Craftswoman commercializes Manchu embroidery to help impoverished rural women

Yang Xiaotong, fourth-generation inheritor of the Manchu embroidery, which is on the list of the national intangible cultural heritage, won the first prize at the selection contest of the north division of the Chinese Women's Handicraft Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition hosted by the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), on July 20.

Yang was born in Shenyang, capital of northeastern China's Liaoning Province. She began to learn the skills of Manchu embroidery from her grandmother when she was only 4. For traditional Manchu families, girls need to learn how to embroider when they are young. Under the influence of her grandmother, Yang was skilled at embroidering garments of Manchu ethnic group.

The year of 1991 was a turning point for her. Inspired by an oil painting drawn by renowned Chinese classic-style painter Chen Yifei, she began to embroider artworks.