Guangzhou Embroidery (Guangxiu)

Guangzhou embroidery is a traditional needlework of the Guangzhou area. Together with Chaozhou embroidery it forms the Cantonese 'Yuexiu' school — one of China's four famous embroidery traditions — with roots in the Lingnan textile arts of the Tang and Song eras.

It is known for densely filled compositions, vivid color and varied stitches, favoring subjects such as a hundred birds, flowers and dragons-and-phoenixes, rich in layering and ornament.

Guangzhou embroidery is national-level intangible cultural heritage and a major representative of Lingnan decorative and export art.

In Guangzhou you can admire fine Guangxiu pieces and live demonstrations at decorative-arts museums and intangible-heritage exhibition spaces.