Embroidery: a path to common prosperity

Previously, the average monthly income per capita in Mengnong Village of south Yunnan’s Yuanyang County was only RMB 1,000, However, after the establishment of the embroidery cooperative, the villagers’ income have tripled with the support of e-commerce, and the time-honored skills have been well inherited.

Zhang lingqiong is head of the cooperative. When she was 13 years old, she started to learn embroidery and became a master a decade later. In 2015, the local government set up the Mengnong Farmers’ Embroidery Cooperative and Zhang was elected as its head.
 
Zhang said that to improve skills of embroiderers, the cooperative had participated in exhibitions held in other places of China and organized regular visits to Kunming, Shanghai and Suzhou where its members exchanged skills and learned about the development of embroidery industry. Meanwhile, the handiworks of the cooperative are also sold on e-commerce platforms to more customers.

Now, a piece of fine embroidered handiwork sells RMB 1,000 and many of the cooperative members are entitled as “skilled embroiderers” in Yuanyang. Zhang said doing needlework is a way for the villagers to stay at home and to look after the old and the young, and at the same time they can make money. Otherwise, many of them have to leave their hometowns and work in other places. More importantly, the traditional craftsmanship is being passed on.
 
The cooperative is run in the model of “Company + cooperative + inheritance bases + embroiderers”. Now, Zhang Lingqiong is planning to expand the cooperative to other five villages and increase the number of members to 500. She also hopes to sell the handiworks across the world in the future.

By Liu Xinwei; trans-editing by Li Hengqiang