Yi Embroidery Goes Global: Intangible Heritage Takes Stage at CSAE Fashion Week
The 9th China-South Asia Expo (CSAE) and the 29th China Kunming Import and Export Fair officially opened on June 19 in Kunming, the capital city of Yunan Province, Southwest China.
Making a stunning debut on the same day was the “YunStyle: Silk Road Ethnic Fashion Series @ CSAE Fashion Week” series of events, which included fashion shows and cultural enterprise investment fairs. The event showcased the deep integration of tradition and modernity, intangible cultural heritage and fashion, technology and art, creating a global platform for cultural exchange in the realm of apparel and design.
During this year’s CSAE, 25 dedicated intangible cultural heritage fashion shows will be staged in rotation. These feature designers and performers from South and Southeast Asian countries including Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia, as well as from various Chinese regions such as Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province, Wuzhishan City in Hainan Province, and 15 cities within Yunnan Province including Kunming and Yuxi. Together, they will present a transcultural fashion spectacle infused with ethnic elements.
Scene from the “YunStyle: Silk Road Ethnic Fashion Series @ CSAE Fashion Week” series of events on June 19. (Xinhua News Agency/Ding Ning)
Of particular note, the fashion week leverages the CSAE’s digital trade platform to pioneer applications of “blockchain traceability + cross-border e-commerce”. Each Yi embroidery – a traditional handicraft of the Yi ethnic minority – item is embedded with a unique digital “identity tag,” enabling full-process traceability. In partnership with cross-border e-commerce platforms, an “International Yi Embroidery Cloud Exhibition Hall” has been launched, integrating livestream sales and offline order fairs, further promoting the deep integration of cultural industries and the digital economy, and showcasing achievements of cultural innovation productivity.
The Zhiju Yi Embroidery Festival of Yongren County in Chuxiong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, often hailed as the “world’s oldest rural catwalk,” has a history of over 1,350 years and is considered a living fossil of Yi embroidery culture. Using the fashion week as a platform, Chuxiong has constructed a robust innovation loop with remarkable results. In 2024, the region successfully hosted a coordinated four-city showcase spanning Chuxiong, Kunming, Beijing, and Paris. Highlights included the “Intangible Cultural Heritage Yi Embroidery Show in Beijing,” staged along Beijing’s central axis, the release of the “Xinhua-Chuxiong Yi Embroidery Fashion Week Index,” and a debut exhibition of Yi cultural attire at Paris Fashion Week. These initiatives quantitatively evaluate the value of intangible heritage across four dimensions – branding, marketization, and more.
In recent years, Chuxiong has deeply explored the cultural, economic, and social value of Yi embroidery, adopting a strategy of “meticulous craftsmanship” to drive creative transformation and innovative development. This approach has led to three major breakthroughs: transforming embroidery from craft to commodity, from decorative pieces to cultural calling cards, and from runway shows to market platforms, forging a new path where “dual innovation” – creative transformation and innovative development – empowers high-quality development of intangible cultural heritage. Between 2022 and 2024, the number of Yi embroidery enterprises in Chuxiong grew from 538 to 2,233, with total output value rising from CNY 800 million to 1.13 billion ($111.4-157.3 million). In the first quarter of 2025 alone, the sector achieved an output value of CNY 250 million, marking a 10% year-on-year increase.
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