Embroidered Peking Opera Make-Ups

Fabulous Peking Opera make-ups fascinate people from home and abroad. Long Xiu Ge, an embroidery shop in Dong Fang Gu Yuan Art Market, converts this great art into magic embroidery works.

The owner of Long Xiu Ge, Ms Long, tells me that she has designed over 100 make-ups of different styles. In order to do the best make-ups, she has immersed herself in the world of Peking Opera. For example, she has not missed a single Peking Opera show on TV in the past few years.

Embroidered paintings featuring vivid figures and animals attracted me the most. Take one embroidery depicting cicadas and sparrows. It had extremely delicate needlework. You can even see the replicated seals of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Xuantong clearly.

Another embroidery work I liked featured fishes swimming in the pool. The lifelike fishes seemed to jump out of the embroidery cloth.

It takes months or even years for an experienced worker to accomplish just one piece of embroidery work. Ms. Long says that most of her workers are between the ages of 40 to 70, as many youngsters today don't have patience to do this time-consuming work.

The price of embroideries varies a lot, from RMB 500 to RMB 50,000.

What I appreciate:
Unique design, excellent craft

What customers appreciate:
Handmade embroideries representing Chinese culture