Projects specific to women's craft industry are flourishing across China. From Guangxi's Bagui Qiaoniang, Gansu's Longyuan Qiaoshou, and Shaanxi's Sanqin Qiaoniang to Sichuan's Women's Revitalization Workshops, women's federations, at all levels, have tapped into local specialties and traditional crafts to promote skills training, build brands and match production and sales channels. The federations have created platforms to help women start businesses and/or find employment close to their homes.
The All-China Women's Federation has implemented the Action for Women's Employment and Entrepreneurship, to help women achieve high-quality full employment. Across China, women's federations have guided women as they have engaged in embroidering, paper-cutting, weaving and/or other crafts, which have suited their local traditions, so the women can turn their "fingertip skills" into a vibrant "fingertip economy," which in turn has boosted the women's incomes.
This article focuses on Bagui Qiaoniang, a project launched in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
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Li Suying (second from right) |
Bagui Qiaoniang, a project launched in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, combines the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage with women's employment and development.
Guangxi Women's Federation has improved the development of 1,000-plus women's bases for rural revitalization in recent years. Those bases have specifically promoted industrial progress in craftsmanship, and have provided numerous employment opportunities to local women. Supported by Genius Mom, a public-welfare initiative of China Women's Development Foundation (CWDF), craftswomen, who excel in ethnic Zhuang embroidery and brocade craftsmanship, have been operating craft-making studios in Guangxi.
Given the increasing popularity of hand-made crafts, Guangxi Women's Federation has taken concrete measures to provide women in the region with opportunities to learn and improve their craft-making skills. Those measures have opened the "window" to boosting women's employment.
Twenty-five Bagui Qiaoniang craftsmanship studios were established in Guangxi by the end of 2025. Those studios helped 102,000 women find jobs in their hometowns. Guangxi Women's Federation is now planning to include e-commerce in the development of those studios, to expand markets, and to build intangible-cultural-heritage education bases, to support women's employment, children's cultural education and the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. The federation plans to build 60 Bagui Qiaoniang studios by the end of 2027, and to organize 3,000 pairs of mothers and daughters, or grandmothers and granddaughters, to learn various craft-making skills.
Zhuang Brocade 'Golden Calling Card' of Rural Revitalization
Last year, 2025, was extremely memorable for Li Suying. Why? The inheritor of Zhuang brocade, who is supported by Genius Mom, had the opportunities to demonstrate her craft-making skills during the 2025 BRICS Women's Leadership Forum (held in April), and an exhibition showcasing China's progress in digital and intelligent empowerment for women and girls (held in October). The exhibition was a side event of the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women (GLMW). Also last year, Genius Mom launched a Zhuang brocade craftsmanship studio in Chongzuo, a city in Guangxi, to provide training and employment support to local women.
During a recent interview with Women of China, Li shared her memories of those significant events. "The events offered me precious opportunities to showcase the charm of Zhuang brocade, while broadening my horizons. Many foreign friends were amazed as they watched me making the crafts. They asked me about folk tales or stories hidden behind the brocade patterns. So, I explained to them our ethnic legends and traditional farm lives. At that moment, I realized our craft-making skills can break barriers, among different languages and cultural backgrounds," Li explained.
During the event on the sidelines of GLMW, Li told the international delegates, who visited the exhibition, how she had taught craft-making skills to her "fellow sisters" in her hometown, so the women could increase their families' incomes. After the event, Li was excited that people from other countries contacted her studio to order Zhuang brocade crafts. That gave her confidence to expand markets for Zhuang brocade, and to continue promoting the ethnic craft to the world.
As China's 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) has begun, Li plans to make Zhuang brocade a "golden calling card," which will contribute to the rural revitalization of her hometown. She hopes to expand training sessions to include more women. In addition to teaching them brocade techniques, she will help them improve their skills in product design, e-commerce and livestreaming, and brand operations. She also hopes to integrate Zhuang brocade with the development of local agriculture and cultural tourism. For example, ethnic-Zhuang-themed family inns and Zhuang brocade study tours will be developed to attract tourists who want to learn more about Zhuang brocade and Zhuang culture.
"My best wish is to help more women in my hometown live better lives and pass Zhuang brocade skills to the younger generations," Li says.
Bamboo, Rattan-Woven Crafts Go Global
Under the guidance of the All-China Women's Federation and Lao Women's Union, CWDF and a training center for women in Laos co-established a Genius Mom Friendship Workshop in Vientiane, capital of Laos, in August 2025. Huang Lianjiang, an inheritor of bamboo- and rattan-weaving craftsmanship in Bobai, a county in Guangxi, attended the workshop's unveiling event.
Huang taught basic weaving skills to 16 Lao women in three days, and she helped them complete a combined 128 crafts. "Seeing how hard the women were learning our craft-making skills, I was firmly convinced intangible cultural heritage has great value in going beyond borders, among various countries, and going global," Huang says.
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Huang Lianjiang (back, left) |
Huang's company serves as a model base of flexible employment for stay-at-home women. The company's new plant, which began operations in January 2024, has helped more than 5,000 women and elderly people in rural areas find jobs and increase their families' incomes. Earlier this year, Huang was named a March 8th Red-Banner Holder of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. For the next five years, Huang says she will continue inheriting the weaving craftsmanship and helping "sisters" in her hometown turn "fingertip skills" into a "fingertip economy."
Photos from Interviewees
(Women of China English Monthly June 2026)
Editor: Wang Shasha
