Racing against time for heritage

While studying at a university in Chengdu, the provincial capital, Zhang began selling Qiang-embroidery shoes, insoles and sachets at a street stall near the entrance to a downtown tourist spot. She also opened an online store on Taobao to sell Qiang-embroidery products and specialties from her hometown.

After graduating from university, Zhang returned to her village and invited the local women to help fulfill the surging orders. However, she soon found the task challenging — lacking expertise in Qiang embroidery, it was difficult to gain their trust and provide them with proper training.

In 2013, Zhang attended a training class hosted by Li Xingxiu, a national inheritor of Qiang embroidery, where she systematically learned the needlework techniques.

"With the skills I acquired, I would embroider a sample for each product and provide training to the other embroiderers to ensure that they met the standards required for selling," she says.

Li Bi, her mother, recalls that during the early stage of entrepreneurship, Zhang often stayed in her room all day designing embroidery patterns.

With the country's increasing emphasis on the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, Zhang gained more opportunities for advanced studies.

Over the years, she attended free training courses at eight universities under a national intangible cultural heritage research and training program initiated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Education in 2015, which aims to help inheritors combine traditional craftsmanship with modern designs in their creations.

"These courses not only helped me improve my design concepts but also gave me access to many resources," Zhang says.