Meet the 'huapiao': China's drifters from abroad

Kuzmichev exams brocade belts also in Dawu village.[Photo provided to China Daily]

"Many people who originally lived in the countryside have moved to the cities, and it's impossible to save tradition in cities. Now the Chinese government is supporting the inheritors of traditional craftsmanship to continue with the skills in the countryside," he says.

The professor emphasizes that it is very easy to apply tradition in modern fashion.

"If you understand ethnic costume and the feeling of it, you can inject this feeling into modern design," he says.

He points at Zhang Ni, who is wearing a blue shirt and of white vest, saying that the match of the colors is borrowed from China's blue and white porcelain.

"You can see designers in each season's fashion week in Europe apply tradition in their design, and in their own ways. China must save its tradition because it does not only belong to China but to the world. Now we don't know how to use these traditional elements, but maybe in five or 10 years, people will use them in fashion because nobody knows which culture will influence global trends.

"I think Chinese tradition and culture will definitely influence the world because your traditional skills are formed after generations of use," he says.

In daily work, the professor encourages his team to apply tradition in modern design.

One day, Ye Hongguang, now a professor at the university's school of fashion, hung a costume of the Bai ethnic group in his office. There was a decoration made of a strip of cloth sewn on the costume. Seeing this decoration, Kuzmichev said to Ye that "it was so fashionable. It's just the global trend of three-dimensional design, very nice."

"He said students can apply this in their design, and if you went to Europe for a design contest, this Chinese element would be a shining point," Ye says.

In mid May, under the supervision of Zhang Ni and Kuzmichev, students from WTU won a silver award when they participated in a design contest in Russia.

The silver award winners applied Chinese elements in the design, attracting a lot of attention in Russia.

"We employed the shape of the Chinese window with the character fu (luck) stuck on it. We improved the original textile by using two materials together to create a different feeling, just like the silhouette on the window when sunlight shines through it. We also used the latest technique of lasers in creating the design," Zhang Ni says.

In order to help the craftspeople in the countryside better understand modern aesthetics and design, the WTU organized training classes for them. They are usually 40-to 50-year-old women.

Kuzmichev gave his professional suggestion on how to make the traditional cloth more comfortable, how to dye fabric and how to match colors for the products to meet modern people's taste. To better understand those crafts, he went to villages to see how the local people produce the cloth and embroidery.

In May, Kuzmichev was invited to meet President Xi Jinping in Moscow, where the Chinese leader attended the 70th anniversary celebrations of the WWII victory. Kuzmichev received the special gold medal for Sino-Russia friendship due to his contribution to the development of China's clothing science, fashion design and education.

"It was a great moment of my life. I felt great," he says.