Chinese Handicrafts --- Silk Embroidery

It is one of the most famous Chinese embroideries. It is the general name for the embroidered products in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. There emerged many embroidery workshops and embroidery markets in the Song Dynasty. Up to Ming and Qing Dynasties, its embroidery flourished for a time. Su embroidery is famous for its elaborateness and elegance. It used to be made by the unmarried daughters of noble families and so it is also called "boudoir embroidery".

Its characteristics include elegant colors, fine needling, the application of halo dyeing and the vacant lines left between colors. Its needling skills include looping needling, even needling, net embroidering, etc. Later, they created double-faced embroidery which is used to embroider screen, palace fan, handkerchief, scarf and window lattice. Its pattern themes vary from "the celebration of harvest", "wealthy family", "dragon and phoenix symbolic of propitiousness", "well-being through hundreds of years" to "abundance in grains and happiness in life", "richness in fruits", "happy encounter", and "twin lotus flowers".

The embroidered pictures have "the Hunting Picture", "the Scroll of Plum and Crane", and "the Scroll of Osmanthus Under the Moon" as their themes. There are many other embroidered products, such as dress and adornments, beddings and ornaments attached to the waist.