Xuan paper, a high quality rice paper made in Xuancheng or Jingxian of Anhui Province, is especially good for traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. Embroidery is an art of decorating textiles with needle and thread. When the two combine together, a unique craftwork emerges.

Xuan Paper

Embroidery with specially dyed threads on Chinese Xuan paper that is based on Chinese ink-and-wash paintings is different from that on silk or cloth, and can effectively cope with the wrinkling that usually occurs on silk textiles.

Embroidery

It is also said to be more impressive than normal Chinese paintings.

Since paper is delicate and breaks easily, skilled craftsmen who can better understand the Chinese painting art and have trained for two or three years can qualify to embroider on Xuan paper, according to Gu Yuchun, who does embroidery on Xuan paper.

Embroidery on Xuan Paper

When the embroidery is finished, it needs to be mounted as a vertical scroll for the convenience of preservation.

Gu’s ancestors had mastered the craft of embroidering on paper in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), but this kind of embroidery was only used for the clan’s sacrificial ceremonies and never taught to the persons of another clan, later, this craft came to a standstill because of the wars.

It was revived by Gu Yuchun in the 1980s, who developed this craft with his excellent skills. At present, Gu has gained two national patents and a lot of his work has been collected by domestic and overseas collectors.

To better protect this craft, the local government is about to deem it as intangible cultural heritage to attract more attention from the public.

Gu Yuchun and his creations

When one steps into Gu Yuchun’s studio, one finds his embroidery, a Chinese ink-and-wash painting on Xuan paper with boards around to fix it.

“I have spent three months to do this embroidery, just one more week and I will finish it.” Gu said.

Gu’s work is hung around his studio. Landscapes, human figures, birds, flowers and animals even calligraphy are vividly presented in his embroidery.

Gu Yuchun and his works

At the very beginning, Gu embroidered Chinese ink-and-wash paintings onto cloths which were interweaved by threads. Since the cloths are smooth, they reflect the light that degrades the artistic feeling of the embroidery. For this reason, Gu tries to work on Xuan paper, however, since they are too thin, the papers are easy to be split when they have too many pinholes.

Gu made many efforts to solve this problem; finally he combined the embroidery with Chinese painting and calligraphy arts and successfully registered it as a national patent in 2005.

With the passage of the time, this unique art has been gradually recognized in the market and won the favor of the collectors both at home and abroad.

Further, it has been presented to the foreign guests as a gift representing the culture of Jiangxi Province.