Guangxi has an average income of around 44,000 yuan (less than USD7,000) per person – just one quarter of those in Beijing and Shanghai – and yet it is home to an ethnic minority population of more than 20 million, and has a culture that is simply priceless.

Zhuang, Yao, Miao, Dong, and Mulam minorities make up nearly a third of the region’s population and maintain centuries-old traditions that are increasingly at risk as young people leave their village homes behind for career opportunities in big cities.

To support the central government’s policies of poverty alleviation and cultural preservation, CLP China launched The Green Cedar Project in 2019 to safeguard the rich heritage of the rural region in southern China.

The project includes programmes to raise standards of living, improve facilities, and help the Miao and Yao minorities preserve their culture while giving them work skills that ensure sustainable incomes.

Weaving a rich history

Xin’an Village, a remote village surrounded by mountains, is home to the Miao people who have a history in traditional crafts stretching back thousands of years, including embroidery, batik, and weaving. 

Miao embroidery, in particular, has since 2006 been listed as one of China’s national intangible cultural heritage items, but the unique craftsmanship behind it which dates back more than 2,000 years is ebbing away.

A Miao embroidery training programme funded by CLP China was launched in 2020 to preserve the craft. Women who take part are given professional training by Miao embroidery experts and also receive a daily living allowance.

More than 100 Miao women have been trained since 2020, and 20 outstanding trainees have signed up as embroiderers to work with Li Yi-yuan, who organises training workshops in mountainous regions to promote the craft.

“As a cultural heritage inheritor, my mission is to promote and protect traditional Miao embroidery,” says Li. “At the same time, I feel obliged to enhance Miao women’s sense of pride and confidence in their own culture.”

Teaching tradition

Cultural education and awareness play a vital role in helping children develop self-esteem and a positive sense of identity. They also allow youngsters to build more diverse social networks, studies have found.

To connect children with their heritage, CLP has organised a range of speciality classes including embroidery, batik, dance and music for around 500 pupils in two schools in Rongshui county in Guangxi.

Meanwhile, 100 km away in Lanjin Primary School in Liuzhou, culture classes are held for children from the area’s Yao minority. Once a week, pupils put their textbooks aside and spend time being taught embroidery and traditional songs and dances by local experts.

As well as cultural classes, CLP has produced bilingual environmental protection school text books in the Zhuang and Miao dialects as well as Mandarin.