1. Liang Zhongmei (right) teaches embroidery skills to a woman. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
2. Aniu Axia (right) teaches embroidery skills to a woman. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
3. Wang Qiuyu (left) helps an international student at Beijing Jiaotong University experience batik. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
4. Photo shows an embroidery product rolled out by the Zhijin digital industrial base under Eve Group, a Chinese clothing brand, in Zhijin county, Bijie city, southwest China’s Guizhou Province. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
5. Photo shows an embroidery product rolled out by the Zhijin digital industrial base under Eve Group, a Chinese clothing brand, in Zhijin county, Bijie city, southwest China’s Guizhou Province. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
6. Photo shows embroidery products rolled out by the Zhijin digital industrial base under Eve Group, a Chinese clothing brand, in Zhijin county, Bijie city, southwest China’s Guizhou Province. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
Across China, a wide variety of embroidery styles have taken root, each with its own distinct flair. Though different in form, every stitching method reflects the embroiderers’ shared pursuit of beauty.
In recent years, there has been growing consensus across society on the need to protect intangible cultural heritage. With policies such as the "Opinions on the Implementation of the Inheritance and Development Project of Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture," embroidery has been finding new ways to enter daily life and reach a global audience.
Today, embroidery is no longer just an ancient craft. It has become deeply integrated with many industries. Thousands of skilled artisans are turning their "fingertip artistry" into a "fingertip economy."
Inheritor teaches embroidery to more women to help them increase incomes
On May 30, at an embroidery workshop in Zhenfeng county, Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China’s Guizhou Province, 59-year-old Liang Zhongmei, an inheritor of Buyi embroidery, patiently demonstrated stitching techniques, threadwork, and color coordination to her trainees.
Liang’s embroidery journey began with an accident at age 7. While helping with chores, she lost her left arm to a sugarcane press, forcing her to leave school. Unable to do heavy labor, she spent most of her time at home doing light housework.
Encouraged by her family, she tried to move on. "My mother loved embroidery, so I started learning from her. I didn’t expect it to become a lifelong pursuit," she said.
Buyi embroidery is complex and requires complex skills, Liang explained. "Most people use both hands, but I had to manage with only my right hand." At first, her mother would finish two pieces while Liang was still working on one.
"Others use two hands, and I use my mouth and one hand," Liang said. She would pin the needle to her sleeve, bite the thread, and use her right hand to split threads, thread the needle, and stitch. With this method, she mastered many Buyi embroidery styles.
Over the years, birds, flowers, insects, and animals have inspired her designs. Her most admired work is her embroidered butterflies, often praised for their lifelike detail. Many have come just to learn this technique from her.
As her confidence grew, Liang began participating in competitions. She first participated in a vocational skills contest for people with disabilities in Guizhou, then represented the province at the national level, where she won third place. In 2010, she was awarded the title of "National Technical Expert."
To help more women find work, and with local government support, Liang rented a storefront in 2012, bought materials, and officially opened her embroidery workshop, offering free training in traditional Buyi techniques.
"We teach for free and give orders to the trainees, guiding them through to finished products they can sell," Liang said. Her workshop also takes on export orders, with embroidered Buyi clothing and wall hangings sold to the U.S., the U.K., Japan, and beyond.
Liang’s workshop is just one of many across China. By the end of 2024, more than 9,100 intangible cultural heritage workshops had been established nationwide, providing direct employment to over 270,000 people. Their average annual income exceeded 36,000 yuan (about $5,010.12).
Inheritor revives Yi embroidery, promotes it on world stage
"I never imagined—even in my dreams—that my work would one day appear on a fashion runway in Paris," said Aniu Axia, a representative inheritor of Yi embroidery.
At a fashion show held at the Louvre Museum in France in December 2024, her Yi embroidery designs instantly won over the audience. One French woman, after trying on a traditional Yi-style cape, excitedly said she’d wear the garment to her next party.
"Having my work recognized by an international audience proves the enormous potential of ethnic fashion. It’s been a huge encouragement," Aniu Axia said. She had been working toward this day for nearly 20 years.
The woman grew up in Zhaojue county, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China’s Sichuan Province. From an early age, she learned embroidery and sewing from her mother.
In 2002, at age 18, she enrolled in college to study art education. She clearly remembers how classmates often looked at her with curiosity and admiration when she wore Yi-style embroidered clothes on campus. Inspired, she brought a sewing machine to her dorm and started making headbands and sachets to share her culture with others.
After graduation, despite her family’s objections, she turned down a teaching job and opened her own studio to develop Yi embroidery products. But starting a business was far tougher than expected. While the clothes were beautiful, they didn’t sell. With money going out and none coming in, she eventually had to close the studio.
Despite the setback, her belief in Yi embroidery never wavered. Since the market wasn’t ready, she shifted her focus to preserving the craft. She began visiting older artisans in Yi communities to collect and document endangered techniques, preparing for a future comeback.
Over the next decade, she drove more than 600,000 kilometers across Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces. A breakthrough came in 2009. At a Yi cultural forum, nearly all attendees wore traditional embroidered clothing. Someone joked to a man not in costume, "Why aren’t you wearing anything?" That offhand comment made her realize that people were starting to reconnect with traditional culture, offering new hope for Yi embroidery.
When she reopened her studio in 2010, Aniu Axia found that many had stopped doing embroidery, and even older artisans were gradually losing their skills. She reached out to a local agricultural vocational school, and together they launched an ethnic weaving and embroidery program to train new talent.
Today, there are more than 31,000 people working in Yi embroidery in Liangshan. Demonstration bases for training and employment have been set up across the region.
In recent years, Aniu Axia’s persistence has paid off. By blending traditional Yi elements with global fashion trends, she created a series of designs that are both culturally rich and modern. In 2018, she presented her collection at the China Fashion Week, showcasing the creative potential of ethnic fashion.
To reach a broader market, she has expanded into other product categories in recent years, incorporating Yi embroidery into backpacks, accessories, and others.
Young woman carries forward embroidery through perseverance, innovation
Born in 1997, Wang Qiuyu is a Miao woman who began learning Miao embroidery at the age of 8 in Zhijin county, Bijie city, Guizhou.
Creating a full set of intricate Miao clothing by hand can take up to six months. Threads in vibrant colors are used to stitch auspicious patterns, such as phoenixes, butterflies, flowers, and birds, which reflect the rich cultural heritage of the Miao people. In 2006, Miao embroidery was included in the first batch of China’s national intangible cultural heritage list.
"Miao embroidery styles vary across Guizhou. Here in Zhijin, the focus is on technique—how you hold the needle, how many stitches you use, and how tight or loose the thread is," Wang explained. When she first started, she could barely hold the needle steady. After just a few stitches, her fingers would be sore.
But she never gave up, even when her fingertips grew calloused. To stay focused, she would toss her phone aside, shut herself in a room, and embroider for an entire afternoon. By her teens, she was already capable of completing a full embroidered outfit on her own.
In 2015, at 18, Wang enrolled in Qiandongnan Nationalities Polytechnic, majoring in embroidery and batik. There, after connecting with several master artisans, she realized that Miao embroidery remained under the radar, largely due to the lack of a platform to promote it.
"I’ve always loved calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting, so I wanted to combine both with Miao embroidery," she said.
But reviving Miao embroidery takes more than one person. In 2023, Wang became head of the Zhijin digital industrial base under Eve Group, a Chinese clothing brand. The base has built a database of over 28,000 embroiderers and over 8,900 embroidery patterns. It records each artisan’s location, skills, and years of experience, allowing them to quickly match with suitable orders.
"We’ve signed over 1,000 embroiderers here in Zhijin," Wang said.
"Since launching in July 2023, the base has achieved 1.6 million yuan in combined online and offline sales. We’ve received domestic and international orders for items like shoes and handbags," she noted, adding that some of the older artisans have never left the mountains of Guizhou, but their embroidery has already made its way around the world.
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0617/c98649-20328780.html