Young girl pursues career in bamboo weaving

Yang Changqin is making bamboo weaving products. (Yang Wenbin/Xinhua)

Yang Changqin, a young lady in her 20s, is the sixth-generation heir to the bamboo-weaving tradition in Chishui city, southwest China’s Guizhou province. Now, she teaches female students weaving techniques at a local cultural-heritage experiencing center.

Yang was born in the Yinjiang county in Guizhou. She took a chance to study bamboo weaving craftsmanship in Chishui with financial support from the government when she was studying at Yinjiang Minzu Vocational Technical School. Out of love, Yang gave up the opportunity to be a teacher in a public kindergarten and embarked on the bamboo-weaving career and pass on the cultural heritage.

Yang created fine bamboo weaving products such as writings, paintings, bags, and lightings, based on the new ideas and techniques she learned in different art schools. Her works are welcomed by consumers and sold to domestic and overseas markets.

"Bamboo planting is one of the 12 distinct industries in Guizhou, while bamboo weaving is a downstream trade of the bamboo industry. I hope this intangible cultural heritage could boost rural revitalization and vice visa," said Yang.

Source: Xinhua; trans-editing by Guo Yao