She embroidered the life of Tibetan and Qiang people and everything in the world with a pair of skillful hands; She alone undertook the mission of weaving and embroidering Tibetan and Qiang, and became the first person to declare the inheritance of weaving and embroidering Tibetan and Qiang. She is Yang Huazhen.
Walking into a Tibetan and Qiang embroidery shop in the theme block of Wenshufang, Chengdu, you are confronted with a strong Tibetan and Qiang culture.
Tangka and Tancheng with Tibetan characteristics are colorful, exquisite and beautiful. Qiang people's national costumes are exquisite in craftsmanship and traditional and beautiful. The most attractive thing is all kinds of Tibetan and Qiang embroidery, which is all-inclusive and full of vitality.
These exquisite hand-embroidered products are all made by 18 embroidered mothers whose average age is over 60.
These 18 embroidered mothers are embroidery experts from Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Half Qiang and half Tibetan. The person who summoned these 18 masters is our hero today-Yang Huazhen.
Yang Huazhen, 1960, a native of Qiang Village, Xiaojin County, Aba Prefecture. Her mother is Jia Rong Tibetan and her father is from A Qiang. Under the majestic, beautiful and steep Muldo Mountain, Jiarong Tibetans and Qiang people have been friendly for generations and married.
Tibetans believe in Buddhism, mainly weaving and embroidery, depicting Buddhist stories or bodhisattvas, with a strong conservative color.
Qiang people advocate nature, mainly embroidery, and depict flowers, plants, insects and birds with bright colors. Yang Huazhen's grandfather used to be a nobleman, so his grandmother can embroider Thangka devoutly at home and devote herself to acupuncture for many years. The embroidery is exquisite.
And this embroidery worker is handed down from generation to generation. Yang Huazhen is the fourth generation of Tibetan Qiang embroidery in the family. Under the instruction of her mother, she learned to spin, weave molds and embroider on molds.
When Qiangzhai girls get married, dresses, shoes, socks, headscarves and belts should be embroidered. Because of the long history of the two ethnic groups, Tibetan and Qiang embroidery has become a compulsory course for women in Qiangzhai. Yang Huazhen's embroidery is the most special.
Yang Huazhen, who lives at the foot of Mount Murdoch, has a special attachment to the scenery below.
In spring, the white mountains depend on the blue sky and white clouds. At the foot of the mountain, the green grass is dotted with colorful flowers. These colliding colors are so harmonious and seamless in this world.
Yang Huazhen, who is still in primary school, is particularly focused on collecting beautiful or beautiful patterns and recording them. If you look closely, you will find that Tibetan and Qiang embroidery is unique.
On the old man's head handkerchief, Tibetan Qiang embroidery is a peach blossom pattern symbolizing longevity over Nanshan. On children's belts, Tibetan Qiang embroidery is a flower pattern symbolizing vigorous growth.
On the lover's belt, Tibetan Qiang embroidery symbolizes the swallow pattern that flies with me. On women's shoes in Yun Yun, Tibetan Qiang embroidery is a beautiful auspicious cloud pattern.
Tibetan and Qiang culture is extensive and profound, and the patterns are divided into heaven and earth, men and women, and up and down. Each model has its own story behind it. Tibetan and Qiang embroidery, as a love letter without words, records the cultural customs, daily life and beautiful expectations of Tibetan and Qiang people.
After collecting these patterns, Yang Huazhen connected them into a painting with her own imagination, and then embroidered them with the weaving and embroidery method taught by her mother to record these beautiful things.
Sometimes embroidered on my brother's shoes, sometimes embroidered on my apron, and sometimes embroidered on my close friend's accessories. Yang Huazhen's focus on recording beauty continued until she grew up.
With more and more embroidery she embroidered, everyone in Qiangzhai knows that Yang Huazhen's embroidery skill is good, so more people come to visit relatives and friends, but Huayangzhen has not chosen anyone.
Until 1979, Yang Huazhen married her classmate Feng Qinglong. Because Feng Qinglong is the only one who doesn't care about Yang Huazhen's embroidery skills, but only cares about whether Yang Huazhen is tired or not.
As an adult, Yang Huazhen did not insist on recording her life with embroidery, but became interested in new photography. With her persistent personality, she taught herself photography books in Xiaojin County, which is short of materials.
With her husband's support, she bought a camera, film and other photographic supplies. Yang Huazhen, who has an aesthetic talent, has also made achievements in photography.
1985 Yang Huazhen opened the first and only photo studio in Aba Prefecture in Xiaojin County, which can take artistic photos and wedding photos.
With the booming business of the photo studio, Yang Huazhen has also become a local family, but Yang Huazhen is not satisfied with this.
Her photography skills are recognized as excellent, so she was admitted at the first attempt. From then on, Yang Huazhen came to work in the art picture department of Aba Daily.
During his 24 years working in a newspaper, Yang Huazhen not only reported news events, but also used his professional convenience to collect more than 500 embroidery patterns of Tibetan costumes and learned more than 20 national embroidery techniques.
With such a wealth of photographs, Yang Huazhen took her love of embroidery as a hobby, and the Wenchuan earthquake in May12 made Yang Hua Jane pick up an embroidery needle again and turned her hobby into a job.
When she finally returned to Chengdu, these moments were frozen by the camera and became the first-hand information provided by Chengdu Xinhua News Agency for the public.
One side is in trouble, all sides support, and love comforts the displaced people in Wenchuan. However, it was difficult for the old, weak women and children who originally lived in Qiangzhai Diaolou to rebuild their homes at that time.
Their life revolves around the watchtower, and the place where they live collapses instantly. How do they live after that?
Yang Huazhen, who has lived in the watchtower, especially understands these old sisters who have lost their homes. Suddenly an inspiration flashed through Yang Huazhen's mind.
Women in Qiangzhai can embroider. Why not take embroidery to Chengdu to sell some embroidery?
On the one hand, the old sisters can settle down with embroidery, on the other hand, they can organize these experts to develop new embroidery of Tibetan embroidery and Qiang embroidery.
With this idea, Yang Huazhen immediately discussed with her family, and her husband, son and mother-in-law all agreed. So Yang Huazhen went through the retirement formalities.
On August 8, 2008, Yang Huazhen, as a representative of Qiang embroidery, was invited to give a live demonstration at the National Palace.
I saw that she picked up the cloth at hand, neither proofing nor marking, only using five-color silk thread, and with skillful skills, she soon embroidered a flower, not only double-sided, but also without thread.
Experts from the Ministry of Culture found that Yang Huazhen's Qiang embroidery still retains some skills of Tibetan embroidery and embroidery, so they asked Yang Huazhen how many people know embroidery like her. Yang Huazhen said that there are fewer and fewer people now.
Experts told Yang Huazhen that this skill could not be lost, so Yang Huazhen quickly declared the inheritor, so Yang Huazhen became the national inheritor of Tibetan and Qiang embroidery.
From the beginning, I loved beauty, and now I have the responsibility to inherit Tibetan and Qiang embroidery. Yang Huazhen is more proud of her unique national culture.
In August, with this lofty sentiments, Yang Huazhen led 18 old sisters of Shimada Hanzo Banqiang to walk out of the mountains and wander around the rivers and lakes with embroidery needles in their hands.
Yang Huazhen rented a house in Chengdu with his savings, bought some materials and came to Chengdu to look for opportunities and markets. But everything is difficult at the beginning. There is nothing to say about the embroidery skills of these old sisters, but their business skills are really flattering. For half a year in a row, they didn't sell an embroidery.
Yang Huazhen felt that he could not default on the wages of his companions who came out to work with him, so he gave them his savings as wages. It was not until 2009 that Yang Huazhen established the Tibetan and Qiang Embroidery Garden and officially settled in the theme block of Wenshufang in Chengdu that he had a fixed sales platform.
At that time, a French hotel owner saw the embroidery of his old sisters in Wen Shu Hospital. As soon as his eyes lit up, he asked them to embroider a batch of tablecloths, table runners, bedspreads and other supplies with translators.
Yang Huazhen was glad to finally give an explanation to her old sisters, but she was worried when calculating the money. The embroidered mothers didn't know how to price an embroidery.
According to the material cost of the cloth and the salary of the weavers and embroiderers of 50 yuan a day. As a result, the buyer was unhappy. He said no, it would be a loss, so he helped to recalculate. Their first order is 380 thousand yuan as the final transaction price.
With the increasing popularity of Tibetan and Qiang embroidery, the market is becoming more and more worried. What Yang Huazhen is worried about is how to combine national things with fashion and open the market for young people.
After thinking, Yang Huazhen thinks that if we want to combine tradition with fashion, we must make practical products with strong practicability.
For example, weaving and embroidery are all done on bags, which are generally made of leather. If you want to embroider, you should consider the material and thread, as well as the follow-up maintenance.
For another example, the embroidered pieces made by ourselves are inconvenient to carry in design, which is easy to make people flinch. Without proper packaging, they need to be further strengthened.
Later, Yang Huazhen thought that it would be more suitable to embroider antique screens in hotels and other places, and small objects such as sachets, mobile phone pendants and small handbags could be directly embroidered. Girls should like these little things.
With the further opening of the market, in 20 14, the Japanese makeup brand Shu uemura found Yang Huazhen through a public welfare organization in Shanghai, hoping that she would design the appearance of two products to be listed by the brand.
Yang Huazhen, who had never been exposed to product design, was frightened. She specifically asked about the ingredients of the product, and learned that one is mainly green tea, and the other has eight kinds of plant ingredients, and the created pattern was formed in her mind.
Camellia blooming in Qiang nationality means endless life, and the diamond pestle in Tibetan Buddhist culture means indestructible eternity. Eight kinds of plants connected in series with the diamond pestle mean youth and immortality.
She touched the heart of Shu Uemura's global creative art director with gorgeous colors and special meanings. This creation earned her 200,000 license fees and 800,000 commission fees, and Yang Huazhen instantly became a millionaire.
L 'Oré al, Starbucks, Van Gogh Museum, Hermes, Burberry and many other brands have found Yang Huazhen and asked her to tailor a minority costume for their products.
In recent years, Yang Huazhen has earned more than 8 million yuan. Our Tibetan and Qiang embroidery with national characteristics has therefore gone abroad and been displayed in front of the world.
Since then, Tibetan Qiang embroidery has become Yang Huazhen's career. She often goes to county-level cities or rural areas and temples to hold mobile training courses to learn Tibetan and Qiang embroidery skills.
Yang Huazhen also started a training course for disabled people who love Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery. She said that she would use her skills to help these disabled people get rid of poverty and become rich.
Since 2008, Yang Huazhen has trained more than 3,000 people, enabling some rural women and disabled people to "find jobs at home and get rich at home".
In order to protect and develop Tibetan embroidery and Qiang embroidery skills at the same time, when Yang Huazhen holds lectures and training courses in various places, he will go deep into Tibetan and Qiang nationalities and collect works made by traditional Tibetan and Qiang embroidery skills.
And further arrangement, repair, integration and innovation, rescue and protect Tibetan and Qiang embroidery skills.
So far, Yang Huazhen's team has collected more than 600 Qiang embroidery clothing patterns. More than 920 pieces of embroidery, more than 260 pieces of Tibetan wool, linen and cloth samples.
They also systematically sorted out and summarized the basic techniques and stitches of Tibetan embroidery and Qiang embroidery, and edited a number of illustrated training materials for Tibetan embroidery and Qiang embroidery, which were widely used in training courses all over the country.
Intangible cultural heritage is a treasure scattered among the people. It needs to be picked up like a string of pearls to form a shining aura, which is the national culture.
In order to better inherit the national culture, the inheritance and innovation of intangible cultural heritage is an important topic that we have to think about.
Yang Huazhen, with his unique weaving and embroidery techniques and aesthetic height, endowed the intangible Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery culture with new vitality. It is a typical example of better inheriting national culture.
Today, Yang Huazhen leads her team, which not only makes Tibetan and Qiang embroidery art go out of Qiang village and take root in Bashu land, but also makes the flower of national art bloom on the international stage.
[1] training card punching net 2017-01-19
[2] Craftsman in Time | Yang Huazhen, Master of Tibetan and Qiang Weaving and Embroidering: Weaving unparalleled art with time, hands and mind Sohu.com 2020-10-16.
[3] The candidate list of "People of the Year of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage" 100 in 2020 was published on China News Network 2020- 12- 19.
[4] Mom has something to say: the national treasure embroidered mother from Qiangzhai Sichuan Satellite TV 2020- 12-23.
[5] "Shuttle" Yang Huazhen, talking about Times global person Net 202 1-04-20 with a needle tip.
[6] Yang Huazhen China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network +0-05-04
[7] My "sentimental" life, I started my business with embroidery needles at the age of 50, and Yang Huazhen made the traditional crafts in Dashan go global.
[8] Colorful Inheritance You and I Share Guangming Net 202 1-06- 10