Shu Embroidery

Shu embroidery, also called Chuan embroidery, is a traditional needlework centered on Chengdu in Sichuan; together with Suzhou, Hunan, and Guangdong embroidery it is one of China's four great schools, growing alongside the region's ancient sericulture and silk weaving and renowned since the Han.

Its stitching is precise and even, the floss bright and flat, with twelve broad categories and over a hundred stitch types such as shading, laying, rolling, and cutting stitches; it excels at carp, hibiscus, pandas, and other Sichuan motifs, seeking variety in stitch and truth in color.

Shu embroidery concentrates the refined craft of Ba-Shu silk culture; it entered the first national intangible-heritage list in 2006 and is an important vehicle for studying traditional Chinese embroidery and sericulture.

Shu embroidery can be seen taught and displayed in Chengdu's craft institutes, museums, and creative quarters, where watching needlework in progress best conveys its delicacy.