Suzhou Embroidery is refined and exquisite. The best-known embroidery works are embroidered cats with bright eyes and fluffy hair, looking vivid and lifelike. In 1957, Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute was set up. Since then, many new embroidery techniques were invented and silk embroideries because more complicated than ever. The lifelike double-faced embroidered cats and golden fish are masterpieces of Suzhou embroidery. The artist splits the hair-thin colored silk thread into filaments which are 1/2, 1/4, 1/12, or even 1/48 of their original thickness-- and uses these to embroider. In the process, the artist conceals thousands of ends and joints and makes them disappear as if by magic. The finished work is a cute and mischievous-looking cat on both sides of the groundwork.