[Explanation] Cross-stitching, braided embroidery, flat embroidery... 12 kinds of embroidery methods are flexibly changed, and the colors are skillfully matched.
Li Shaoyu, a representative of the National People's Congress and inheritor of Miao embroidery, led five embroiderers to sit in front of the embroidery stand and embroidered the Miao embroidery work "Great Rivers and Mountains" stitch by stitch.
In Chongqing Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County, the "world Miao township", Miao embroidery has a long history.
Miao embroidery is a skill that the daughters of the Miao family must learn. Li Shaoyu has been learning this traditional embroidery skill from her grandmother and mother since she was 8 years old.
Li Shaoyu said that before the Miao girls got married, the mother had to embroider a dowry for her daughter by herself, which took more than ten years.
Whether it is clothing or headwear, the craftsmanship is very complicated and the workmanship is very fine. Every piece of embroidery and every pattern contains the mother's best wishes for her daughter's future life.
[Concurrent] Li Shaoyu, deputy to the National People's Congress
When Miao girls get married, they will embroider a set of dowry, which is a set of wedding dresses.
It is equivalent to when the mother gave birth to the daughter, the mother started to do it, and then the daughter grew older, and the daughter continued to do it. It takes many years to embroider a dress like this, and embroider a wedding dress.
[Commentary] "It is better to be a migrant worker in a foreign country than to do your own Miao embroidery work", this is a popular saying in Pengshui Miao Village, and it is also a true portrayal of the status of Miao embroidery at that time.
In everyone's eyes, Miao embroidery, which is only used as a living decoration, cannot bring additional economic income, so fewer and fewer people learn it.
As the intangible inheritor of Miao embroidery, Li Shaoyu was worried that this ancient embroidery technique would be lost, so she and her husband searched for a way to not only inherit the Miao embroidery skills, but also lead everyone to become rich.
Li Shaoyu and her husband established a Miao embroidery handicraft development company. They set up fixed teaching points in various towns and streets in the county to train Miao embroidery skills for free, and signed a long-term product recycling agreement with the trainees.
[Concurrent] Li Shaoyu, deputy to the National People's Congress
While inheriting this Miao embroidery, it has indeed driven many left-behind women at home, those mothers with children and those mothers who cannot travel far to make money.
I learn the craft here. After I learn it, some will work here, and some will be taken back to do it. Taking it back to do it is flexible employment.
[Explanation] Since 2016, Li Shaoyu has trained more than 2,000 embroidered women, providing a relatively fixed source of income for a large number of left-behind women who take care of their families.
[Concurrent] Embroidery Mother Luo Xiaoli
We are taking students at home and have no income, and my husband works outside.
Learn a little craft with Teacher Li (Li Shaoyu), and you can also subsidize a little household. I also like to learn embroidery.
[Explanation] Since he was elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress, Li Shaoyu's investigation found that although intangible cultural heritage poverty alleviation has achieved certain results, there are few creative products and a small customer audience, making it difficult to increase sales.
Li Shaoyu said that she has the responsibility and obligation to inherit the Miao embroidery skills and develop the Miao embroidery industry well.
[Concurrent] Li Shaoyu, deputy to the National People's Congress
As a representative of the National People's Congress, I really have this responsibility, I have this obligation to inherit and develop Miao Embroidery well, and how to make it bigger and stronger, to encourage more rural left-behind women to participate in and get employment Entrepreneurship this one.
[Explanation] This year's National Two Sessions, Li Shaoyu will submit a "Suggestion on Strengthening the Effectiveness of Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection".
In her proposal, she pointed out that it is necessary to establish the concept of bringing intangible cultural heritage into modern life, and on the basis of adhering to the tradition and not losing its essence, promote the ancient Miao embroidery into modern life, and show new brilliance.
Reporter Xiao Jiangchuan reports from Chongqing
Responsible editor: [Lu Yan]