Zhuang brocade helps county in S China’s Guangxi boost people’s incomes

Lan Peiwen, head of a productive protection and demonstration base of Zhuang ethnic group brocade techniques, joyfully sings a Zhuang ethnic folk song accompanied by the sound of looms on Aug. 20 in Xincheng county, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

He came up with the following lyrics: “Let me sing a folk song for you. Xincheng county has the best-known Zhuang brocade. Go and ask people about it if you don’t believe me. It used to be presented to emperors in Beijing as tribute.”

The brocade technique of the Zhuang ethnic group, or Zhuang brocade, is one of the four best known types of brocade in China, and is seen as a cultural treasure of the Chinese nation. 

As a national-level intangible cultural heritage, Zhuang brocade now plays a key role in the efforts of Xincheng county, Laibin, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in raising local people’s incomes.

The county built the productive protection and demonstration base of Zhuang brocade in the former site where ancient government officials of Xincheng county had their residences, thus establishing a characteristic industrial chain for the integration of intangible cultural heritage with poverty alleviation.

With the support of the women’s federation of Guangxi, Xincheng county created a base that allows flexible employment models at the productive protection and demonstration base of Zhuang brocade.

The employment base offers a one-month training course on Zhuang brocade technique at least once a year, taking in 20 impoverished local people in each course.

Students who have completed the training can get a job provided by the employment base, which allows them to choose to work in the base’s brocade workshop or take raw materials from the base and finish their work at home. Jobs provided by the employment base can increase local people’s incomes by an average of around 15,000 yuan (about $2,170.50) a year.

Xincheng county will further promote the model combining intangible cultural heritage with e-commerce and poverty alleviation in order to create jobs and raise incomes for more poor households, according to Zeng Yanqun, deputy director of the bureau of culture, radio, television and tourism of Xincheng county.