The Taoyuan Embroidery Exhibition kicks off in the Hunan Museum

On March 16, the first original large exhibition jointly hosted by the Hunan Museum and the Taoyuan County government , Blossoms in fairyland -Exhibition of the Taoyuan embroidery in the Qing dynasty and the republic of China period, which is one of the series exhibition-“Taoyuan Craftsmanship” ,  kicks off in the artistic hall of the Hunan Museum.

Officials from Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Cultural Heritage, and other cultural and heritage agencies and institutions are invited to attend the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony kicks off in the distinctive Taoyuan singing performance,"A fair place with outstanding people for thousands of years".

At the opening ceremony, Chen Xuliang, deputy director of the Hunan Museum, Chen Zhiwen, deputy secretary of Taoyuan County Committee, and Chen Yuanping, member of the party group and deputy director of Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, and director of the cultural heritage of Hunan deliver speeches successively. 

As the first work of “Hunan Regional Civilization Series” exhibition hosted by the Hunan museum, the series exhibition of “Taoyuan Craftsmanship” starts with the Taoyuan embroidery and wood carving in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period, including two parts: embroidery and wood carving. It is the first exhibition jointly hosted by the Hunan Museum and the local government. Blossoms in Fairyland—Exhibition of the Taoyuan Embroidery in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period carefully selected more than 170 pieces (sets) of Taoyuan embroideries from public and private collections in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period. The Taoyuan embroidery fully demonstrates delicate skills, fancy shape and theme, and unique artistic characteristics of embroidery. The unique features of a local environment always give special characteristics to its inhabitants. The people in Taoyuan county has created unique Taoyuan culture in Hunan. 

From three aspects of the Taoyuan embroidery’s technological achievements, artistic achievements, and its daily use in people’s life, the exhibition has shown the unique charm of the Taoyuan embroidery in multiple combinations from various angles. The exhibition has underlined the artistic achievements of the Taoyuan embroidery from five subjects of character, auspicious animals, auspicious birds, Bogu( auspicious objects), and landscape, and the exhibition also interprets the essence of embroidery techniques from the special skill and stitch. In this way, we can make our own contribution to restore the ancient skill of embroidery, stimulate its vitality, help it embark on the road of individualized traditional craft revitalization, and will be dedicated to the promotion of the intangible cultural heritage for building Hunan Province with great culture developement. 
  
Blossoms in Fairyland-Exhibition of the Taoyuan Embroidery in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period includes three chapters: “Exquisite embroidery skill”, “Extraordinary aesthetic taste” and “Colorful life with embroidery”. These three chapters demonstrate Taoyuan Embroidery in different aspects.

Chapter I. Exquisite embroidery skill: 
In this chapter, the “famous embroidery techniques” unit mainly focuses on the relationship among the Taoyuan embroidery, Suzhou embroidery and Yue embroidery; The units of “ancient embroidery stitch” and the “diversified embroidery stitch” have introduced the origin of the Taoyuan embroidery stitch and techniques, and its rich and diversified embroidery stitch and superb embroidery skills; the unit of “Hunan embroidery techniques” demonstrates the profound influence of the Taoyuan embroidery in the Xiang embroidery, one of the four famous embroideries, through the introduction of mao needle, plain stitch, and can needle, which have profound relationships with contemporary Xiang embroidery in the Taoyuan embroidery, and other elements, such as poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seal cutting, so as to further reveal the status and important value of the Taoyuan embroidery in the Hunan embroidery.

Chapter II. “Extraordinary aesthetic taste” : 

This chapter selects representative embroidery works in terms of theme, composition, shape, color, style, etc. to present the remarkable attainments of the Taoyuan embroidery in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period. Meanwhile, works about characters, auspicious animals and auspicious birds are highlighted in this chapter. In the three highlighted displays, the display of characters is subdivided into 3 groups: “Buddhists and Immortals”, “Traditional Opera Characters” and “People in Daily Life”. The unit of Auspicious Animals displays “Auspicious Lion”, “Auspicious Beast with fangs” and “Various Animals” to show various auspicious animals of the Taoyuan embroidery. The unit of Auspicious Birds displays “Phoenix and Peony”, “ Gorgeous Golden pheasant”, “Waterfowl around the Lotus Pond”, “Colorful Peacock”, “Magpie and Rooster” and “Fish, frog and insect” to exhibit the colourful flowers and birds of the Taoyuan embroidery.

Chapter III. “Embroidery makes life better”: 

The Taoyuan embroideries are mostly household practical products, which had been widely used in people's lives and had been very popular among people. There are some embroidery products used for religious belief, life rituals, entertainment and costumes, etc. This chapter shows the extensive use of the Taoyuan embroidery in people's life through three groups of “goods for daily use”, “popular clothes” and “rituals”, so as to demonstrate that Taoyuan embroidery has long been trusted and loved by the people. 

Cultural designs in regions with special characteristics provide visitors with rich experience of educational activities.

Based on the exhibition, the museum has provided the people with more comprehensive and more novel interpretation of the Taoyuan embroidery around the exhibits. By displaying the folk connotation of the Taoyuan embroidery, it has guided visitors to learn more about the skills of the Taoyuan embroidery, and feel the craftsman’s spirit of the folk craftsman and the emotional resonance of collectors. The exhibition has designed different educational activities for visitors at different age, showing the unique artistic effects and strong local cultural features of the Taoyuan embroidery in multiple dimensions. As for the display design, pink and luminous green, the classic representative colors of the Taoyuan embroidery, are used throughout the exhibition, and a large number of colored threads are used throughout the exhibition hall, which connects the whole exhibition hall with different shapes, fully showing the features of embroidery.