Miao embroidery brings fortune to local folks

The Miao women in west Yunnan’s Dali Prefecture have long been good at embroidery, a signature of the Miao 's culture and a traditional decoration on the Miao costumes. 

Wu Yuqing, aged 43, began to learn embroidery from her mother in her childhood. “I really love embroidery. If I don't embroider, life will be meaningless." Wu Yuqing said, showing her guests a fine embroidery piece.

After years of careful learning, Wu Yuqing became the inheritor of local Miao embroidery in 2016. Wu is now proficient in embroidery techniques, and she has been invited to other villages to show the Miao embroidery.

Wu Yuqing comes from the Baizhu village in Dali’s Yangbi County. In the village, around 130 Miao women are engaged in embroidery, and the village head Wu Zhijun has own thoughts on how to make the traditional embroidery enrich local Miao folks.

“More than 10 years ago, a Guizhou client spent 14,000 yuan on a Miao costume from my village.” Wu Zhijun said he got inspired by the purchase and decided to develop Miao embroidery into an poverty-shaking industry. “Last year, another villager sold to the county town two sets of costumes with Miao embroidery, earning 20,000 yuan."

In the past years, the Miao embroidery pieces from Baizhu village have been brought to the exhibitions in Kunming and other cities. As a result, the craft was recognized as an intangible cultural heritage at the provincial level. 

Meanwhile, Wu Zhijun organized annual training sessions, where junior embroiderers can learn from skilled ones like Wu Yuqing. And an e-commerce branch has been set up in the village to sell the Maio embroidery and other local produces to the outside world. 

"If things go well, we will set up a folk museum and turn the village into a cultural tourist attraction,” said Wu, hoping to bring into full play charm of the Miao embroidery in Baizhu village.

Reporting by Liu Rong; trans-editing by Wang Shixue