Lu Meiying · Golden Treasures Song Brocade

Golden Treasures : Golden Fish Among Waterweeds

Lu Meiying

Lu Meiying is a Suzhou master artisan, Senior Arts & Crafts Master, inheritor of intangible heritage. She first mastered kesi tapestry, then founded Zhengjin Fang / Zhengjinyuan to revive and innovate Song brocade from 2012 onward. Her style is marked by luxuriant, rich gilded weaving, drawing heavily from traditional Chinese auspicious decorative grammar, and her signature work Golden Treasures is one of her most popular festive Song brocade pieces.

Lu Meiying was nurtured by traditional Chinese folk arts from childhood. In 1982, she apprenticed under Grand Master Wang Jinshan to study the art of kesi tapestry. In 1987, she returned to her hometown and opened her own kesi workshop. In 2009, she founded Suzhou Lanting Crafts Co., Ltd., where she pushed the craft forward by integrating the aesthetics of Chinese ink-wash painting into kesi weaving.
In 2014, Lu Meiying established Zhengjin Fang — a traditional Song brocade weaving atelier housed in the Treasure Hall of China Craft Culture City — and launched her eponymous Song brocade brand Zhengjinyuan.
In early 2018, following six years of work, Lu Meiying led a team of 18 master artisans to complete the monumental kesi tapestry Prosperous Gusu, measuring 1,760 centimetres long and 48 centimetres wide.

She integrates the colour separation, fine gold threadwork and layered depth rendering of kesi tapestry into Song brocade jacquard weaving — bringing a kesi-derived design sensibility that elevates the craft of Song brocade.
She reinterprets this classic folk motif through the structural logic of Song brocade weaving. Rather than overcrowding the composition, the goldfish are rendered in dynamic, lifelike poses — some darting forward, others turning back — gliding through flowing waterweed and scrollwork, capturing the tranquil, leisurely mood of fish drifting through still waters in a summer lotus pond.

Multi-weft coloured silk jacquard with targeted gold inlay is Lu Meiying’s signature technique. Gold threads are used exclusively to outline fish scales, fin veins and waterweed stems, rather than covering the entire field. The lustre is concentrated on the fish bodies, giving the goldfish a soft luminous three-dimensional quality against the coloured silk ground. Scattered around the golden carp are ancient coin motifs and tiny stringed purse motifs — a beloved auspicious symbol of wealth attraction in traditional Chinese culture.

Abundant fortune, wealth and treasure: Goldfish = “gold & jade”, the core blessing of Jin Yu Man Tang, for prosperity and abundant assets.
Surplus and continuity: Fish also sounds like “surplus” in Chinese, meaning surplus harvest, steady gains year after year.
Harmony and vitality: Lotus pond scene represents harmony, family peace and thriving life.

Lu Meiying’s Suzhou-crafted Song brocade weaves the auspicious symbolism of traditional patterns into every inch of its texture — gentle and refined, yet imbued with quiet, enduring strength.

→ Explore Golden Treasures Collection
→ Explore Macaron Collection