The national "Typical Cases of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Workshops 2022" were announced, and among all the 66 cases selected nationwide, three were from Chongqing, involving Xiabu cloth, Youzhou Miao embroidery, and Pengshui Miao embroidery.

Pengshui Miao Embroidery ICH Workshop. (Photo/Pengshui County)

The recommendation work "Typical Cases of Intangible Cultural Heritage Workshops" for 2022 was jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the National Rural Revitalization Administration.

What are the highlights of the three Chongqing cases?

ICH-based cultural and creative business

The Shandong-Chongqing Co-built Xiabu Cloth ICH Workshop in Zhongyi Town, Shizhu County, was founded in April 2019 in Pingba Village. Relying on the national ICH representative item "Rongchang Xiabu Cloth Weaving Craft," the workshop creatively develops and sells cultural and creative products around the Shizhu Tujia minority's cultural tourism resources. Meanwhile, it cultivates new rural craftsmen under an industry-training integrated mode, helping the locals realize more flexible employment. The model has been replicated and promoted in Rongchang District, Fengdu County, Chengkou County of Chongqing, and Bama County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Qi Tao, Manager of Shandong-Chongqing Co-built Xiabu Cloth ICH Workshop, introduced that the workshop adopts the development mode of "skill training + Original Equipment Manufacturer + piece work" to enable many rural surplus laborers to achieve nearby employment, home employment and flexible employment, thus empowering the local rural revitalization. Up to now, the workshop has trained residents 500 person times, and 58 trainees have got stable jobs in the workshop.

The product exhibition area of Shandong-Chongqing Co-built Xiabu Cloth ICH Workshop in Zhongyi Town, Shizhu County. (Photo/Shizhu County)

In addition, the workshop has also deepened industrial cooperation between east-west collaborative regions-- It signed a strategic cooperation agreement with a Shandong enterprise to introduce the latter's international advanced production technology, management expertise, and service concept to establish a sound workshop development system gradually. This move can promote the transformation of "fingertip skills" to the "fingertip economy" and propel the rural cultural industry to dock with the international market. The case was also selected for the list of best cases of the 3rd Global Poverty Reduction Cases Collection.

ICH products take the "express train" of the Internet

The Youzhou Miao Embroidery ICH Workshop in Youyang County was founded in 2019. The workshop depends on the Chongqing municipal ICH representative, "Youzhou Miao Embroidery." System training, reasonable division of labor, market operation, collaborative innovation, and other means were taken to train more than 600 person times on ICH crafts. Consequently, more trainees got employed and increased their income. The workshop has opened up a new way for ICH protection and utilization, contributing the force of ICH to rural revitalization.

Youzhou Miao Embroidery Products. (Photo/Youzhou Miao Embroidery ICH Workshop)

Chen Guotao, manager of the workshop, told us that to expand further the inheritor base of Youzhou Miao Embroidery, a rural trainees' spontaneous "contact-aid-linkage" mode was adopted without charging tuition fees or limiting age, gender, distance, or physical quality in Hejiayan Village, Huatian Town, Youzhou County, stimulating the enthusiasm of the villagers to learn traditional skills under a chain effect.

Youzhou Miao Embroidery ICH Workshop in Youyang County. (Photo/Youzhou Miao Embroidery ICH Workshop)

It is gratifying that the workshop has achieved annual orders of nearly 57,000 and annual revenue of 8.6 million yuan by selling products through physical stores, wholesale, foreign trade orders, TikTok shopwindow, Taobao store, 1688.com, and other channels. It has become a demonstration project of rural revitalization.

Employment and income increase by order-based production mode

Pengshui Miao Embroidery ICH Workshop was founded in 2018. Relying on the Chongqing municipal ICH representative item "Pengshui Miao Embroidery," the workshop is envisioned to inherit the ICH craft and promote employment and income increase. Local left-behind women and low-income people were organized to learn Miao embroidery skills and then realize employment and income increase under an order-based production mode. The workshop integrated itself with ICH and tourism resources and established cooperation with universities and enterprises to constantly improve product quality and broaden the spread scope of ICH.

"The workshop has carried out 24 training sessions on Miao embroidery skills, training 803 people cumulatively, contributing to more than 200 home employments and achieving an annual output value of more than 1.6 million yuan," said a manager of the workshop.

Pengshui Miao Embroidery ICH Workshop. (Photo/ Pengshui County)

It is worth mentioning that Li Shaoyu, an inheritor of Miao embroidery, together with other female embroidery craftsmen, integrated the scenery and culture of Pengshui County into their Miao embroidery works to launch tourist souvenirs that tourists favored. The workshop also cooperated with the well-known designer Lawrence Xu and college students to create works such as Miao embroidery, high-custom fashionable dresses, and a Miao pattern graffiti wall of Testbed 2. Thus, the workshop helped Pengshui Miao embroidery step out of the mountains in multiple ways and breathed new life into ICH inheritance.

"The ICH workshop is a platform for gathering all forces." According to a relevant department head of Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism Development, the city's cultural tourism, human resources & social security, and rural revitalization authorities have worked closely with each other under the support of Shandong Province since 2018. The "alliance" focused on rural residents' nearby employment and income increase by carrying out more than 150 ICH training sessions for 8,000 people and founding 67 ICH workshops. By cultivating new rural craftsmen, these ICH workshops have played an important role in consolidating poverty alleviation results and empowering rural revitalization.