Qingyang City is located at the easternmost of Gansu Province and located at the Loess Plateau of central and upper reaches of Yellow River. It is at the intersection of three provinces: Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia. It was called Beidi Prefecture in the Qin Dynasty and changed to Qingzhou in the Sui Dynasty and Qingyang Prefecture in the Song Dynasty. Qingyang sachet is also called "Chuchu" and is an object of folk custom in Qingyang.
Qingyang sachet is a handcraft that combines three-dimensional shaping and plane embroidery, featuring simple and elegant shapes. According to manufacture techniques, they can be divided to "chuchu-type", "thread-type", "three-dimensional embroidery type" and "two-dimensional embroidery type". "Chuchu-type" is also called "thread hidden embroidery". Its feature is to hide threads - the best one presents the shape and spirit without revealing threads. The process includes: inception of creative ideas, choosing and cutting materials, deciding the shape, and so on. The embroidery of Qingyang sachet requires a lot of techniques. It requires spiritual similarity instead of perspective, proportion or image. It exaggerates, transforms and highlights the head and body. Warding off evil spirits and praying for happiness are the everlasting theme for folk culture in Qingyang. Expressing the ideal through objects by metaphor and symbolism is the major means of expression for Qingyang sachet.
Thread-type sachet is "a pentagon lozenge" rice dumpling made of varicolored threads. Its techniques include folding the shell, blending the color of threads, winding threads to shape, finishing (i.e. connect finished products of thread and hang on colored tassel). Sachet made in such a way could be worn on the body, hung at the door or given to others as a gift, carrying the wish for harmony and safety.
The three-dimensional embroidery sachet covers a large range of content and shapes and has nearly 400 varieties, including single-side pendants and accessories, double-side pendants and accessories, stereotype pendants, and exhibition articles. Its manufacture process includes: designing the shape, embroidery, colored dying, sewing and fishing and the steps include: reviewing the template, making the template, expanding the cloth on the ring, putting on the template, embroidery, deciding the outline, finishing, dressing up and so on. The product emphasizes spiritual but not shape similarity.
The two-dimensional embroidery type sachet has solemn, imposing and elegant style. The techniques include broken thread, combined thread, pick-up, plain stitching, braided stitching, fine stitching, elaborate stitching, opposite stitching, repeated stitching, gold thread winding, gold touching, gold circling and so on.