Embroidery of Manchu ethnic group

Featuring great practicality, Manchu embroidery is widely seen in the culture’s daily necessities and clothes, and its finest expressions can be found decorating pillows. The art not only promotes the original Manchu aesthetic values and lifestyles, but also absorbs the essence of different embroidery schools, including the Suzhou, Sichuan and Guangdong styles.

Manchu embroidery, mostly done on gauze or satin, puts a great emphasis on symmetrical structures and primarily depicts patterns such as animals, flowers and figures to convey auspicious meanings. Its ingenious composition presents high artistic levels.

For instance, an outstanding school of this craft, the Jinzhou Manchu embroidery in Northeast China’s Liaoning province, is popular among local rural Manchu communities. It not only decorates articles for daily use, but also adds colors to festive supplies. Drawing inspirations from the Han Chinese style embroidery and paintings, it preserves many original Manchu cultural elements, including rustic styles and patterns reflecting Shamanistic culture such as “life trees” and “grannies”, two totems of ancestor-worship.