating skills training, design, wiring, production, mounting, appreciation, procurement and other functions, transforming "fingertip art" into "fingertip economy".

Ye Zhong has been engaged in Tibetan embroidery for more than 20 years, and has won the honors of Hainan Arts and Crafts Master, Hainan Craftsman, Qinghai Provincial Second Class Folk Arts and Crafts Master, and Qinghai Provincial Representative Inheritor of Tibetan Embroidery Intangible Cultural Heritage. Her Tibetan embroidery work Sakyamuni won the bronze prize at the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo in 2010, and the "Avalokitesvara with Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes" won the "Chinese Arts and Crafts Cultural Creativity Award" at the 2014 International Cultural Industry Expo.

At present, Lamao Ye Zhongzheng is leading a hundred embroidery women to complete a 268 meter long Tibetan embroidery work King Gesar in five years. "In the future, I hope that more women in agricultural and pastoral areas can change their own destiny by inheriting and innovating Tibetan embroidery, so that Tibetan embroidery can move to a broader stage," said Ye Zhong, a senior manager of the industry.