Craftsmen turn Miao embroidery into new economic growth point by integrating them with decorations

An embroidery clothing company in Southwest China's Guizhou Province is developing scale production of Miao embroidery works, which draws inspiration from folk tales and generates income growth in the region.

Miao is one of China's ethnic groups famous for craftsmanship, and Miao embroidery and wax printing both have a history dating back more than 2,000 years. The skills are essential parts of the Miao culture and a treasure of Chinese traditional costume culture.

In Guizhou's Shibing County, the Bangxiangyu Embroidery Clothing Company is making efforts to inherit the Miao embroidery and Miao culture by combining the traditional Miao graphic patterns with home decoration products.

Tai Zaifang is an embroidery designer at the company. She said that her works are based on historical stories of the Miao ethnic group.

"I drew inspirations from toasting songs, love songs and folk songs of our Miao group. I understood the meaning inside them and then drew inspiration from them. Like this, it is about dragon boat rowing, this is about plowing and these are fish. I listened to these stories and drew them out," said Tai.

Tai's design drawings are not only used in traditional Miao embroidery rubbings, but also in decorative paintings.

With team cooperation and market development, the patterns designed by the company's designers have been used for the mass production of traditional Miao embroidery composition and machined embroidery decorative paintings.

In addition, the company sales these templates to other manufacturers to realize industrial benefits through multiple channels.

"Our factory mainly relies on Ms. Tai's original designs. When she completes the design, we will make templates. The six high-speed embroidery machines will produce them. The daily output is around 100 sets, so our production speed is fast. In the past, our products were mainly for export or sold to Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Wuhan, where demand was great. Now we also sell many products there," said Tai Sixu, template maker at the company.

In the second quarter of this year, the company's products have been not only sold to local hotels and home decoration stores, but also widely welcomed by customers in other provinces, with a sharp increase of sales volume.

"In the past, we sold just about 1,000 pieces of products every month. But now, with the improvements in various aspects such as the packing, we sell more than 10,000 pieces of products every month, with the monthly income reaching around 1 million yuan. Many consumers out of the Miao group can know about our Miao culture via our products," said Long Tonghua, manager of the company.