The Intangible Cultural Heritage Of Qidan Royal Embroidery In Ningcheng County

Embroidery is a unique traditional craft in China. In Ningcheng County, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, with the help of Qidan Royal embroidery, many left behind women in the county have embarked on the road to prosperity.

Yuxiuxuan Handicraft Co., Ltd. of Ningcheng County used white jade for nearly a year, and a mural painting of seven horses in Yinshan Mountain, which is 1.3 meters long and 0.6 meters wide, was successfully completed. She was just ordered by the city museum.

Bai Yujie's embroidered painting of seven horses on Yinshan Mountain

In less than two years, a group of left behind women in Ningcheng County created nearly 100 embroideries at home, earning more than 50000 yuan. As Bai Yujie said, in Ningcheng, Khitan Yuxiu helped many people find the value of their own existence and found a new way to live a good life.

"Because of rickets, I've never done anything for my mother since I was so old, so I dedicated my first work to her." Facing the camera, Liu Guozhen of Tianbei village in Tianyi town smiles happily.

Liu Guozhen can not do heavy work, can only look after the shop, the family all rely on her husband to work outside to earn money. In 2015, by chance, she came to yuxiuxuan company to participate in embroidery training. Under the guidance of Yu Heping, the successor of Khitan Royal embroidery, she quickly mastered this skill. Now, Liu Guozhen has created a number of works, one of which was sent to the autonomous region to participate in the disabled works competition and won the prize. Once it was exhibited, it was bought away.

Liu Guozhen and her embroidery "five sons ascend the throne" (photo provided by cctv.com, Ningcheng Rong media center)

Like Liu Guozhen, with the platform of Khitan Yuxiu, there are not a few people who embroider their own "boutique" life at the same time. Yu Fengxian, who lives in palisade village of Daming town, is suffering from rheumatoid diseases and is living in poverty. Yuxiuxuan company gives her free training and teaches her embroidery techniques. Yu Fengxian's first embroidery work was not qualified. In order to encourage her to continue embroidery, the company recycled her work and paid her more money. Yu Fengxian began to gain a sense of accomplishment from embroidery. Today, Yu Fengxian relies on his own craft to support his son to go to university with her husband.

Take out "heirloom" and "embroider" to create a new life. Qidan Yuxiu is a family heritage handicraft of yuheping, a master of handmade embroidery in Inner Mongolia. It has been listed as the intangible cultural heritage products of the autonomous region. This skill has been widely spread in Ningcheng by means of yuxiuxuan company's teaching in the countryside and pairing assistance. On the main battlefield of poverty alleviation in the whole county, yuxiuxuan's sustainable development mode of "company + training base + farmers" and "one person with many people" has been promoted, Many villages in the town have initially formed a production pattern of ethnic handicrafts with workshops in every family and embroidery in every household.

Up to now, the company has trained more than 125000 unemployed people, rural women and disabled people, including more than 400 skilled xiuniangs, which has obtained more than 500 million direct and indirect benefits.

Not only that, following the footprints of xiunu, the intangible cultural heritage product of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Khitan Royal embroidery works have gone out of the village to a broader world. Since 2016, yuxiuxuan has signed an order of 160 million yuan at the Shenzhen International Cultural Industry Expo, becoming the "signing king" of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to participate in Shenzhen Cultural Expo in 2019.

(source: CCTV)