Generations preserve and pass on Miao embroidery in Guizhou

Long Luying and Long Yu's Miao embroideries are widely used for decoration, scarves, costumes and more. [Photo/ddcpc website]

Long Luying and her son Long Yu from Southwest China's Guizhou province are inheritors of Miao embroidery production techniques.

Inspired by his mother, Long Yu became interested in Miao embroidery when he was just a child and joined his mother's Miao embroidery company in Shibing county as an operation director after he graduated from university in 2015.

In 2016, Long Yu attended a class on intangible cultural heritage at the Academy of Arts & Design of Tsinghua University, like his mother before him, to improve his design and business management abilities.

Both Long Yu and Long Luying believe that Miao embroidery should be transformed and improved in order to ensure its survival in the modern era.

To achieve this goal, the company cooperated with the Academy of Arts & Design of Tsinghua University and Guizhou Minzu University to establish a national industrial design center equipped with high-end embroidery machines to make Miao embroidery a technology intensive industry.

Long Luying (R), inheritor of Miao embroidery production techniques, instructs embroiderers at her workshop. [Photo/ddcpc website]

At the company's automated production workshops, Miao embroidery is done by machines with patterns designed by stylists who studied in Milan, Paris and New York.

The patterns integrate traditional elements with modern tastes, and have proved popular among consumers.

Meanwhile, the company also considers hand-made Miao embroidery its main business and must balance production quality with efficiency. The company has cooperated with Guizhou's universities to train and employ embroiderers, ensuring quality, increasing production capabilities, and bringing more economic prosperity to locals.

The company currently has three registered brands and 34 national patented products and achieved a total of 24.64 million yuan ($3.9 million) in output in 2021.