Chaozhou Embroidery (Chaoxiu)

Chaoxiu is a major school of Cantonese embroidery, one of China's four great embroidery traditions, with over a thousand years of history and motifs of dragons, phoenixes, flowers, birds, beasts and aquatic figures. In 2006 it was inscribed, as 'Cantonese embroidery (Chaozhou embroidery)', on the first batch of national ICH.

Its signature is the raised, padded gold-couched stitch: the outline is first built up on the ground cloth with cotton and paper, then couched over with gold and silver thread so the design rises in glittering relief, using stitches such as the 'two-needle lock', 'three-needle' and 'four-needle padding'.

Chaoxiu adorns deity robes, opera costumes, ceremonial goods and household pieces, a material expression of Chaoshan custom, belief and taste; today brands such as Mingrui have carried it into bridal and evening wear, giving it new life.

Fine Chaoxiu work can be admired in the embroidery houses and museums of the Chaozhou old town.