Xiang Embroidery

Centred on Changsha, Xiang embroidery developed from Hunan's folk needlework into a full craft tradition, ranked with the Suzhou, Guangdong and Sichuan styles as one of China's four great embroideries. The wealth of embroidered fragments unearthed from the Mawangdui Han tombs in 1972 attests to more than two thousand years of Hunan stitching. It entered the first national ICH list in 2006 under traditional arts.

Xiang embroidery uses blended stitches to layer silk into lifelike gradations of colour, and its distinctive "ruffled-hair stitch" renders the bristling fur of lions and tigers; its subjects span landscapes, figures, flowers, birds and beasts, earning the praise that "Xiang embroidery leads the world."

Xiang embroidery carries the aesthetic and silk-craft traditions of the Hunan region and forms an important branch of Chinese embroidery art, holding real value for the study of local folk art and cultural exchange.

Xiang embroidery works and historic pieces can be seen at institutions such as the Hunan Museum.