A traditional wooden building of the Dong ethnic group has been transformed into the Dong Embroidery Museum by Yang Tian. The intangible cultural heritage inheritor teaches embroidery to the Dong women nearby and she is training more Dong embroiderers, hoping to pass on the skill.

Many Dong girls learn to embroider from an early age, Yang was one of them. “I learned embroidery from my mother when I was seven or eight, and from my mother-in-law when I got married. It’s been 50 years now, and I’ve never been bored, ” Yang recalled in an interview.

Embroidery by the Dong people has a long history and is a traditional fingertip technique. Birds, animals, flowers, and plants make most of the patterns used, originating in the farming life. Ingenious Dong girls use colorful silk threads to embroider the patterns on their clothes to show their love and respect for nature.

It usually takes over six months, from spinning to embroidery, to make by hands a complete set of traditional Dong costumes, but such fine work has failed to bring in a decent income for families. A set of Dong costumes could only be sold for about 100 yuan (about $15) a decade ago, Yang explained.

Yang's efforts and the government's support for Dong's embroidery skills have made it possible to make a living out of this old skill.

Today, a handmade Dong costume can sell for as much as 8,000 yuan, and the earrings, packages, and other embroideries are popular among customers in many places such as Hong Kong.

Yang Tian has been introducing this art form in Tongle Township vigorously as the town now organizes events about Dong embroidery learning techniques, encouraging more than 300 households to participate in embroidery. Today, over 30 impoverished families make a living after learning Dong embroidery.

(Top image designer: Feng Yuan.)