Traditional embroidery draws cross-Strait ties closer

Wu Wanjing still remembers her first Xiabu — meaning "cloth for summer" in Chinese — embroidery piece.

It was a complete rendition of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, a masterpiece by the famous painter Huang Gongwang during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

The original painting was burned into two parts and preserved separately at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou and the Palace Museum in Taipei. Reconnecting this artwork with Xiabu embroidery, bridging the two sides across the Taiwan Strait, made the project even more meaningful for her.

Wu and her team of embroiderers completed the landscape piece using 37 different types of silk thread, which took almost a year to complete.

"In a traditional Chinese landscape painting, the simple but elegant colors are often the hardest to achieve. We had to blend dozens of colors to recreate the shading effects," the 37-year-old explained. "Fortunately, we made it. That work won a gold medal in a competition held by the China National Arts and Crafts Society in 2010."