(Lu Yongmei, founder of a Dong's traditional indigo dying company. Photo/CRI Online)

A dozen post-80 girls from the Dong ethnic group in southwestern China’s Guizhou province innovatively commercialized their traditional indigo dying technique out of a strong passion to keep it alive, China Radio International reported on Sept. 17.

Lu Yongmei, founder of an indigo dying company, started her entrepreneurship to promote her cultural heritage of dying cloth by hand. Her business cannot only help save the 1,000-year-old traditional craftsmanship, but also provide employment opportunities to local Dong girls.

Traditional Dong clothes are generally made after being woven, dyed, and embroidered. Girls will focus on the technique that they are best at so as to improve their efficiency. Love and passion is the basic requirement, said Lu.

Now, Lu’s company has more than 600 employees and is expected to make six million yuan (around $900 thousand) this year. With joint efforts, Lu and her fellows recovered a special dying technique, and they have been awarded five technological patents and nine design patents owing to it.