Chinese Brocade and Embroidery Blooms Charmingly in Hainan Free Trade Port

The evening of June 28 witnessed the launch of the four-day 2022 (2nd) Hainan Brocade and Embroidery World Culture Week in Hainan Free Trade Port of southern China. This event aims to forge the culture week into an internationally influential platform for the world brocade and embroidery culture exchange and exhibition through a series of wonderful activities, according to Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports of Hainan Province.

In the evening, the fashion show of “Clothing under the Sun” presented the national intangible cultural heritage projects of Yunjin (Yun brocade), Songjin (Song brocade) and Lijin (Li brocade) through the splendid costumes with fashion trend and traditional cultural charm. The show, combined with the international fashion style, predominant color, displays the vigor and vitality of Hainan Lijin, and makes the public feel the charming glamour of the intangible cultural heritage of Hainan.

Hainan Li brocade has a history of development for more than 3,000 years. Its skill is the oldest cotton textile dyeing and embroidery technology in China and even in the whole world, known as the “living fossil” of China’s textile industry. In 2009, Li brocade was inscribed on the first batch of UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

As one of the important activities of the Hainan Brocade and Embroidery World Culture Week, with the “Brocade and Embroidery World” as the theme, the first intangible cultural heritage traditional embroidery printing and dyeing art exhibition in 2022 launched in Haikou. Many excellent intangible cultural heritage projects gathered here from all over China, such as the Zhuangjin (Zhuang brocade) technique, the skills of fish-skin production of Heze ethic group, and Songjin (Song brocade) weaving skills. The representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage live show performances attracted many citizens and tourists to watch and participate actively in the experience.

In addition, the Hainan Brocade and Embroidery World Culture Week also held a series of activities, such as the Hainan Brocade and Embroidery World Culture Week Promotion Conference, the Second Hainan Creative Design Exhibition of Excellent Clothing With Patterns of Li and Miao Ethic Group in 2022, to further promote the excellent traditional culture of Hainan Free Trade Port.

According to the introduction, this culture week, with “inheritance, innovation and to co-create a brocade and embroidery world” as the theme, with Lijin (Li brocade) culture as its core, through fashion performance, boutique exhibitions and other forms to show the charm of brocade and embroidery culture, boosts the construction of Hainan as the centre of international tourism and consumption.

Source: Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports of Hainan Province