Baisha Jinxiu Art Academy

This guide to the Baisha Jinxiu Art Academy in Lijiang centers on Yang Jinfeng, a Naxi embroiderer born in 1985 who spent eight years hand-stitching a sixty-meter silk scroll called Shenlutu, the sacred road. It traces her path from learning stitches as a child beside her grandmother to training under master embroiderer Mo Meiyan at the academy, which opened in 2003. Along the way you'll hear about the hundreds of local women the school has trained and the ambition Yang set for her scroll among hand-embroidered works. Look closely at the panels lining the courtyard walls, each stitched by a woman whose name appears nowhere on it.