surrounded by a huge 230 km route in the mountains northwest of Guangzhou, a dozen poor villages in the top of the ridge are removed.
Pass, similar to any serried ranks of evil houses of mud brick red and yellow uniforms in the past. Flat land is rare, and the smell of piggeries permeates every corner.
Life here in the Yao Autonomous County, Lianna, home to a large population of ethnic Yao has changed very little in comparison to the outside world.
Xuemei Long hopes to help the region catch up. I recently his job as a professor of art school and now spends his days helping local women to update their sewing skills.
"My goal is to change the traditional embroidery of Yao, which is passed on from generation to generation to initiate," he said. "I want women adopt the techniques in other cities, and even modern designs in this ancient custom."
The idea is to make more commercial crafts, and Long said he was a success.
"I showed them a way to battle in the parts of his original works to do, and fill the space with the Chinese character Fu, which means blessing," he said. "This character can be seen everywhere during the Spring Festival."
Lange is, himself the Yao ethnic group is aware that students are encouraged to abandon their traditions.
How many ethnic groups in southwest China's Yao are professional women in the professions of sewing and embroidery.
For decades, they have the same model, each with a story about an ancestor. These stories vary from city to city, and as such are symbols of identity.
"Women do not even understand," said Long, who often visit each village Lianna for a period of 20 days. "They say:" I can not from this city, which is why I sew in my design? "It's difficult."
But the volunteer teachers, said he believes that change is crucial. "If they can sell their products outside their villages, a new revenue source."
County officials are encouraging efforts together with the hope that Yao will be a profitable industry in the embroidery, which is the poorest part of the richest countries in the province of Guangdong.
It is still slow, however, and the biggest buyer of Yao work remains the county government, used for gifts and souvenirs.
A Stitch in Time
Fang Chunhua, 38, lives in a village of about 800 meters. It is hoped that by updating their skills, they can earn some money for your family.
Like most women in her community, she begins her day at 6 clock, feeding chickens and pigs before breakfast. It then tends corn bran and cedar. If you have free time, she sews.
County Cultural Affairs Bureau from time to time buy embroidered clothes or souvenirs, especially during the winter and summer vacationers, and last month she and three other long out of a carpet of 2 meters, which was built by King Pan Festival commissioned in this year. Fang receive 3,000 yuan (470 dollars) for its share of the work, more than the sum of his family is usually one month.
"I dream that one day, large companies are ordering the traditional embroidery Yao," he said. "No company now."
She knows she can not rely on government revenue, either. "Some months, there is no order at all," he said.
Fang tried to sell his work to a farmers market in a town 27 km. She said no one was interested. "The buyers in the market are mainly Yao, and do not want cheap stuff," he said.
His son beating his goods sold over the Internet, but fishing is not convinced. Its people have a single computer, he said, and the nearest post office is located one hour by bus.
She just repeated that "it would be better if we get orders from the company."
Fellow Haiying Tang, 33, was even more pessimistic. "Nobody wants to buy," she said, and sewed a pocket. "If somebody wants, I'll give it."
Long Xuemei, the volunteer teacher, explained that there was a reason for this lack of confidence: Last year, a businessman from another area and took some women Yao embroidery, promising to make money selling, though. It was shown that there is no market.
"The damage is already done," he said. "People feel cheated. You do not want to risk again."
The demand
"We have no money and business talent," said Lianna Cultural Affairs Director Tierong Tang
The district government has to seek foreign partners to provide the products, such as inviting students from the University of South China Normal University of Fine Arts, to improve create new embroidery designs.
"We are marketing professionals who register on the market judge," Tang said
Therefore, ultimately was so determined to update Yao traditional seams. "We have to know what other modern people," he said.
It's hard work every day of transportation between home and remote villages in the province, but Long said the fund seeks a question from one of his former students to answer.
She was with his students the value of historic preservation, as a young man asked, said: "What can we do to find a job?"
To get an education and find gainful employment is probably the best option for women of the people who are trying to ensure a secure future. However, experts warn that disappeared ancient cultures.
In recent years, younger women decided not to purchase Lianna entrepreneurial skills from their mothers. Lange was one of them.
A graduate of the University, she was not interested in sewing. If the district government was asked to write a book about embroidery Yao, described feeling insulted, as if he had been classified as "rural women".
Then she said one day his mother took her cheap wedding dress, and Long was surprised by the beauty of ancient art. "I had never seen before," she says, eyes shining with excitement. "This is an embroidered dress, sewn with silk -. Very tangy"
She said that people still believe that one day you can see the value of the old tradition of the Yao group.
"We want these works to sell," he said. "We do not know how."
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