{"id":18505,"date":"2025-05-04T05:01:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T05:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=18505"},"modified":"2025-05-04T05:01:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T05:01:04","slug":"young-designers-from-global-south-reinvigorating-traditional-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=18505","title":{"rendered":"Young designers from Global South reinvigorating traditional culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video poster=\"https:\/\/vodpub6.v.news.cn\/yqfbzx-original\/20250503\/image\/93860e54-ef86-42f7-b519-ff89bebc8509.jpg\" preload=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/vodpub6.v.news.cn\/yqfbzx-original\/20250503\/20250503119d2938f93a411d8b9d8b5f1640abc7_XxjidwE007016_20250503_CBMFN0A001.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"46\" height=\"46\" src=\"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-7.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18506\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>* Despite the vast distance between them, China&#8217;s Miao embroidery and Ghana&#8217;s Kente cloth speak a remarkably similar language &#8212; one of memory, meaning and resilience.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>* Kente and Miao embroidery not only contain beautiful fabrics but also carry living legacies of pride and creativity. These stories echo far beyond Ghana and China. They are part of a wider tapestry of cultural revival, one that is unfolding across the Global South.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the coast of West Africa to the Karst mountains of southwest China, two iconic textile traditions &#8212; Kente and Miao embroidery &#8212; carry the soul of their communities. Though separated by continents, they share a deep connection to memory, identity and artistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether through the rhythmic clatter of Kente looms or the quiet focus of Miao embroidery, a new generation of artisans and designers are telling a vibrant story of cultural pride and creativity rising from the Global South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DESIGN &amp; LIFE<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At 2025 China International Fashion Week, 45 children from Guizhou&#8217;s villages stunned the runway, as they walked confidently in traditional costumes hand-crafted by their mothers and grandmothers, with wooden plough, suantang (hot sour tomato soup), or Zimei rice (steamed sticky rice dyed with herbal extract &#8212; a traditional food for Zimei Festival, celebrated every year on the 15th day of the third lunar month by Miao people) in their hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The inspiring encounter between China&#8217;s most prestigious fashion event and these children wouldn&#8217;t be possible if not for the Internet sensation Village Runway, or Cun T (rural fashion show) as called by Chinese netizens, a fashion initiative rooted in Guizhou&#8217;s rural communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20250503\/119d2938f93a411d8b9d8b5f1640abc7\/20250503119d2938f93a411d8b9d8b5f1640abc7_88f420c1ad254f6ea33fd011224c5a40.JPG\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Models present traditional costumes during a Village Runway, or Cun T (rural fashion show), in Taijiang County, southwest China&#8217;s Guizhou Province, on April 13, 2025. (Xinhua\/Yang Wenbin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Yang Chunlin, an entrepreneur and fashion designer of Miao ethnicity from southeastern Guizhou Province, is a critical figure behind Village Runway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When my mother, me and our group of Miao embroiders got back from international fashion weeks in London, Milan, Helsinki, Singapore, Vancouver&#8230; I told myself that we need a runway of our own. Our traditional attires &#8212; not only from Miao people but all ethnic groups in China &#8212; deserve a stage of our own,&#8221; Yang said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Miao embroidery designers are transporting the beauty of rural life onto runways, artisans in Ghana are keeping their heritage alive through Kente, a kind of woven cloth that moves just as fluidly between tradition and contemporary life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Kente can be used for many occasions, depending on the type of cloth or the colors you choose: during church activities, outdooring, marriage, festivals, even for funerals, among many others,&#8221; said Kwasi Barfuor Asare Gyeabour, curator at the Bonwire Kente Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Kente, as it is in its shape, we do them in stripes, then we cut it, and we join all the stripes together,&#8221; said Okyere Mafro, chairman of the Kente Museum Weavers and Sellers Association in Bonwire, a small town in the suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of central Ghana, standing in front of a Kente fabrics exhibition wall, adding: &#8220;It makes us unique. It identifies us.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CRAFTS &amp; MARKET<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Bonwire, it is likely to find a Kente loom in nearly every household. The majority of residents in this heartland of the iconic Ghanian weaving craft work with Kente as a main or auxiliary income-generating avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Through Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok and Instagram, we are gradually catching up to the market through social media,&#8221; said Mafro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The Kente business has helped a lot of people, not only the people from Bonwire, but the entire nation. It is the type of work our youth always do to pay their school fees,&#8221; said Eric Afranie, a Kente weaver and seller at the Bonwire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20250503\/119d2938f93a411d8b9d8b5f1640abc7\/20250503119d2938f93a411d8b9d8b5f1640abc7_XxjidwE007016_20250503_CBMFN0A002.JPG\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A weaver makes Kente at a workshop in Kumasi of the Ashanti Region of central Ghana, on March 13, 2025. (Xinhua\/Seth)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other side of the world, Miao embroidery faces a different challenge: the time-intensive manual labor makes it harder to scale for mass markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Now our approach is to create different lines of products to reach a wider range of customers. We have a machine-produced embroidery line for the public at a very affordable price. We believe that it takes time and effort to raise awareness and cultivate aesthetic taste,&#8221; said Yang, the fashion designer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wang Yunan, founder of the Hilo creative studio in Kaili city of southwest China&#8217;s Guizhou province, said the studio approached the market ecosystem from another perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We focus on empowering entrepreneurs, to find niche and build a strategy, to create a feasible business model, to bridge urban customers&#8217; tastes and intangible heritage crafts.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pan Xiulan, a 50-year-old Miao embroidery artisan, is now a resident partner at Hilo. &#8220;I started learning embroidery when I was seven or eight years old. Here at Hilo, I still constantly find new sub-styles that I have never seen &#8212; it is fascinating,&#8221; said Pan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By working closely with seasoned artisans like Pan, the younger generation of designers like Wang connects the marketing insights and management methods with crafts, ensuring embroidery remains relevant to China&#8217;s increasingly urbanized population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CULTURAL CONFIDENCE ACROSS GLOBAL SOUTH<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the vast distance between them, Miao embroidery and Kente cloth speak a remarkably similar language &#8212; one of memory, meaning and resilience. Both are more than decorative traditions; they are intricate systems of storytelling, expressions of identity, and acts of cultural preservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When it comes to Kente cloth, we say it&#8217;s a visual representation of our history and philosophical or oral literature, political thoughts, ethics, and even religious bodies,&#8221; said Gyeabour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That same spirit resonates in the embroidery of the Miao people, whose motifs &#8212; birds, flowers, myths &#8212; encode generational memory in thread. &#8220;It was the living environment that nourished the art,&#8221; said Wu Xiaoqiu, a retired professor from Guizhou Normal University, recalling how women gathered under ancient trees to embroider, share songs, and pass on techniques by hand and heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20250503\/119d2938f93a411d8b9d8b5f1640abc7\/20250503119d2938f93a411d8b9d8b5f1640abc7_XxjidwE007016_20250503_CBMFN0A003.JPG\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A fashion show is held during a cultural event in terraced fields in Congjiang County, southwest China&#8217;s Guizhou Province, April 26, 2025. (Xinhua\/Yang Wenbin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This shared philosophy, that fabric can hold a community&#8217;s soul, has become a driving force for a new generation of artisans and entrepreneurs across the Global South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It was my working experience at Oaxaca that inspired me to set up this studio in Guizhou,&#8221; said Wang Yunan, founder of Hilo creative studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Their model of cooperation among brands, designers and artisans enlightened me. I want to apply it for Miao embroidery, to create sustainable livelihoods for artisans while bringing these arts to urban customers,&#8221; said Wang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the vibrant looms of Bonwire to the delicate needlework in Guizhou&#8217;s mountain villages, young artisans and designers stitch together threads of memory and modernity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kente and Miao embroidery not only contain beautiful fabrics but also carry living legacies of pride and creativity. These stories echo far beyond Ghana and China. They are part of a wider tapestry of cultural revival, one that is unfolding across the Global South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reference Link:- <a href=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20250503\/119d2938f93a411d8b9d8b5f1640abc7\/c.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20250503\/119d2938f93a411d8b9d8b5f1640abc7\/c.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Despite the vast distance between them, China&#8217;s Miao embroidery and Ghana&#8217;s Kente cloth speak a remarkably similar language &#8212; one of memory, meaning and resilience. * Kente and Miao embroidery not only contain beautiful fabrics but also carry living legacies of pride and creativity. These stories echo far beyond Ghana and China. They are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[29,132,2881,105,5242,17517,17516,4842,17515,17519,17518],"class_list":["post-18505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-china","tag-economy","tag-fashion","tag-geopolitics-2","tag-global-south","tag-miao-embroidery","tag-reinvigorating","tag-traditional-culture","tag-young-designer","tag-young-designers-from-global-south-reinvigorating-traditional-culture","tag-ghana"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18508,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18505\/revisions\/18508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}