Recently, the State Council has announced the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative program list and national intangible cultural heritage representative program extension program list, and Beijing embroidery, as a traditional art, was included.

Beijing embroidery was born to satisfy the demand of the palace, and it is a traditional handicraft art passed down several generations. This skill usually cut cotton cloth, silk and stains of various colors into different shapes, elaborately manufacture a complete pattern by piling and laying those cloth shapes, and then use colorful strings to stitch them.

The skill of Beijing embroidery could be traced back to Liao dynasty, laying a foundation in Yuan dynasty and becoming popular in Ming and Qing dynasties. It is a decorative art by taking natural fiber like cotton, fibre and silk as raw materials and combing different skills such as weaving, stitching and reeling off raw silk from cocoons.

Since Liao dynasty, Beijing embroidery has stopped being the exclusive of the palace but started to be available for the public. In history, there were many palaces setting up special organizations to work on embroidery manufacture.

In Qing dynasty, the palace set up the faculty to promote embroidery skills. Women in the place were fond of embroidering and sold their handicrafts to the folk. During the region period of Qianlong emperor (1736 - 1795), Beijing embroidery reached its most prosperous time. No matter in the folk or the palace, people preferred to wear cloth with embroidery, and the annual consumption was huge.

After a hundred years of development, nowadays, Beijing embroidery has broken the limitations and constrains of traditional skill and has created various new techniques that integrates traditional art and modern styles.

So far, there are mainly two places where you could experience Beijing embroidery: Beijing ART&CRAFTS EMPORIUM and Beijing Golden Peacock Mansion, which often hold activities and workshops to promoting embroidery skills.

Beijing embroidery has not only attracted Chinese people, but also more and more foreigners. Many foreigners come to China to learn this embroidery skill and bring their works to abroad as gifts and souvenirs. Besides, Beijing embroidery has gone abroad actively to attend performance activities and promote Chinese traditional culture.

Beijing Golden Peacock Mansion

Address: No.13 Dongtucheng Road, Chaoyang Diatrict, Beijing

Tel: 010-64294918

Beijing ART&CRAFTS EMPORIUM

Address: No.200 Wangfujing Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing

Tel: 010-65233016