In the daily life of the old times in China, men were regarded as the mainstay of their own families. Men have to work all through the years, even maybe have to leave their own hometowns to struggle for a better life, which lead to them a pair of painful and lonely feet. Their wives at home would entreat the gods to bless and protect their husbands. Those women would embroider them the insoles with the auspicious patterns elaborately, cherishing the most sincere hopes. The designs could be pictures, symbols, and even, more directly, the characters that would express their feelings. Influenced by the Chinese culture, those women were reserved to speak their emotions, however, they expressed their deep love and thankfulness in a sensitive and intelligent way by the embroidery insoles.

The embroidery soles are made of cotton cloth, and embroidered with cotton thread of various colors by hand. It would cost a skilled woman about 10 to 15 days to embroider a pair of insoles.

This kind of insoles are soft, breathable, wear-resisting, sweat-absorbing and long-wearring. They could be washed, and would never be out of shape. Also, the stitches could massage the acupuncture points of the sole of the feet, which could serve as health care. The picture designs are of a great variety of patterns and styles. The embroidery insoles are worth to collect, and also are the best choices to present to the relatives and friends.

Nowadays, most women in rural areas turn to work outside for more money (The average pay per day is RMB40, while the production of a pair of delicate insole would cost at least 10 days, sometimes even more than 15 days, and would only be sold for RMB200). Also, embroidery demands good eyesight. Women who are older than 45 would find themselves hard to make the insoles any more. Therefore, it is possibly that the technology of making handmade embroidery insole would die out in recent 5 or 6 years, which grant these insoles high collectible value.

In order to protect and carry forward the exotic flower of China, we visit the villages, open the files, collect the representative works, keep image data, and apply for Shanxi Province the Intangible Cultural Heritage positively, and so on.

We are now introducing the handmade embroidery insole, as the handicrafts which could represent the long history and the artistic characteristics of China, to the international market in order to further protect and develop this folk art with more financial supports.