Stitches from time

Ren Benrong works on embroidery designs in his studio. Photo Provided to China Daily

"Embroidery requires great patience. It takes two months to finish a piece, and it involves complex processes of designing, the matching of colors, and the execution of millions of stitches. An exquisite work may take more than half a year to complete."

For years, Ren worked 18 hours a day to perfect his craft, hands and ears often frozen in the harsh winter. In 1957, he left Hankou for Beijing to study at the new Central Academy of Craft Art.

In his two years in Beijing, Ren soaked up knowledge of traditional Chinese folk customs and deepened his understanding of culture theories. He also did research on imperial costumes in the Forbidden City.

When he returned to Wuhan, he started work with a company that produced theatrical costumes and one of the works he helped produce - eight embroidery pieces of places of interests in Hubei - were selected for display at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

But in the 10-year chaos of the "cultural revolution", his company closed down, and Ren became a boiler worker, shoveling coals into furnaces.

Ren Benrong works on embroidery designs in his studio. Photo Provided to China Daily

Even then, Ren did not give up his art and secretly kept in practice under the cover of night. He also took a risk and went back home, raking through the pile of the ashes left by the Red Guards and salvaging what he could of the destroyed embroidery.

When that dark era finally ended, Ren returned to work at another theatrical costumes company, and slowly realized that there might still be a bright future ahead for Han embroidery.

He kept this vision even after he retired in 1990, and started his quest across Hubei, collecting more than 2,000 samples of Han embroidery, some of which were faded fragments.

Ren then invested his life savings to buy the silks and threads from Suzhou, Jiangsu province and started restoring the most traditional skills of Han embroidery. His works are now collected at the Wuhan Museum and are often given as cultural gifts from the State to distinguished foreign visitors.

In 2008, Han embroidery was listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage of China and Ren was acknowledged as a living inheritor of the traditional art. In August last year, with the full support from the local government, Ren was allocated a large rent-free studio to continue his work.

Ren hopes to establish a Han embroidery museum, and publish a book that summarizes the skills and knowledge so more people will understand the ancient art.

"I gave my life to embroidery because I respect my ancestors, the tradition and the history, it is in every stitch of my work," he says. But there is one thing that places him apart from past masters. Ren has decided to pass on his skills to his daughters and granddaughters.

Contact the writer at wangru@chinadaily.com.cn.