Page 3 - Yunnan Tourism Culture Times (91)

03
VOICE | 声音

China's excellent traditional cutlure has many important elements that jointly shaped Chinese civilization.

——Excerpt from Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at a meeting on cultural inheritance and development on June 2, 2023

中华优秀传统文化有很多重要元素，共同塑造出中华文明的突出特性。
——摘自中国国家主席习近平 2023 年 6 月 2 日在文化传承发展座谈会上的重要讲话

Yi embroidery by

hand gives off sense

of warmth

By Huang Yixian □ 黄议娴 / 文

I still remember a pair of embroidered dresses for coming-of-age, and hand-sewn by heart and doing impromptu creations by embroideries can even carry the memory of
shoes I loved to wear when I was a little costumes for wedding, all the creations their experience only. Then, she showed me times and ethnicity.
child. Its vividly embroidered flowers in the are unique and “highly customized”. a pair of shoes that she had just finished em- Except for special festivals, few people
Yi style impressed me a lot, so it became Last summer, I visited the Weishan Yi and broidering. Suddenly, my childhood memo- would wear hand-embroidered clothes in
one of my preferred outfits for every outing. Hui autonomous county in west Yunnan’s Dali ries were awakened. daily life. Will the Yi handicraft disappear?
However, with my physical growth and later Bai autonomous prefecture, and my visit co- The Yi embroidering steps are refined, Based on my observation, I would say
changes in living place, I lost track of them, incided with the Torch Festival — dubbed as but each stitch must be precise. In the era NO. I learned the Costume Competition
and the hand-embroidered shoes gradually the eastern carnival popular among Yi folks. when the machine-made clothing has al- Festival has been going on for thousands
faded out of my daily life and memory. The festivities enlivened the usually small ready entered our lives, there are still so of years in central Yunnan’s Chuxiong Yi
One day while I was in college, I met a and quiet county town. Besides tourists, many artisans who insist on taking years to autonomous prefecture. On that day, local
girl from the Shilin Yi autonomous county, there are lots of locals dressed in festival make hand-embroidered clothes. I believe Yi folks, including little girls and grannies,
central Yunnan’s Kunming city. She was costumes on the street, then I found that the the colors Yi people wear and the fiery pas- would wear colorful costumes to show the
wearing traditional Yi costume for fresh- traditional dresses of the Yi people in Weis- sion in them have been well passed down on exquisite manual skills and the beauty of
men registration. Like a delicate work of han have their own uniqueness: With silver this vibrant land of Yunnan, and embroidery traditional clothing. The Yi embroidery and
art, her outfit featured the colors as bright ornaments, they feature dazzling colors of has become a part of their daily life. its derivatives have debuted at international
as those of a rainbow, and its patterns of red and green paired in harmony. Mother na- Various patterns are embroidered on fashion events, and I even noticed a mother
octagonal flowers, flames and ram horns ture has always been a source of wisdom and Yi costumes, including the sun, the moon, would carry her baby with a Yi back wrap
evoked in me a aesthetic sense of symme- aspiration for the Yi people. stars, mountains, rivers, lakes, plants and embroidered in azalea patterns, watching
try. She told me it was hand-embroidered Later, I walked into a costume store. The animals. The patterns represent their living seagulls by the Green Lake in Kunming...
by her mother, because for the Yi folks, lady owner told me that it may take several experiences for thousands of years and the Now, handmade Yi embroidery is getting
needle works from mother will accompany years to embroider a Yi dress by hand, and philosophy of coexisting with nature, and increasingly visible for it comes from our
their children throughout the growth: em- the craftsperson can create the patterns with- they also reflect the beliefs and expectations beauty-seeking life. After all, beauty and
broidered carriers for babyhood, special out a ruler or pencil, learning the designs of the embroiderers. The delicate familial love are eternal topics.