"The Beauty Of Chuxiong Yi Embroidery Is The Beauty Of Innovation And Creation

At this year's NPC and CPPCC sessions, Jin Ruirui, a delegate to the National People's Congress from Chuxiong, Yunnan, and the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Chuxiong Yi embroidery, once again walked into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing wearing a new set of Yi embroidery clothing. Many media called her "the NPC delegate who wears intangible cultural heritage".

In September 2023, Yi costumes will walk from the ancient "rural catwalk" to the spotlight and onto the Milan Fashion Week, Italy, which leads the international fashion trend. This is the first time that Chuxiong Yi embroidery has entered the four major fashion weeks in the world after entering the Beijing Fashion Week, Shanghai Fashion Week and other stages. Intangible cultural heritage technology is "alive" in the inheritance and development, Inheritors of intangible cultural heritage of Yi embroidery like Jin Ruirui also came to the front.

At present, Chuxiong Yi costumes are listed as national intangible cultural heritage, Yi embroidery is listed as provincial intangible cultural heritage, and Zhiju Yi women's costumes have also obtained national patents.

With the increasing popularity of Chuxiong Yi embroidery culture brand, this "fingertip art" has gradually developed into a "fingertip industry", realizing the three major changes of "embroideries become commodities, embroideries become business cards, and shows become markets". The millennium craftsmanship "fingertip economy" has been constantly embroidering income, and many young people who once worked outside have returned to their hometown.

　　 "Yi embroidery has a market"

In Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province, Yi embroidery costumes can be seen everywhere on the streets and lanes, forming beautiful Yi customs paintings. Chuxiong Yi Embroidery has a history of more than 1700 years. It is the "fingertip art" that the Yi people are proud of. Generations of Yi embroiderers cut a thread with one needle, forming a unique embroidery style with profound culture, beautiful patterns, lively stitches, and rich colors. Today, this traditional skill has become a new way for local people to increase their income and become rich.

"In recent years, the brand awareness of Chuxiong Yi embroidery culture has continued to improve, and the market for its products has opened up. More and more Yi girls have returned to their hometown to join the embroidery industry," said Jin Ruirui.

Jin Ruirui, born in 1989, comes from Anali Village, Panmao Township, Muding County, Chuxiong Prefecture, Yunnan Province. At present, he is the general manager of Jielu Yi Embroidery Culture Communication Co., Ltd. in Muding County, Chuxiong Prefecture, and also the president of the Young Yi Embroidery Innovation Association of Muding County.

In 2013, Jin Ruirui, who had just graduated from university, wanted to make a break in big cities, but she followed her family to attend several Yi embroidery fairs. Only then did she know that "Yi embroidery has a market". Therefore, she chose to go back to her hometown and continue to inherit the Yi embroidery craft that was passed down to the eighth generation.

With her efforts, Jielu Yi Embroidery Culture Communication Co., Ltd. has developed into a leading enterprise of Yi embroidery in Mouding County, and has established long-term and stable cooperative relations with more than 1000 embroidery mothers.

"We can work at home, and we can do it at home if we have an order. My mother-in-law and I make nearly 40000 yuan a year, and our life is better every year." said Li Xiuhua, an embroiderer in Zhiju Village, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan.

"It is Yi embroidery that has made my entrepreneurial dream come true. It has also driven more embroiderers around me to carry babies, embroider flowers, and support their families, so that they can find jobs at home. Next, we will continue to promote Chuxiong Yi embroidery to go out of the mountains and sea, vigorously cultivate industrial talents and young inheritors, and more widely combine traditional technology with modern creativity." Jin Ruirui said.

　　 Enterprises grow in cultural inheritance

The reporter learned that in order to promote the development and growth of the Yi embroidery industry, the government of Yongren County, Chuxiong County, invested in the construction of the "Yongren Yi Embroidery Street" in the county seat. At present, 25 Yi embroidery enterprises have settled in.

Ding Lanying, born in 1978, was from a poor family when she was young. She helped her family with Yi embroidery skills taught by her mother. At the age of 16, a foreign boss once spent money to buy her embroidery bag. Ding Lanying realized for the first time that "Yi embroidery can sell at a good price as long as it is well done".

This "deal" also inspired Ding Lanying's entrepreneurial enthusiasm. After many twists and turns, in 2021, she established Nanhua Colorful Yi Embroidery Culture Communication Co., Ltd., and turned the once barely able craftsmanship into a "no small business" according to the idea of "intangible cultural heritage+market products+employment and wealth".

Since 2016, Yi Embroidery has started to walk out of the mountains and onto the stages of Beijing Fashion Week, Shanghai Fashion Week and other stages. The cross-border fashion clothing with "intangible cultural heritage" elements has been widely praised at home and abroad.

In 2019, Yi costumes once again launched a "most dazzling national style" at the Shanghai Fashion Week held that year. In September of the same year, under the promotion of cooperation between Shanghai and Yunnan, Chuxiong Yi embroidery products went abroad and successfully appeared in New York Fashion Week. It was also in this year that Ding Lanying brought her Yi embroidery products to Shanghai Pudong International Airport for a week-long exhibition. During the exhibition, Ding Lanying received an order worth 3 million yuan. Since then, she has started her legendary life of starting a business and leading the local embroidery lady to become rich.

Peng Zongwang, born in 1990, is a physically disabled person. Before he worked as an embroiderer, he had almost no financial resources. Now, she and her sister both work as embroiderers in the enterprise and have a stable income. "My sister and I can earn 3000 or 4000 yuan a month," said the shy Peng Zongwang with a smile.

In Ding Lanying's opinion, the relatively flexible working method has enabled more and more people to find jobs at home. The development of Yi embroidery industry not only enabled women to realize their dreams of home employment and income generation, but also alleviated the problem of "difficult care" for children left behind.

　　 Yi Embroidery Enterprises Win the Future in Seeking Change

In the opinion of Li Wenjuan, the head of the propaganda department of Chuxiong Prefecture Party Committee, the entrepreneurial process of Ding Lanying, Jin Ruirui and other young women embroiderers is also the process of the thriving development of Chuxiong Yi embroidery industry.

In order to promote the high-quality development of the Yi embroidery industry, over the years, the local government has continued to implement the project of improving the embroidery skills, and helped to establish a talent pool of Yi embroidery, so that the Yi embroidery products that fight alone can become a large-scale industrial chain, and the Yi embroidery industry has gradually changed from traditional manual workshops to modern large-scale operations. At the same time, focusing on the effective supply of markets at all levels, the local government has established a model of "company+cooperative+embroidery mother+order", realizing the effective linkage of "sales, circulation and market" of Yi embroidery.

Among them, the local research and development launched three series of cultural and creative Yi embroidery products, namely, "Meet Chuxiong", "Green Feather Wizard" and "Fulaiyunxiang". It has created two provincial cultural industry parks, created a "Yi Embroidery Park" for the incubation of Yi embroidery characteristic cultural industries, launched a "Yi Embroidery Tour" to experience the inheritance of high-quality lines of Yi embroidery, and pioneered the nationwide innovation of "Yi Embroidery Loan", an exclusive bank loan, and "Yi Embroidery Mail" to reduce the logistics cost of Yi embroidery enterprises.

Today, the added value of the Yi embroidery industry in Chuxiong Prefecture has increased from 21 million yuan in 2012 to 245 million yuan in 2022. From 2012 to 2022, the number of Xiuniang in Chuxiong Prefecture will increase from 27500 to 57000, a double increase; Xiuniang's annual per capita income increased 4.6 times from 563 yuan to 3180 yuan. So far, there are 604 Yi embroidery business entities in Chuxiong Prefecture.

In June 2022, Southeast University held the Chuxiong Nanhua Yi Embroidery Exhibition, "Gather fixed-point support and jointly promote the Yi embroidery culture". Three exhibition areas were set up on the site, namely, "Embroideries connect the local conditions of the school", "The style of the thousand year Yi embroidery exhibition", and "The inheritance of modern Yi embroidery", presenting the traditional Yi embroidery works of Nanhua County and the modern Yi embroidery works designed by the teachers and students of the Southeast University School of Arts.

"Southeast University has been very helpful to us, not only helping us to design, find raw materials and orders, but also helping the company transform from extensive management to a modern enterprise!" Ding Lanying, the "leader" of the Yi embroidery industry in Nanhua County, said that Southeast University fully mobilized design and research talents, and cooperated with local Yi embroidery enterprises to innovate and design Yi embroidery products, At the same time, it took the lead in organizing skill competitions and business training to retain and attract more local people to participate in the Yi embroidery industry.

"The beauty of Chuxiong Yi embroidery is the beauty of innovation and creation." Li Wenjuan said that in order to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Yi embroidery's characteristic culture, Chuxiong Prefecture has set up a special class for Yi embroidery industry led by the Publicity Department of Chuxiong Prefecture Party Committee, organized the embroidery women in the whole prefecture to create a "fingertip industry", and fostered 538 Yi embroidery operators in the whole prefecture, including 12 enterprises above the designated size, 77 Yi embroidery workshops and 260 embroidery workshops have been built, forming a development pattern of "regional parks, counties and counties with enterprises, villages with workshops, and villages with embroidery workshops". (Reporter Huang Yu)

(Source: Workers Daily)