Experience the Intangible Cultural Heritage Charm of Cloud Embroidered Yi Clothes Together!, Entering the Culture | Yi Ethnic Group | Products of this Featured Commodity Exhibition

Abstract patterns, bold color schemes, and clever designs... Yunnan Chuxiong Yi embroidery, with a history of over 1700 years of inheritance, is the most representative cultural expression and carrier of the Yi ethnic group. Chuxiong Yi clothing is also listed as a national intangible cultural heritage. In March of this year, Yi embroidery's unique clothing once again shone brightly on the runway of the 2023 Autumn/Winter Shanghai Fashion Week. The "fingertip art" hidden in the deep mountains interprets the beauty of Yi embroidery for thousands of years through modern fashion interpretation.

In order to help Chuxiong Yi embroidery transform from "fingertip art" to "fingertip economy", in recent years, relevant departments, enterprises, universities and others in Shanghai have focused on key areas such as resource integration, platform construction, factor allocation, and talent support, forming a new model of cultural assistance for the entire industry chain from production to sales, from material quality to human resources, and promoting Yi embroidery to become an important component and new growth point of the local cultural industry.

Mountains and seas are connected, Shenqing helps purchase. Do you want to witness the charm of Chuxiong Yi embroidery on site? From July 20th to 23rd, the 6th Shanghai Special Products Exhibition and Sales Fair will be held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. At that time, citizens can experience and taste the unique products from sister provinces and cities without leaving Shanghai.

Heritage at the fingertips of the Millennium cultural treasures

The Millennium Cultural Treasure Inherited at Fingertips

In Yunnan, there is a beautiful legend about Yi embroidery: the colorful clouds in the sky fall on the heart of the Yi family's grandmother, giving Yi women a pair of nimble hands, allowing them to embroider the songs in their hearts with the colorful silk threads in their hands into the Yi family's colorful clouds that they wear on their bodies. In reality, Yi girls can hold embroidery needles at the age of 5, and can dye, cut, sew, and embroider clothes at the age of 10. Embroidery, for them, seems to be a talent, but also a gene that blends into their blood. On the 15th day of the first lunar month every year, it is the traditional "costume competition festival" of the Yi ethnic group. On the day of the festival, the Yi people from four townships and eight villages gather together, dressed in their own embroidered costumes, singing and dancing, and displaying their charm. Therefore, Yi embroidery and Yi costume festivals are intertwined and have become fingertip treasures and cultural symbols that have been passed down for thousands of years.

The clothing of the Yi ethnic group is mainly in black, red, and blue tones, supplemented by various colors. The entire set of clothing is fiery red and gorgeous, reflecting the passionate and unrestrained personality of the Yi people. Compared with other embroidery, the biggest feature of Yi embroidery is its abstract patterns. Compared to realism, Yi embroidery women prefer to unleash their rich imagination. A pair of pants legs is a meticulously transformed picture of stepping on a song; A one foot square shoulder bag is a Bagua diagram or astrology diagram composed of abstracted people and animals. Clothing created based on personal imagination may seem the same at first glance, but upon closer inspection, each piece and piece is unique. Some embroider the sun, moon, and stars, while others embroider the mountains, rivers, flowers, plants, insects, birds, and beasts. Embroiderers integrate their interpretations of beautiful things and aspirations for a better life into fingertip art with unique aesthetics.

Embroidery to Commodity Embroidery to Business Card Show to Market

Embroidery becomes commodity, embroidery pieces become business cards, fashion shows become markets

Nowadays, with every stitch and every thread, Yi embroidery women are flipping their fingers and taking Yi embroidery step by step out of the deep mountains, becoming a new cultural calling card of the colorful clouds in the south. A few years ago, due to factors such as a single product type, low level of organization, and being far from the mainstream consumer market, Yi embroidery was raised in the depths of the boudoir and not recognized by people. The Yi embroidery lady is like scattered pearls scattered in the beautiful rivers and mountains, which need to be strung together with gold and silver threads to become a timeless pearl necklace. Shanghai cultural assistance has played such a role as a thread through the needle.

To go out of Yi embroidery, the first step is to transform "embroidery products" into "products". Shanghai's aid to Yunnan mobilized resources and invited professional clothing designers to provide training for local embroidery women in clothing cutting, silk thread color matching, overall pattern layout design, embroidery techniques, and other aspects. It is gratifying that under the guidance of experts and the unremitting communication of Shanghai's aid to Yunnan cadres, the traditional creative thinking of Chu Xiong embroidery women, who used to be obsessed with specific images such as flowers and birds, is gradually changing. They have formed a path to promote Yi embroidery that not only retains the cultural connotations of the Yi ethnic group, but also has fashionable expression. The introduction of a series of modern clothing design techniques such as dyeing, gradient, and patchwork has injected fashion power into traditional Yi embroidery techniques. Millennium Yi embroidery has transformed into a fashionable item.

With products, we also need industries. Taking "Colorful Yi Embroidery" as an example, with the help of Shanghai's aid funds, it has established a total of 8 employment poverty alleviation workshops in Nanhua County and remote towns. At the same time, relying on the Shanghai Yunnan cooperation platform, combined with geographical conditions, village conditions, embroidery resources, and market demand, the county has explored a cultural and creative industry revitalization model of "one center, multiple branches" and "Shanghai Yunnan projects+companies+workshops+embroidery". Multiple batches and levels of recruitment and training of embroidery women have been carried out, and the company's orders have been divided into zero and subcontracted to households. At the same time, by building multiple embroidery promotion and exhibition platforms, expanding embroidery sales channels, and other means, we will promote the Yi embroidery industry to shine with new vitality. In addition, by fully leveraging the role of inheritors of Yi embroidery intangible cultural heritage, Shanghai's aid to Yunnan continues to assist in the implementation of the embroidery skills improvement project, transforming Yi embroidery from a solitary struggle in the past to large-scale production and industrial chain building. It is reported that there is currently one national level inheritor of Yi embroidery, five provincial level inheritors, and 31 state level inheritors in Chuxiong Prefecture. 434 people have obtained professional and technical titles in Yi embroidery. Shanghai and Yunnan, Jiading District, and Chuxiong Prefecture jointly organized and implemented more than 80 training courses and exchange projects, training more than 8000 embroidery women, allowing more "leaders" of embroidery women to step out of the mountains and enter Shanghai, understand the latest textile technology, design concepts, and market orientation.

In recent years, Chuxiong Yi embroidery has become a frequent guest on various exhibition stages in Shanghai. In April 2019, with strong support from relevant departments and enterprises in Shanghai, Chuxiong Yi Embroidery Clothing entered the stage of Shanghai Fashion Week for the first time from a small mountain village over 2400 kilometers away. In September of the same year, Chuxiong Yi Embroidery ushered in a "shining moment", and New York Fashion Week released its final show in the spring/summer of 2020, showcasing "TaoayTaoay x Chuxiong Yi Embroidery". Under the promotion of Shanghai's aid to Yunnan, Yi embroidery is moving towards the "Star Avenue" of fashion, internationalization, and industrialization.