Returning home to start a business to boost rural revitalization
Embroidery of the 1985 generation uses a new carrier to inherit the intangible cultural heritage "Huangmei picking flowers"
"Single-sided needle walking is for picking, and the needles are lifted and dropped at the same place..." In the female "Micro Workshop" in Huashan Village, Wuzu Town, Huangmei, Hubei, Hong Li is instructing new apprentices to traverse the flying needles on the embroidery stretch. , Threading and hooking, and within a short while, the colorful silk thread turned into a lifelike pattern in her hands.
In the female "Micro Workshop" founded by Hong Li, a female college student born in the 1980s, there are beautiful works of yellow plum picking flowers on the wall, such as "Spring Flowers and Autumn Fruits" and "Four Phoenix Chaoyang". At present, more than 100 local embroiderers have been trained as "Huang Mei". "Picking flowers" outlines the new life.
"Huangmei picking flowers" has a long history, originated in the Tang and Song dynasties, matured in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage catalogs.
Different from ordinary embroidery, the "Yellow Plum Flower Picking" is re-picked. When picking the flowers, you only need to continuously do the action of picking the flowers on the top of the base fabric, and use the cross stitch method to pick out the auspicious patterns on the homespun fabric. It has been widely used in folk stitching. Decorate or make headscarves and other daily necessities.
After the reform and opening up, "Huangmei Picking Flowers" was invited to exhibit in more than 10 countries and regions including the United States, the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. It showed the world the artistic charm of picking flowers. It was known as "silent poetry, three-dimensional Chinese paintings, and dreamy Chu Resignation".
Hong Li was born in a family of flower pickers, and his grandmother and grandmother are both local flower pickers.
Hong Li was nurtured since he was a child and loved embroidery very much.
After graduating from Hubei University of Technology with a major in administrative management, she went to Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou to learn French embroidery, Su embroidery and ancient sachet techniques, and became a fourth-level French embroiderer.
At the beginning of last year, Hong Li was stranded in his hometown due to the epidemic.
She found that the "Huangmei picking flowers" was facing withering away, and only a few old embroidered women were still holding on.
She remembered that in the process of learning French embroidery, she heard the French teacher mention "Huangmei picking flowers".
"At that time, I was extremely excited and proud. This is not only a national intangible cultural heritage, but also a traditional folk art unique to Huangmei. I have no reason not to delve into it and promote it."
Hong Li visited folk artists and learned that as early as the early 1990s, "Huangmei picking flowers" was approved as a local feature by a state-owned factory. The design of picking flowers on bedding was awarded many light industry awards, but he did everything possible to make it. Products, but "applauded but not popular."
Tao Peifeng, a local veteran craftsman, introduced that "Yellow Plum Picking Flowers" is a sample of old objects, with high practical value and poor aesthetic experience; if you want to take a high-end route, you may lack brand awareness.
Hong Li began to think about blending the "yellow plum flower picking" with other folk embroidery techniques, using embroidery materials for the flower picking, and using the pattern of the flower picking for embroidery.
Looking through the embroidery books and constantly trying new patterns, Hong Li's fingerprints on his two fingers were almost wiped out, and he was busy threading needles every day and sometimes even forgot to eat.
She visited local master craftsmen to learn techniques and design drafts, and she remembered it all in a notebook.
During the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Hong Li joined the Huangmei County University Students' Association to participate in voluntary services for epidemic prevention and control, and met Zhang Hongrun, his entrepreneurial partner thereafter.
The latter has been engaged in the publicity and distribution of film and television dramas and films in the entertainment industry in Beijing for many years.
The two often discuss the topic of "new cultural and creative" in "Huangmei picking flowers".
"We believe that the inheritance of skills in the past often stayed in the reproduction, but with the development of the times, only innovation and transcendence can be the true inheritance of skills. As long as the major elements of technology, materials, and patterns remain a little bit, the'huangmei picking flowers' The characteristics are still there." The two hit it off and launched the idea of "Huangmei Picking Flowers+", and decided to turn ideas into actions and start entrepreneurship.
In May 2020, with the support of the provincial working team in the village, the county women’s federation, the county university student union and other departments and units, Hongli registered Hubei Meikai Second Culture Co., Ltd. to create the "Huangmei Picking Flowers + Women's Micro Workshop" .
The design concept of Hongli's team has been recognized by many old experts and helped her design drawings for free.
Everyone brainstormed, and on the embroidery cloth, in addition to the traditional "yellow plum picking" pattern, modern decorations such as pearls, sequins, and gems were also embellished; the embroidery skills were not only the traditional double-sided picking needles and hiding the thread ends, but also French embroidery. Embroidered on the reverse side, three-dimensional dress.
Hong Li introduced an embroidery work "Crossing the Boundary Ridge" as an example, "70% of the techniques of'Huangmei Picking Flowers', and the remaining 30% are combined with techniques such as French embroidery, while also incorporating Huangmei's cultural elements of Huangmei opera. "
The young entrepreneur believes that blindly protecting traditional culture is not feasible. The traditional culture must be preserved only by passing on the skill of "pickling yellow plum blossoms." It is necessary to innovate carriers, open up the market, increase the added value of products, and increase income.
"Huangmei Picking Flowers+" began to explore the addition of new carriers such as sachets, bags, fans, clothes, plaques, and celebrity portraits to integrate with modern fashion.
A friend who loves "Huangmei picking flowers" contacted Hong Li and asked her to customize the home decoration of the whole house with a capital of 300,000 yuan, which gave her great entrepreneurial confidence.
Huangmei is a big working county, and there are more left-behind women. Almost everyone has the foundation of "Huangmei picking flowers".
With the support of local authorities, Hongli closely integrated the "Huangmei Picking Flowers+" project with the manual skills training of left-behind and impoverished women in local rural areas, using order-based training, order-based design, and order-based sales as the model.
In just six months, the company has 3 poverty alleviation workshops and studios.
At the “Huangmei Picking Flowers + Women's Micro-Workshop” presentation in Sunba Village, Shanshan Township, the villagers were impressed by the exquisite work of “Huangmei Picking Flowers” displayed by Hong Li, and they all gave their thumbs up.
At the presentation meeting, Hong Li promised: "Women Micro Workshop" implements piece-rate wages and flexible working hours; after training, ordinary women can master basic crafts; ordinary embroiderers can increase income by about 2,000 yuan per month, and they can find employment at their door... …This has greatly attracted the villagers, and the "Micro Workshop" ushered in the first batch of embroidered women.
"In the beginning, I only embroidered a leaf, a small flower, and now I can fly a needle on a thin ball fan with a diameter of nearly 40 cm." The 39-year-old embroiderer Hong Yingchun is Hong Li’s apprentice and settled in. For the two-year-old daughter, she took out the crochet stitches and stitches, and carefully routed and threaded the hooks on the tuan fan. Within a while, a golden lotus flower that symbolized happiness jumped out.
Hong Yingchun is a poverty-stricken household with a registered card. She had heard of the "Huangmei Picking Flowers + Women's Micro Workshop" project early on, but she was afraid that she would not be able to take the time to bring her baby, and she was afraid that she would not be ashamed of doing well, and she was even more worried about doing it. Can it be sold?
"Master Hong Li is patient, careful, and teaches hands-on, so he can earn money at home." Out of trust in Hong Li, Hong Yingchun reported his name and joined friends with him. "Thank you Master Hong Li, not only Living "Huangmei picking flowers" has saved us even more."
At present, Hongli's company has an annual income of more than 1 million yuan, providing jobs for nearly a hundred poor left-behind rural women in the local area.
At the 6th Hubei Women and Children's Service Industry Expo and 2020 "Chufeng Excellent Products" Women's Poverty Alleviation Industry Online Exhibition held in November last year, the company's "Huangmei Picking Flowers" series of products won the "Top Ten Poverty Alleviation Products" ".
Under the leadership of Hong Li, the popularity of "Yellow Plum Picking Flowers" has continued to increase.
Now the studio has signed more than 100 embroiderers, and everyone calls this young female college student "Hong embroiderers".
The company has also established partnerships with Hubei University of Technology and many other universities, and reached cooperation with many factories in other places such as Beijing.
The traditional "yellow plum picking flowers" was rejuvenated and attracted many young people to come to check in.
"'Huangmei picking flowers' collides with French embroidery techniques, and then integrates fresh elements such as national trends. The patterns are both beautiful and fashionable." Wu Linfeng, a student from the Fashion Design Department of Wuhan Textile University, came to study for a month and was able to design small patterns independently. .
On July 9 this year, 12 college students from the School of Law and Business of Hubei University of Economics came from Wuhan to listen to the history of "Huangmei Picking Flowers".
University student Shang Shuang said that she is a fan of "Huangmei Picking Flowers". As early as at the Wuhan Textile University's exhibition of "Huangmei Picking Flowers", she was deeply attracted when she saw the work of "Huangmei Picking Flowers". Students who are fascinated by traditional culture come to feel its charm.
Not long ago, the relevant departments planned to invite Internet celebrities to bring the goods, and Hong Li politely declined this plan.
"The traditional'huangmei picking flowers' relies on pure handwork, which is both a selling point and a difficulty. The pure handwork is time-consuming and laborious, and there are only a handful of people who can pick flowers, which makes the output unable to keep up." This young entrepreneur has a keen business instinct.
She introduced that a 45×45cm flower hanging ornament costs 400-500 yuan, and the industrial embroidery on the market is less than 100 yuan. "No matter how many people there are, it is difficult to withstand the impact of modern industrial products."
At present, she is designing the semi-finished products of the flowers, moving the flowers to the production line, and manually designing and customizing them.
She also plans to build more training bases for "Huangmei picking flowers", holding a flower picking creative skills competition, and inviting experts from hometown and college students to participate in the competition, "to tap design talents, let more people know about Huangmei picking flowers, and give it a new lease of life" .
Li Xiongfeng, China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Lei Yu Source: China Youth Daily