Lu Juying was born in Zhenhu Town by Tai Lake in 1950, which is located in the west of Suzhou, with a journey of dozens of kilometers, and it will take half an hour from Zhenhu to Suzhou now. But it was not easy to go to Suzhou when Lu Juying was a little girl, because no highway was available at that time, and the people had to rock the boat along the snaky river, typically which will last most of the day every time. The small town was still influenced by Suzhou culture although it is far away from it, and Suzhou Embroidery was a kind of skill for the local to make a living, even the good products were sent to Beijing directly. Lu Juying grew up in this beautiful town of the lower reaches of Yangtze River, she has always loved embroidery since she was a little kid, so she learned Suzhou Embroidery from her elders.
Lu Juying was ingenious and she could embroider the good products at any early age, which wins the fame for her in Suzhou. Master of Suzhou Embroidery Gu Wenxia and Wang Zhushi also liked her very much and personally taught Suzhou Embroidery skills to her. So embroidery level of Lu Juying was greatly improved after she got the real essence from the two masters. And the merchants of Suzhou Embroidery from Shanghai and Beijing also specially come to Zhenhu to buy her products.
But Lu Juying didn’t forget her native sisters after she became rich, she introduced Zhenhu embroidery to the large cities such as Suzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou by means of her fame and marketing channel. In addition, she also has cultivated a group of talents in Suzhou Embroidery, including the famous rising stars: Lu Meihong,, etc. The local government specially issued the Letter of Commendation to Lu Juying, praising her to be a hard-working leader of rich.
The trends of reform and opening were spread everyway, the guests from Guangdong and Hong Kong also invited Lu Juying and Lu Meihong to hold Suzhou embroidery exhibition. During this period, many excellent products of Lu Juying were collected by the local buyers. But the sadness left in the little girl Lu Meihong was that their exquisite Suzhou Embroidery products were stolen by the unscrupulous Hong Kong businessmen. A burnt child dreads the fire. Ten years later, Lu Juying and Lu Hongmei came to Shenzhen again with an invitation from Shenzhen International Cultural Industry Fair.
Lu Juying became a well-known person, even the newspaper from the Central had an interview with her. The following is an article published on People’s Daily:
People’s Daily: Ingenuity of the women from the lower reaches of Yangtze River is fully embodied by 8000 female embroidery workers of Zhenhu Town of Wuxian, Suzhou. They emerge the art of painting into the traditional Suzhou Embroidery technique, and continue to create the new products, making the traditional handicraft play its own role in the market economy times. Income of the embroidery products of the town reaches more than one billion Yuan every year, also a large amount of foreign currency is obtained.
Zhenhu Town is located beside Tai Lake, which is the major birthplace and production place of Suzhou Embroidery, one of the four most famous embroideries of China. There is only a population of more than 20,000 in the town, but 8000 women are engaged in embroidery. A saying like Each family has the female embroider workers and embroidery workshop lasted here for a long time. Early in the Spring and Autumn Period, embroidery here was recorded. After Song Dynasty, the female embroidery workers embroidered the dragon robes for the royal, hence all the little girls do phoenix embroidery and the old women do the dragon embroidery was come down from generation to generation.
Embroidery Association and Embroidery Research Society were established by the town since the reform and opening to outside, to organize the female embroidery workers to create the new technique, also study the art of painting for the purpose of organically combining the painting with embroidery, which makes the embroidery products to be developed from the original birds & animals and all sorts of flowers to the landscape & portraits highly difficult. The fourth generation of the master of Suzhou Embroidery Shen Shou has developed the crewed embroidery, which laid the basis for Zhenhu embroidery to venture the overseas. (Zhou Lanyuan, from People’s Daily, 2nd edition of Nov. 12, 1999)
At present for the sightseeing in Suzhou, a street of embroidery products beside Tai Lake also is a scenic spot can’t miss besides the beautiful Suzhou Gardens. In Suzhou Embroidery Museum of Zhenhu, two-sided embroidered redwood screen Twelve Girls of Jinling from Lu Juying is considered as its valuable treasure.
As the famous folk master of Suzhou Embroidery of China, innumerable products of Lu Juying are prized. And her products are displayed in Great Hall of the People and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or presented to the international friends as the state gift. Lu Juying is 60 this year, but she is still vigorous in mind and body.
盧菊英繡《五牛圖》贈送尚比亞總統班達閣下
