Coiled embroidery of Tu ethnic group weaves a thriving industry

In Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, Haidong city, northwest China's Qinghai Province, coiled embroidery has been passed down among the Tu people for more than 1,000 years. Today it has grown into a distinctive industry worth more than 27 million yuan (about $4.03 million) a year.

Li Faxiu began learning Tu coiled embroidery at 7. Nearly 70 years later, she is a national-level representative inheritor of the craft, working out of the intangible cultural heritage workshop in Danma town.

Embroiders work at Li Faxiu's workshop. (People's Daily Online/Kuang Yu)

In 1995, she carried her embroidery to Beijing for the Fourth World Conference on Women. At the exhibition, the pieces drew so much attention that she sold every one.

"I used to think coiled embroidery was simply something kept in a chest as part of a bride's dowry. Only later did I realize it could also be a good way to make a living," Li said.

At the time, many young people in her village had left for work elsewhere, and the women who stayed behind had few ways to earn money beyond farming. Li wondered whether she could get them back to the needles and thread they had set aside. During the farming off-season she traveled from village to village giving free lessons, then set up an intangible cultural heritage workshop that now brings together more than 50 local embroiderers who work whenever they have time and are paid by the piece.

The county set up a dedicated company for Tu coiled embroidery in 2007. Seventeen years later, it added an industrial base for the craft.

"The company and the base handle product design and market development, while embroiderers across the county are responsible for production," said Ha Chengqing, head of the coiled embroidery industrial base.

The county has now trained 75 inheritors of Tu coiled embroidery, along with 5,300 full-time embroiderers and more than 3,000 seasonal ones.

Li Faxiu shows a piece of coiled embroidery. (People's Daily Online/Kuang Yu)

"This has helped rural women increase their incomes. The highest earners can make 40,000 to 50,000 yuan ($5,937 to 7,421) a year," Ha said.

Working with universities and independent design studios, the base has adapted signature coiled embroidery motifs — sunflowers, rainbow patterns — onto designer toys, blind-box charms and other products.

"We have developed more than 100 creative cultural products across eight categories, with annual sales exceeding 3 million yuan," Ha said.

"During activities that bring intangible cultural heritage into classrooms, primary, secondary and university students have all shown great interest in coiled embroidery. Young people today are well-educated. They can promote the craft, create new designs and lead everyone forward. I hope they will pass coiled embroidery down from generation to generation," Li said.