Chao xiu, Chaozhou embroidery
One branch of Guangdong embroidery, and the one that pads the ground so the pattern stands out; the relief runs as high as fifteen centimetres.
Pronunciation cháo xiù｜Craft and performance｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
Chao embroidery belongs with the Guangdong school, and what sets it apart from Suzhou, Hunan and Sichuan work is the padding: cotton or paper is worked under the ground, the pattern is raised on it and then stitched, and the highest points reach fifteen centimetres and give under the thumb.
There are more than a hundred stitches; the ones in common use include the pictographic, the brocade-figure, the flower-form, the bamboo-weave and the pine-seed stitches. The two-needle dragon scale is Chao embroidery’s own: gold thread is coiled and tacked into discs smaller than a drawing-pin head, disc over disc, and the lower edge of each scale will lift.
Where it is used
Not an object for a cabinet. It lives where rites are held: the robe of a god, the skirt of a bride, the curtain of a stage, the hanging panel of an ancestral hall. The repertory follows — dragon and phoenix, the qilin, the crane, peony, flower vase, figures out of legend. In 2006 Guangdong embroidery, Chao and Guangzhou work together, was entered on the first national list of intangible heritage.
Words easily confused
Chao embroidery adds thread to cloth; drawn work pulls threads out of it and joins what is left into an open pattern. Both belong to the embroidery tradition here, each with its own market, one for export and one at home, and in speech they are run together — in writing they are kept apart.
Read next: Chao embroidery: the layer underneath.
Same group: gold-thread embroidery, drawn work, porcelain mosaic.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026