Embroidering a future for tradition

Cai notices that young women prefer modern clothes, which are easy to wear and fashionable, and at the same time, young Miao people move away for work, leaving fewer people to master the batik skills.

She hosts batik classes for local children and, with her business expanding, she hopes to attract more people to move back.

Cai has developed new products, such as batik square towels, silver ornaments and Miao tops, as well as traditional Miao clothes. Her products have been sold in the United States and Canada.

In Cai's mind, the first step to innovating batik design is to add more elements relevant to modern daily life, and the color should be more contemporary.

"We should also combine batik and Miao embroidery to make the blue and white batik works more interesting," Cai says. She adds that developing local characteristics by integrating more traditional cultural elements is another way to make the products appealing.

Cai and her team also design shirts and dust coats with batik elements to attract young customers.