The aunt who "attracted" 8 million with a needle and was attracted by Hermès reached the peak of her life at the age of 60

Holding an embroidery needle, she brought Tibetan and Qiang embroidery from the watchtowers of Qiang Village to the world stage; her bold contrasting colors and aura of patterns attracted the attention of international brands such as Hermès. brand, "attracting gold" of 8 million yuan.

With a pair of skillful hands, she embroidered the Tibetan and Qiang life and everything in the world; she single-handedly took on the mission of intangible inheritance of Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery, and became the first person to apply for the inheritance of Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery. One person, she is Yang Huazhen.

When you walk into a Tibetan and Qiang embroidery shop in the Wenshufang intangible cultural heritage handicraft theme district in Chengdu, you are greeted by a strong atmosphere of Tibetan and Qiang culture.

Thangkas and mandalas with Tibetan characteristics are gorgeous, exquisite and beautiful. The national costumes of the Qiang people are exquisite in craftsmanship and traditional and beautiful. The most attractive ones are the various Tibetan and Qiang embroideries, which are full of vitality and contain all things in the world.

These beautiful handmade embroideries are all made by 18 embroiderers with an average age of over 60 years old.

These 18 embroiderers are masters of weaving and embroidery from Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Half of them are from the Qiang ethnic group and half are from the Tibetan ethnic group. The person who summoned these 18 masters is our protagonist today - Yang Huazhen.

Yang Huazhen was born in Qiang Village in Xiaojin County, Aba Prefecture in June 1960. Her mother is a Jiarong Tibetan and her father is a Qiang. Under the towering, beautiful and dangerous Mordo Mountain, the Jiarong Tibetans and the Qiang have been friendly and intermarried for generations.

Tibetan people believe in Buddhism and mainly use Tibetan weaving and cross-stitch embroidery. Most of the paintings depict Buddhist stories or Bodhisattva images, and the colors are conservative.

The Qiang people worship nature and specialize in Qiang embroidery, which mostly depicts flowers, plants, insects and birds in bright colors. Yang Huazhen’s grandfather was once a nobleman, so her grandmother was able to embroider Thangkas religiously at home and study them with great concentration for many years. The stitching and embroidery work are exquisite.

And this embroidery skill has been passed down from generation to generation. Yang Huazhen is the fourth generation descendant of Tibetan Qiang weaving and embroidery in her family. She has been taught by her mother's words and deeds since she was a child, learning techniques such as spinning threads, weaving molds, and doing cross-stitch embroidery on molds.

When girls from the Qiang Village get married, they have to embroider their own dresses, shoes, socks, headbands, and belts. Because the two ethnic groups have a long history, Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery have become a compulsory course for women in the Qiang Village. Yang Huazhen’s weaving and embroidery is the most special one.

Yang Huazhen, who lives at the foot of the Holy Mountain in Mordo, has a special attachment to the scenery of the Holy Mountain.

In the spring, the white sacred mountains rely on the blue sky and white clouds. At the foot of the mountain, colorful flowers are dotted in the green meadows. These colliding colors appear so harmonious and integrated in the heaven and earth.

When Yang Huazhen was still in elementary school, she was particularly focused on collecting patterns with beautiful meanings or beautiful appearance, and recorded them. If you observe carefully, you can find that the embroidery of Tibetan and Qiang embroidery is unique.

On the old man’s headband, the Tibetan and Qiang embroidery is the pattern of the fairy peach that symbolizes the Shoubinan Mountain. On children's belts, Tibetan and Qiang embroidery is a flower pattern that symbolizes growth.

On the lover’s belt, the Tibetan and Qiang embroidery is a swallow pattern that symbolizes flying together. On women's shoes, the Tibetan and Qiang embroidery is a beautiful and moving auspicious cloud pattern.

Tibetan and Qiang culture is extensive and profound, and patterns can be divided into heaven and earth, men and women, and upper and lower. Each pattern has its own story behind it. Tibetan and Qiang embroidery is a wordless love letter, recorded The Tibetan and Qiang people’s cultural customs, daily life, and good expectations are revealed.

After collecting these patterns, Yang Huazhen used the imagination in her mind to connect the patterns into a painting, and then used the weaving and embroidery methods taught by her mother to embroider the paintings and record these beautiful things.

Sometimes it is embroidered on my brother's shoes, sometimes it is embroidered on my own apron, and sometimes it is embroidered on the accessories of my close friends. Yang Huazhen's focus on recording beautiful things lasted until she grew up.

As she embroidered more and more, people in the Qiang Village knew that Yang Huazhen’s weaving and embroidery skills were good, and she would definitely be a good wife when she got home, so more and more people came to ask for her hand in marriage. Get up, but Yang Huazhen didn't choose anyone.

Until 1979, Yang Huazhen married her classmate Feng Qinglong. Because Feng Qinglong is the only one who doesn't care whether Yang Huazhen's weaving and embroidery skills are good or not, but only cares about whether Yang Huazhen is tired when weaving and embroidering.

As an adult, Yang Huazhen did not continue to record life with weaving and embroidery, but instead became interested in the emerging photography. With her persistent character, she taught herself photography books in Xiaojin County, where supplies were scarce.

And with the support of her husband, she purchased cameras, film and other photography supplies. Yang Huazhen, who has a talent for aesthetics, has also made some achievements in photography technology.

In 1985, Yang Huazhen opened the first and only photo studio in Aba Prefecture that could take artistic photos and wedding photos in Xiaojin County.

As the business of the photo studio gradually boomed, Yang Huazhen also became a local millionaire, but Yang Huazhen was not satisfied with this.

Her photography skills were recognized as excellent, so she passed the exam immediately. From then on, Yang Huazhen came to work in the art and photo department of Aba Daily.

During the 24 years of working in the newspaper, Yang Huazhen not only reported news events, but also used her career to search for more than 500 folk patterns of Tibetan clothing weaving and embroidery, and learned more than 20 ethnic weaving and embroidery techniques.

Such fulfilling photography work allowed Yang Huazhen to turn her love for weaving and embroidery skills into a hobby. The 5.12 Wenchuan earthquake made Yang Huazhen pick up the embroidery needle again and turned her hobby into a hobby. Work.

When she finally returned to Chengdu, these moments captured by the camera became the first-hand information for Chengdu Xinhua News Agency to provide disaster reports to the public.

When one party is in trouble, all parties support, and great love comforts the displaced people in Wenchuan. But it was difficult for the old, weak, women and children who originally lived in the Qiang Village watchtowers to rebuild their homes.

Their whole lives revolve around the watchtowers. The place they depend on for a living is suddenly destroyed. How will they live in the future?

Yang Huazhen, who had lived in a watchtower, had a special understanding of these old sisters who had lost their homes, and suddenly an inspiration flashed through Yang Huazhen's mind.

Qiang Village women can weave and embroider, so why not bring the weaving and embroidery to Chengdu and make some embroidery products for sale?

Firstly, the old sisters can make a living by weaving and embroidery, and secondly, I can organize these weaving and embroidery masters to develop new embroidery products in Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery.

After having this idea, Yang Huazhen immediately discussed it with her family, and her husband, son and mother-in-law all agreed. So Yang Huazhen went through the retirement procedures.

On August 8, 2008, Yang Huazhen, as a representative of Qiang embroidery, was invited to the Nationalities Palace for a live demonstration.

I saw her picking up the cloth at hand, neither swatching nor marking. She only used five-color silk threads to embroider with skillful skills. In a short while, she embroidered a flower. It's double-sided and has no threads.

Experts from the Ministry of Culture discovered that Yang Huazhen’s Qiang embroidery also included some Tibetan embroidery and cross-stitch techniques. They asked Yang Huazhen how many people knew how to weave and embroider like hers. Yang Huazhen said that fewer and fewer people know how to do it now. .

Experts told Yang Huazhen that this skill should not be lost, and asked Yang Huazhen to quickly declare an inheritor. In this way, Yang Huazhen became a national inheritor of Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery.

From the beginning of loving beauty, to now having the responsibility and obligation to inherit Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery, Yang Huazhen is even more proud of the unique national culture she has mastered.

In August, with this pride, Yang Huazhen led 18 old sisters, half Tibetan and half Qiang, to walk out of the mountains and explore the world with embroidery needles in hand.

Yang Huazhen rented a house in Chengdu with her own savings, bought some materials, and came to Chengdu to look for opportunities and markets. But everything is always difficult at the beginning. These old sisters have nothing to say about their weaving and embroidery skills. But the management skills are really not worthy of praise. For half a year, they didn't sell a single piece of embroidery.

Yang Huazhen felt that she could not default on the wages of those companions who accompanied her to work, so she used her savings to pay them as wages. It was not until 2009 that Yang Huazhen established the Tibetan and Qiang Embroidery Garden and officially settled in Wenshu Fang, Chengdu. Only the intangible cultural heritage handicraft theme block has a fixed sales platform.

At that time, there was a French hotel owner who saw the embroidery of the elder sisters in Wenshu Monastery.

Yang Huazhen was very happy that she could finally give an explanation to her elder sisters. However, when calculating the money, she became worried because the embroiderers did not know how to price a piece of embroidery.

The price was calculated based on the material cost of the cloth and the 50 yuan a day wages of the weaver and embroiderer. As a result, the buyer was unhappy. He said no, it would be a loss, so he helped to recalculate it. , their first order had a final transaction price of 380,000 yuan.

As Tibetan and Qiang embroidery becomes more and more famous, it gradually becomes easier to sell. What Yang Huazhen worries about is how to combine ethnic things with fashion to open up the market for young people.

After thinking about it, Yang Huazhen believed that in order to combine tradition with fashion, it is necessary to make practical products with strong practicality.

For example, when embroidering a bag, the bag is usually made of leather. To embroider it, you need to consider the materials and threads, as well as subsequent maintenance.

For another example, the design of self-made embroidery pieces is inconvenient to carry, which can easily put people off, and there is no suitable packaging. This also needs to be further strengthened.

Later, Yang Huazhen thought that embroidering antique screens would be suitable for display in hotels and other places. Small items such as sachets, mobile phone pendants, and small handbags could be embroidered directly. Girls should like these small items.

As the market further opened up, in 2014, the Japanese cosmetics brand Shu Uemura approached Yang Huazhen through a Shanghai public welfare organization, hoping that she would design the product appearance for two of the brand’s upcoming products.

Yang Huazhen, who had never been exposed to product design, was frightened. She specifically asked about the ingredients of the products. After learning that one was mainly green tea and the other contained 8 kinds of plant ingredients, the pattern she created was formed. in mind.

The blooming camellias of the Qiang people symbolize endless life, while the vajra in Tibetan Buddhist culture symbolizes indestructible eternity. The vajra is used to connect 8 kinds of plants, which symbolizes immortal youth.

With her brilliant colors and special meaning, she touched the heart of Shu Uemura’s global creative art director. This creation earned her a licensing fee of 200,000 yuan and a commission fee of 800,000 yuan. Yang Huazhen instantly became a millionaire.

L'Oreal, Starbucks, the Van Gogh Museum, Hermès, Burberry and many other brands have approached Yang Huazhen and asked her to tailor-make ethnic minority clothes for their products.

In a few years, Yang Huazhen received more than 8 million yuan in income. As a result, our Tibetan and Qiang embroidery with rich national characteristics has gone abroad and been displayed in front of the world.

From then on, Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery became Yang Huazhen’s career. She often holds mobile training classes in county-level cities, rural areas, and temples to teach Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery skills.

Yang Huazhen also opened a Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery training class for disabled people. She said she would use her skills to help these disabled people get rid of poverty and become rich.

From 2008 to now, Yang Huazhen has trained more than 3,000 people, enabling some rural women and disabled people to "employ at home and get rich at home."

In order to protect and develop Tibetan embroidery and Qiang embroidery techniques at the same time, Yang Huazhen will go deep into the Tibetan and Qiang people to collect works made using traditional Tibetan and Qiang embroidery techniques when holding lectures and training classes in various places. .

And further organize, repair, integrate and innovate to carry out rescue and protection of Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery skills.

So far, Yang Huazhen’s team has collected more than 600 kinds of Qiang embroidered clothing patterns; more than 920 cross-stitch embroidery pieces, and more than 260 Tibetan wool weaving, linen weaving, and cloth weaving samples.

They also systematically organized and summarized the basic techniques and stitches of Tibetan pattern stitching and embroidery, and edited a number of illustrated "Tibetan and Qiang Weaving and Embroidery Training Materials", which are widely used in training classes across the country. .

Intangible cultural heritage is a treasure scattered among the people. It needs to be picked up one by one and strung together like a string of pearls to form a shining halo. This halo is national culture.

In order for national culture to be better inherited, the inheritance and innovation of intangible cultural heritage is an important task that we have to think about.

Yang Huazhen relies on her unique weaving and embroidery skills and aesthetic height to give new vitality to the intangible cultural heritage of Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery. It is a typical example of allowing national culture to be better inherited.

Today, Yang Huazhen leads her team, not only bringing Tibetan and Qiang embroidery art out of the Qiang Village and taking root in the land of Bashu, but also allowing the flower of national art to bloom on the international stage.

[1] One Painting One Practice Card Stamp Network 2017-01-19

[2] Craftsmen in Time | Tibetan and Qiang weaving and embroidery master Yang Huazhen: with time, hands and heart Weaving Unparalleled Art Sohu.com 2020-10-16

[3] The 100 candidates for the 2020 "China Intangible Cultural Heritage Person of the Year" were announced on China News Network 2020-12-19

[4] Mom has something to say: The national treasure embroiderer who emerged from the Qiang village Sichuan TV 2020-12-23

[5] "Shuttler" Yang Huazhen, using the tip of the needle to talk to Times Global People Network 2021-04-20

[6] Yang Huazhen China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network 2021-05-04

[7] My "inspirational" life. I picked up embroidery needles and started a business at the age of 50. Yang Huazhen made Dashan The traditional craftsmanship here goes to the world Sichuan News 2021-6-01

[8] Colorful Intangible Cultural Heritage You and Me*** Xiangguangming.com 2021-06-10