Helping Women Villagers Embroider Better Lives

Su Xiaoli, general manager of an embroidery company in Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, in Haidong, a city in northwest China's Qinghai Province, is an inheritor of Pan embroidery, a traditional Tu-style embroidery.

Helping Local Women Achieve Prosperity

Su was born into an ethnic Tu family in a village in Huzhu. Tu women learn to embroider at an early age. In the past, most Tu women made embroideries, for themselves and for their families, to pass the time. They never thought of making money by making embroideries.

One day, in 2012, Su learned that a small shop, which sold Tibetan crafts, attracted many tourists. It inspired her to promote Tu's exquisite embroideries, and to help local women live better lives by making embroideries. Initially, she visited village after village, and she collected embroideries from women embroiderers in those villages. In 2015, she established a company, which focused on Pan embroideries. At that time, she made a series of plans for the company's development: Innovating embroidery patterns, combining traditional culture with modern elements, increasing the influence of the company's brand, helping promote local economic development, and contributing to poverty alleviation.

To help women villagers earn a living by making embroideries, Su has provided training to women who have not learned Pan embroidery before. Dong Guolan, from a remote township in Huzhu, was one of the trainees. Dong learned to embroider from scratch. At the beginning, the quality of her embroideries was below standard. Even though the embroideries could not be sold to customers, Su still purchased them at the normal price. Dong was deeply moved by Su's kind heart. To improve her embroidering skills, Dong practiced all day and all night — every day. She completed an exquisite embroidery half a month later. Given her efforts, she became a professional embroiderer, and she has used her fingertips to achieve prosperity.

Establishing Workshops in Villages

As the company has grown bigger, Su has helped more people who have been in need. She has established several workshops in villages. When asked why she established the first village-based workshop several years ago, she says, "Mi Jinhua, a backbone embroiderer of the company, had to quit her job, because she needed to look after her sick husband. I decided to establish a workshop in her village. So, she could earn a living while also looking after her husband."

With the help of the local government, Su set up the company's first workshop. Mi was responsible for running the workshop. The workshop provided jobs to in-need women. The company supported the workshop with free materials and embroidery training. Throughout the years, Mi has led women in her village, and from surrounding villages, to live better lives by making embroideries.

The workshop's success encouraged Su to establish more bases and workshops, where Su provided free embroidery training and materials, in other towns and villages in the county. The workshops, and the free embroidery training sessions, have encouraged young people to return to their hometowns to learn embroidering skills. An increasing number of women have been using their fingertips to increase their incomes, and to live prosperous lives. 

Su has cultivated more than 50 workshop leaders, and she has provided embroidery training to more than 2,000 women. She has helped more than 50,000 women embroiderers get jobs, and to earn greater incomes by making embroideries.

Given her efforts to help women villagers live prosperous lives, Su has received considerable recognition throughout the years, including being named a national advanced individual in poverty alleviation and a March 8th Red-Banner Holder of Qinghai Province. She received the Mulan Award during the BRICS Women Innovation Contest in 2022.

"The lives of the villagers are getting better, which makes me feel what I have done has been meaningful. In the future, I will lead more women to live better lives, and to realize their full potential," says Su.

Photos from Interviewee

(Women of China English Monthly December 2023)