More than 30 years ago, at a rural household at Zhenhu Wuzhong County, an 8-year-old girl named Yao Jianping took a tiny needle from her mother’s hand and started her career of embroidery. Since embroidery is local custom in rural areas, she supposed that she would become a maid worker for embroidery, which was commonly acknowledged as a girl’s must-go way for living whether she likes it or not. Even in other rural parts in China, sewing is a necessary skill and even a lifetime career for a girl.

Zhenhu is the main source of Jiangsu Embroidery, and Yao Jianping had a good time since her childhood in this neighborhood. Her favorite snail, asparagus and limpid water in Taihu Lake contributed a lot to her gifted ingenuity. At the age of six or seven, she was already able to imitate her mother and sister-in-law on presenting delicate flowers. In her adolescence, she began to learn skills from every possible teacher in every household. Such an ordinary embroidery maid born in rural areas as Yao has now promoted the traditional Jiangsu Embroidery to a new horizon with her skillful sewing and become the representative heir of intangible cultural heritage at national level.