Under the harbor, no matter where you go to the village, you can see plump and beautiful girls, simple and dignified women, and even old ladies with silver hair, sitting together in groups of three or five, talking and laughing, and embroidering a picture of a better life with skillful hands.
Embroidery is called "embroidered edge" by Hong Kong people. This kind of manual work is generally undertaken by women, and it is their patent and unique skill to express themselves and make money to subsidize their families. Men never dare to "teach fish to swim" in front of them.
Women in Hong Kong have been engaged in embroidery for generations, but it was not common enough at that time. It was not until the 1970s that "lace craze" arose in Hong Kong. At that time, township enterprises had just been established, farmers were guarding a few acres of land, and their lives were still very poor. However, industrious and clever farmers in Hong Kong are not satisfied with poverty. They yearn for a happy and prosperous life, so they try their best to engage in various sideline businesses to increase their family income and improve their living standards. Embroidered edges are quietly produced under such circumstances.
At that time, Hong Kong's "parents" thought embroidery was Hong Kong women's specialty when they saw many women doing nothing at home. They set up lace stations outside to undertake embroidery business and bring them back, which not only solved the problem of the way out for idle labor, but also increased women's income. This is killing two birds with one stone. From the beginning, they organized a group of people to set up a "lace station under Hong Kong" to take over the lace business from Shanghai through relationships. After the lace business came back, hundreds of women who could embroider came to the lace station to look for jobs. Driven by them, more and more women began to embroider, that is, some women who could not embroider before were eager to make money. They join the embroidery army, learn from teachers, study hard, practice hard, and strive to master embroidery skills as soon as possible, thus making money. Therefore, with the support of women, lace is becoming more and more prosperous. By 1982, this lace station has achieved a turnover of 200,000 yuan and a profit of more than 20,000 yuan.
However, by 1983, a new situation appeared. In that year, the township enterprises under the jurisdiction of Hong Kong developed rapidly, and many large and small factories were built. It takes a lot of labor to set up a factory. So a large number of farmers from the fields, from home to the factory. According to statistics, at that time, the total population of Hong Kong was a little over 40,000, but there were more than 10,000 employees working in factories. In the past, women who embroidered at home were all involved in the wave of running large-scale township enterprises consciously or unconsciously. They gave up their embroidery work and went to factories to engage in higher-paying jobs. As a result, Lace Station was strongly impacted and had no choice but to close down.
Things tend to develop in a circular form. By the second half of 1985, the development momentum of township enterprises had been curbed, and various enterprises had greatly reduced their staff. Many migrant workers, including many women, have "returned to their fields", and even the employees who stayed in the factory earned less than in the previous two years. This situation has prompted the momentum of "all kinds of breeding are not as good as entering the factory" in Hong Kong. Comrades who used to work in the lace station seized this opportunity and quickly resumed the lace station. The majority of embroidery women return to their old jobs, which makes the "lace fever" in Hong Kong quietly rise again.
The comrades in lace station make use of old relationships to ensure sufficient business. 1985 completed 20,000 transactions in just a few months. 1987 completed business of 65,438+10,000 yuan, with a profit of 7,000 yuan. 1988, lace station became more and more prosperous, with a turnover of 370,000 and a profit of 2 1 10,000. 1989, in order to comply with the wishes of the majority of women, the then Hong Kong Women's Federation held the first embroidery technology competition, which further encouraged women. There are more and more lace registration cards, and the number of embroidery women in Hong Kong has rapidly increased to nearly 3,000. Even women from many neighboring villages, such as Donghu Tang, Tang Ye, Wangzhuang and Gushan, came to the lace station to receive lace embroidery. Their embroidered lace is sold to Japan, America, Singapore, France and other places through indirect channels. This year, Hong Kong's lace processing business income reached more than 500,000 yuan. Among them, a woman in Nanchenxiang Village and her daughter were embroidering together, and their annual net income 1000 yuan was remarkable at that time, so they became the best among many embroiderers.
After entering the 1990s, due to the re-development of township industries, women put down embroidery and started working in factories again. Although the embroidery industry in Hong Kong can't be said to have disappeared, it can't reproduce the glory of "Embroidery with Thousands of Horses".