Yi ethnic embroidery has been elevated from Chuxiong of Yunnan to the fashion week of Beijing and Shanghai, and then to the international stage of New York and Milan. Young inheritors will be sharing their journeys of conserving the crafts and how they innovate to take the crafts to the next level.

Jin Ruirui/ Chuxiong Yi Ethnic Embroidery Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritor

Jin: I'm part of the third generation in my family to inherit this craft. After graduating from university, I came back to continue my mother’s legacy in embroidery. My mother mainly focused on traditional ethnic minority costumes. But when I came back, I took a different path by infusing modern techniques with ancient craftsmanship. Until recently, Chuxiong Yi ethnic embroidery was only known locally. But now it seems to be gaining recognition even beyond China. It’s been a long journey, but incredibly rewarding.

 Yi Ethnic embroidery creates endless possibilities. Chuxiong Yi ethnic clothing was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage craft in 2014. The knowledge of Yi ethnic embroidery has been passed down for thousands of years. From Chuxiong of Yunnan to Beijing, Shanghai, New York, and Milan, it has gradually moved to the international stage. Jin Rui-rui is witnessing this transformation of Yi ethnic embroidery.

Jin: In 2023, I participated in a press conference about Chuxiong Yi ethnic embroidery during Milan International Fashion Week. The international appreciation for our embroidery was overwhelming. We never imagined that this local craft would create opportunities to travel to places like Italy.

Yi ethnic embroidery isn't just about preserving traditions; it's about adapting them to modern uses. Fan Zhi-yong has diversified from traditional costumes to various creative daily products such as coasters, ornaments, and shoes, showcasing the adaptability and relevance of Yi embroidery.

Fan Zhiyong/ Yi Embroidery Creative Product Designer

Fan: Embroidery is a profound expression of human emotion. Yi mothers start embroidering wedding dresses for their daughters at birth.

Fan: Yi culture is also very ancient. The Yi people have an ancient calendar called the 10-month solar calendar, which actually predates the Maya civilization that I think of the Yi people as rather mystical. The embroidery has bold and unrestrained use of color. I actually hope that embroidery can be reintegrated into our daily lives. Our ancestors didn’t view these items as luxury; they were essentials.

From Fan Zhi-yong’s words, you can feel her passion for her craft. Prior to receiving national recognition in 2014, Chuxiong Yi ethnic embroidery was listed as provincial-level intangible cultural heritage in 2009. Yi ethnic embroidery is getting more and more attention, thus reigniting the interest of the younger generation.  

Pu Ming-hui, originally a jewellery designer, shares a love for both Yi ethnic embroidery and music. She decided to strike out on a path that coincided with both of these passions, combine Yi ethnic embroidery with a musical instrument of intangible cultural heritage.

Pu Minghui/ Yi Embroidery Creative Product Designer

Pu Minghui: I’ve merged embroidery with local music, which I grew up playing with my family. This one is designed by my brother and you can see it’s more masculine. This design is mine, showing patterns of various flowers and plants. It’s fundamentally based on the traditional flower patterns, but I fine-tune the colours, and some of the main patterns no longer follow the traditional auspicious dragon and phoenix patterns. I might do more floral patterns, like flowers with a full moon, or create certain merchandizing patterns. My designs incorporate traditional motifs and modern aesthetics.

When faced with the crossroads of adhering to tradition or fostering innovation, Pu Yu-zhen takes the responsibility to inherited it. She has trained over ten thousand Yi ethnic embroiderers in her lifetime. This has enabled them to become independent and work from home. She has also been to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Oxford University, disseminating the art of Yi ethnic embroidery to broader audiences.

Pu Yuzhen/ Chuxiong Yi Ethnic Embroidery Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritor

Pu Yuzhen: I taught embroidery in these places, as well as other styles of fabric art like weaving, crocheting, embroidery and many more. In the end, they all come together when designing a completed article like a bag.

Burmie/Host: How many stitching methods are there in Yi ethnic embroidery?

Pu Yuzhen: There should be two hundred kinds, of which I know about 158 different stitching methods. These ones up here are called blue-and-white embroidery, and there are many stitching methods within blue-and-white embroidery. Double-needle button embroidery means using two needles together.

Pu Yuzhen: I want to keep teaching the next generations.

In this Yi ethnic embroidery product trading centre, the information and skill levels of each embroiderer, as well as specialized certificates for production, are assessed and recorded. This has ushered in a major transformation of the embroidery  industry and has allowed these heritage products to become commodities. Embroideries are now business cards and far-away fashion shows become the target markets. With more eyes on the products and more transparency to the industry, this traditional craft has new vitality.  

In 2023, the Yi ethnic embroidery industry achieved an output value of 1 billion RMB, with an average annual increase of 3,570 RMB per capita income for 57,000 embroiderers. In addition, this inclusive community has enabled more than 2,000 disabled people to find employment as a result of rising demand.  

The industry has become a lifeline for the Yi people, revilitalizing rural areas, boosting incomes, and allowing young mothers people to work from home and breathe life into their ancestral villages.