In old China, girls, like her mothers, enjoyed embroidering "dudou”(a piece of cloth covering the belly and ailing as woman's underwear) for themselves. The bride-to-be would embroider as her dowry, quilt covers with patterns of flying dragons and dancing phoenixes, and pillow cases with mandarin ducks, as she looked forward to a happy marriage.
Mothers would embroider dragon or tiger shoes and red belly—covers (hongdudou) for their little children, since they were believed to be able to protect the children from evil and diseases.
Whereas some women lived from the proceeds of embroidering, daughters from rich families would embroider, but as a way to pass time. This led to the creation of various styles: “Popular embroidery,”“boudoir embroidery" and“palace e
mbroidery."
During the Ming Dynasty, the springing up of Kunqu Opera promoted the business because costumes had to be embroidered. The city started to be known as the City of Embroidery during the Qing Dynasty. The fine needlework is so delicate and intricate that men considered such work could only be done by women.
An Embroidery Research Institute has been created, which is nestled in Huanxiu Shanzhuang, one of the nine Suzhou Gardens on the United Nations World Heritage list. The staff is composed entirely of women.
If the works produced in the Institute are considered as highbrow art, those made in the suburban towns are more commercialized. Zhenhu, in Suzhou New District, is a small town with a population of 20,000, yet it has 8,000 women who embroider, many of whom have set up workshops on the 1,670-meter-long Embroider Street in the town. Husbands or brothers are often engaged in the mounting, packaging and marketing of the works and, according to local government there are more than 11,D00 people involved in the embroidery business amounting to nearly 66 percent of the labor force of the town.
