Master embroiderer stitching together ethnic pride, respect

Shan Xiumei's handmade cloth dolls are helping popularize the beauty of the various ethnic groups who call the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region home.

Shan, a member of the Han ethnic group, started creating the dolls 18 years ago, when the northwestern Chinese region began blossoming as a tourist destination.

"My family was very poor when I was young and there were no toys for children, but my mother made a doll for me. I liked it very much and started to make dolls myself from then," Shan said. To make her dolls stand out from the competition, Shan devised xiusu, a new form of craftsmanship that combines detailed embroidery with strategic stitching to create humanlike facial features and body shapes.