"Few people do their own sewing nowadays," Wen said as she waited to pick up her shoes from a cobbler in downtown Lanzhou, capital city of Gansu province in northwest China.

"I was once an expert shoe mender myself, but it's been years since I quit," she told the cobbler.

Wen was being modest. She actually used to make shoes, tailor clothes and embroider insoles for the entire family when she was young -- and everything she made fit perfectly.

"Most girls had to learn to sew back then, as few could afford to buy ready-made clothes," she recalled, "Good needlework was a must if a young lady wanted to marry well."

Wen's daughters used to wear their mother's handiwork with pride when they were young, but as they grew up, Wen felt she could put away her needle and thread -- for ever.

"Forget home-made clothes," she said. "Young people always wantto keep in fashion and before one dress is worn-out they buy another."

Traditionally, hand-made clothes embodied a Chinese mother's love, attention and tenderness for her children. When a person wasfar away from home, the very sight of the stitches would remind them of their loving mother.

As machines have taken over all the sewing and embroidering, modern mothers have also learned to express their affection in a different way.

A housewife, giving her name as Mrs. Zhou, was taken by surprise when asked if she would sew a cotton padded coat for her son, a college student in Harbin, a faraway city in northeastern Heilongjiang province that is bitter cold in the winter time.

"Who's still doing needlework now that we have so many choices at department stores, all warm, stylish and at reasonable prices?"she queried with a smile.

Zhou admitted that she had never learned much needlework, though her own mother used to be a good tailor.

"All the same, I've kept the needle and thread my mom left me,"she said. "Sometimes I use them to fix a button, but they are morelike a keepsake."

( October 30, 2002)