Artists celebrate traditions in embroidery

Not too many people still weave Miao brocade these days. Not the traditional way Gan Xiaozhi does, with a loom, and hand pick to straighten silk and woolen threads, and then spinning out patterns that tell stories of the Miao ethnic group that doesn't have a written language.

"I learned it from my grandmother and mother," Guan says. "The craft used to be the most decisive thing that tells how good a girl is, but today's girls generally don't like to do it any more," says the 30-year-old from Leishan county, Guizhou province, who was showing her work at a charity bazaar in Beijing last week.

She sells handmade shawls, clothes and other Miao brocade artwork that typically take days, even weeks, to make the old-fashioned way. Though these brocades were once made for everyday home use, they're entering the market now. One celebratory totem embroidery, created by the village's most skilled woman over a span of three months, fetched more than 20,000 yuan ($3,300) at the Beijing event.