The Zhuang, one of the 56 ethnic groups in China, are famous for their embroidery piece due to the abundance of patterns and subtle movements of embroidery needle. Besides the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a group of Zhuang people lives in Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County in Qingyuan, a northern city in Guangdong.
In the recent years, many Zhuang people in Lianshan have managed to develop the Zhuang embroidety and help local people live better. Wei Qinglan, the executive supervisor of an Zhuang embroidery cooperative (嘉田锦绣专业合作社) is one of them.
（Photo：Nanfang Plus）
In 2019 Wei started to promote this traditional needlework and train local Zhuang housewives to practice Zhuang embroidery for a living. One year later, she established a 300-square-meter embroidery cooperative with exhibition hall, rooms for work shop and training session, providing more opportunities for full-time housewives women who wanted to work and also served as a platform for promoting the culture of Zhuang embroidery. So far, the embroidery cooperative have held almost twenty training sessions with over one hundred participators.
（Photo：Nanfang Plus）
“I can make money by doing the embroidery at home, and still have time to take care of children and the elderly,” said Huang Haimei, afemale embroider of the cooperative. In less than two years, the cooperative have received over one thousand orders which have generated an extra income of fifty thousand yuan for female embroiders.
Meanwhile, Wei and her team are keeping pace with times and embracing the chances brought by “Internet celebrity economy (online retailing)”. Wei encouraged embroiders to learn how to livestream and get to know the preference of young consumers. Wei believed that introducing new elements to Zhuang embroidery can really help this centuries-old handcraft rejuvenate. In addition to traditional embroidery piece, the cooperative has also developed fashion items of handbags, fragrance sachets and so on.
Wei expects that, in the future, the cooperative will focus more on building up their own brand and combing the culture of Zhuang embroidery with tourism. Therefore, she has tried her best to promote the Zhuang embroidety.
In the ongoing China’s Two Sessions period, as a deputy of National People’s Congress, Wei brought the Zhuang embroidery to the the Guangdong delegation’s deliberation. She presented a handkerchief with an embroidered pomegranate flower during her speech, hoping more people to know about Zhuang embroidery and the culture behind it.
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