Miao embroidery has strong ethnic characteristics. Clothes and shoes with Miao embroidery will be prepared for girls before their weddings. As an ethnic group without written characters, Miao people use embroidery to record their “epic”. This skill handed down from generation to generation has led the embroiderers of Meixiang Village to a better life.

In Meixiang Village and Yangjia Village, Kaitang Town, Kaili City, there is a well-known “ingenious” embroiderer who is also the village’s Party Secretary. Gu Lanhua said, “I started learning embroidery at the age of thirteen. It has been inherited by every Miao family. After getting married, I was the best embroiderer here and has won prizes in competitions.” She was known for embroidering 8 wedding dresses all by herself and was thus called the “champion” of Miao embroidery by the aged.

Meixiang Village, halfway up the hill, is a village at the highest elevation in the Kaitang Town. After getting married here, Gu Lanhua found that there is not enough food in the village. Villagers mixed rice with corn to make the “Golden Rice”, which was unpalatable. Later, she bought hybrid rice seeds and promoted the two-stage seedling raising method in the village, so that they had enough food. In addition, there was a shortage of medical care and medicine here. Gu Lanhua learned in a health school at her own expense, conducted free medical examinations for the elderly, popularized health and hygiene knowledge, and became a trusted “village doctor”.

Meixiang Village is known for “knot embroidery”. While leading the women here to learn embroidery techniques, Gu also participated in competitions to promote the “knot embroidery”. “The thread used for knot embroidery is different from others. It is twisted into a single strand from several thin threads, and then the unique stitch is used to form a ‘knot’ -like shape…If the threads and the stitches are perfect, the ‘knots’ will look more round and the patterns will be beautiful.”

Meixiang Village is poor, but Gu Lanhua believe the Miao embroidery will increase the income of the women with embroidery skills to get rid of poverty. In 2015, Gu Lanhua took 5 embroiderers to learn at the Danzhai Shengshi Jinxiu Company. After completing their study, they received an order of 3,000 handmade embroidery pieces. The order is  worth more than 80,000 yuan, getting more than 70 women employed.

She also built a handmade embroidery base in Meixiang and Orchid Villages, Kaitang Town. She persuaded embroiderers to participate in training door-to-door and searched for companies to make investment. In 2016, with the help of the Kaitang Town Government and Women’s Federation, the Jinxiu Miao Township Farmers’ Professional Embroidery Cooperative of Kaili City was established.

The hand-embroidered phone bags, ties, dresses, skirts and shoes have been sold all over the country with the help of the government and enterprises, and even got exported to other countries such as the United States, Germany, Russia, Switzerland. The monthly income of each embroiderer ranges from 1,200 to 4,000 yuan. Meixiang Village, once an impoverished one, has got 55 households out of poverty.

Gu’s families also choose to help inherit the Miao embroidery. Her daughter studying in Germany helped her to build the “Meixiang Orchid” website, and worked as a translator when negotiating orders. Jin Li, her daughter-in-law and a post-90s Han girl, is also a young heir of the Miao embroidery. She majored in Miao culture inheritance in college, which made her fond of Miao embroidery. Later, she married into a Miao Village and became the young inheritor of Miao embroidery. Jin Li offered livestreaming embroidery classes via Tiktok to let more young people know and love Miao embroidery. She also brings Miao embroidery to the campus and teaches students to make embroidery in classes.

Jin Li said, “the aged people are particularly good at skills. Although young people are not as good as elders in skills, they are good at style designing and colors matching to adapt to the market.” While inheriting the Miao culture, Jin Li is also exploring more possibilities of Miao embroidery for adapting to modern aesthetics. “All the embroidery works carry our emotions. I hope that in the future, we can design fashionable products and make them popular all across China and the world.”