Li Fengzhen, a Baiku Yao woman, lives with her family in an ethnic Yao village in Nandan, a county in Hechi, a city in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Nandan is inhabited by Baiku Yao people, an ethnic minority known for wearing traditional, white-colored pants. Li began learning how to make ethnic Yao clothes from her mother and grandmother when she was a little girl. With support from her husband and children, Li, now in her fifties, continuously improves the craft-making business her family operates in their hometown. "I'm confident to advance the Yao clothing industry, leading my family to a happy life, and meanwhile, helping our ethnic Yao villagers live better lives too," Li says. 

After this year's Spring Festival holiday, Li resumed her busy work schedule, in her studio, in Nandan, making traditional skirts for Yao women about to attend a folk festival following the Lantern Festival, which fell on February 12. 

"We, the Baiku Yao people, have our unique ethnic clothes and ornaments. The process of making traditional clothes is complicated. It requires patience and handy skills," Li explains. She is grateful she has received great support and encouragement from the local government. During the past three decades, Li has explored innovative methods to better inherit and promote the craftsmanship of making Yao clothes. 

Visit Brings New Hope 

Li began learning how to make Yao clothes from her mother and grandmother when she was 8. By 13, she had grasped the basic techniques, such as collecting and making dyes, spinning and weaving. In fact, she was particularly good at dyeing and embroidering. 

After Li Fengzhen married Li Jinbao, she told her husband she wanted to open a home-based dyehouse, so they could catch up to the rapid growth of the market economy, and also, they could increase their family's income. "My wife has been working hard since she was young. Her diligence and wisdom give our family happiness, which is so precious," Li Jinbao says. 

Li Fengzhen opened the dyehouse in 2004. But starting the business was not easy. "At that time, I was a skilled craftswoman, who didn't have enough funding. My home-based dyehouse was shabby. Water would leak into my house when it rained," says Li Fengzhen. 

Everything began to change in 2015, after a poverty alleviation work team, in Nandan County, visited Li Fengzhen's home. To protect and inherit the ethnic culture of the Baiku Yao people, Li's dyehouse was included in the poverty alleviation initiative launched in Nandan in 2016. 

"My dyehouse was restored with funding support. Many residents from neighboring towns started to come to my house, and I received an increasing number of orders to make crafts. My family life gradually became prosperous. In the first half of 2019, my husband and I bought a car for our family," Li Fengzhen says. 

Prosperity, For All

Neither Li Fengzhen nor Li Jinbao believes their commitment to achieve prosperity should end with their family. On the contrary, they want to help their fellow villagers create wealth and live prosperous lives. They have visited households, and they have invited women to embroider crafts they have produced in their dyehouse. 

The process of making Yao clothes involves delicate work, including dyeing and embroidering. In 2019, Li Fengzhen was named a regional-level inheritor, in Guangxi, of the craftsmanship of traditional clothing of the Yao ethnic group, which was enlisted as China's national intangible cultural heritage. 

Many women in Li's hometown have come to Li's dyehouse to learn embroidering. For those who have difficulty handling the craft-making skills, Li Fengzhen has taught them patiently. 

"I have organized training sessions in my home-based dyehouse. I have taught the skills and knowledge related to Yao clothes to local villagers. I want to cultivate craft makers," Li Fengzhen says. "Women can take items from my dyehouse to their homes. I don't limit the time or the quantity. They are free to spend their flexible hours embroidering. They will get paid after they complete the work. In this way, they can earn extra money to increase their families' incomes."

In 2020, an intangible-cultural-heritage workshop was established in Nandan, under Li's given name, Fengzhen. Women from more than 100 households in ethnic Yao towns in the county began earning a living at home, by fulfilling orders they received from Li's workshop. Also that year, Li Fengzhen began lecturing at two primary schools in Nandan. She taught embroidering skills to local students. 

In 2024, Li Fengzhen was named among the first group of national master craft makers in the countryside of China. Under the guidance of and with support from the Party (Communist Party of China) committee, the people's government and the CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) committee, of Nandan County, a Baiku Yao clothing manufacturing plant was established in Li Fengzhen's hometown during the spring last year. 

Although her family's business has achieved great progress and success in recent years, Li Fengzhen says she remains a simple Yao woman, who concentrates on the development of her ethnic group's folk clothing. She and her family hope to do more, so they will expand the "prosperity of one family (their family) to the prosperity of every household (in their hometown)."

Thousands of Baiku Yao women have attended training sessions organized by Li Fengzhen's family in their dyehouse. Li Shenghua, one of Li Fengzhen's apprentices, says, "We want to help more people better understand and develop an interest in the culture of the Baiku Yao people." Xiong Qing, a graduate of Neijiang Normal University, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, has learned how to make Yao clothes at the dyehouse. She has also expressed her desire to help promote the craft. 

Li Qiuli, Li Fengzhen's youngest daughter, attends university in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. Li Qiuli says her mother has been a positive influence. 

"My mother is a national-level excellent migrant worker, and a model worker of Hechi City. She and my elder sister are both inheritors of the craftsmanship of ethnic Yao clothing. Similar to them, I started to learn about Yao clothes when I was a girl. My love for our ethnic Yao culture grows from the bottom of my heart," Li Qiuli says. 

Li Fengzhen has told Li Qiuli, many times, it is important to help her schoolmates, and people from outside their hometown, learn about the folk culture of the Baiku Yao people. Now, during holidays and school vacations, Li Qiuli often returns home. She continues learning Yao-clothes-making skills from her mother and sister. In addition, she helps promote the innovative methods her family has developed and adopted in the manufacturing of Yao clothes. 

Photos from Interviewees

(Women of China English Monthly March 2025)

Editor: Wang Shasha