Intangible cultural heritage aids rural development in Kaiyang

In recent years, by leveraging its local intangible cultural heritage such as embroidery, Gaozhai village in Kaiyang county of Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, has actively guided local inheritors and talents to establish self-operated enterprises, driving the county's development and benefiting local people.

Hou Junying, a local intangible cultural heritage inheritor, established her Batik and embroidery workshop in 2019, which helped more than 20 embroiderers get employed, provided related training for local schools, and organized students to participate in related competitions and activities.

Another inheritor, Wang Qiqiong, built an embroidery factory with an annual output value of more than 500,000 yuan ($70,250). It has provided jobs for over 30 embroiderers, greatly increasing their incomes.

In order to improve the management and market competitiveness of local business entities, Gaozhai village has created a volunteering project named "Lan Ayang Intangible Cultural Heritage Class" to teach embroidery techniques.

It has also helped embroiderers to pursue further studies on more than 10 occasions, and organized training activities five times. Over 200 people have benefited from those efforts.

The "Lan Ayang Intangible Cultural Heritage Class" volunteering activity teaches embroidery techniques to local embroiderers. [Photo/Guiyang news network]

So far, the village has cultivated more than 20 training institutes devoted to ethnic culture. It is expected to achieve an annual output of more than 3 million yuan from this year.

Looking ahead, Gaozhai will continue to promote the innovation and transformation of local intangible cultural heritage to drive its future development.