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The embroiderer Wan Shufeng presents skills through live-streaming

Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Liu Mengmeng, correspondent Jiang Hong) news:

These tiger-head shoes are so pretty!”

“These tiger-head shoes are so colorful and exquisite.”

“My child loves them so much. When will my order be delivered?”

The embroiderer Wan Shufeng is live streaming her making tiger-head shoes and tiger-head pillows while interacting with audiences.

Wan Shufeng is live streaming. (Photo by Jiang Hong)

Wan Shufeng, 53 years old, is an ordinary peasant woman living in Liumaowan New Village, Liumaowan Town, Shawan City, Tacheng Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang. She was born in a family of tailors. Her grandmothers and mother are all embroiderers. When she was young, she could see silk thread and embroidery needles everywhere every day. So she often imitated them when they were sewing. "There are many ways of knitting in embroidery. Different patterns, such as bud, leaf, butterfly, etc. require different stitches. Whenever I encountered troubles, my mother would stop her work and come to help me knit, showing me the right way," Wan Shufeng said. Influenced by what she saw and learned, she could design clothes and tailor them independently at the age of 18.

“In 1998, a friend asked me to make a pair of handmade shoes for her 3-year-old grandson. Unexpectedly, the tiger-head shoes I made were very popular. A growing number of people came to me to make an order of handmade cloth shoes, plush shoes, tiger-head shoes, etc. Then, I thought why not open a store.” Wan Shufeng said that the pillowcases, quilt covers, clothes and other daily necessities embroidered by her were bought by neighbors because of their beauty and practicality. Many people proposed to be her students.

The tiger-head shoes Wan Shufeng made. (Photo by Jiang Hong)

Last year, Liumaowan New Village created a studio called “Lady Embroiderer” for Wan Shufeng, where she works and carries out skills training and other activities for women, attracting more than 200 women to participate. Zhu Xinfu, a villager, once benefited from this, said, “I met Wan at the studio, and she taught me a lot of skills. Thanks to these skills, now I have opened my own shop with stable customers and favorable income.”

In 2019, Wan Shufeng opened an account for “customized handmade cloth shoes” on the Kuaishou platform to promote traditional skills and get wider distribution through short videos and live-streaming. She mainly shoots the working scenes of the embroiderers, presenting their sewing skills. Through videos, audiences always admire the exquisite craft: “You remind me of the cloth shoes my grandmother made for me when I was a child” or “Thumbs up for handmade crafts”. Several audiences have also become true fans of Wan Shufeng and come to watch her live-streaming every time.

Wan Shufeng is making one of the orders. (Photo by Jiang Hong)

Now, Wan Shufeng makes live streaming for three to four hours a day, and the handmade items she sews, such as cloth shoes and sofa covers, have been sold to China’s Gansu, Sichuan and Henan provinces, earning an annual income of more than 50,000 yuan.

“We plan to help Wan apply for intangible cultural heritage items of traditional handicrafts such as tiger-head shoes and embroidered shoes, and support individuals to develop courtyard economy through inheritance, so as to transform traditional crafts into 'modern magic wonder' for rural prosperity.” Liao Hailong said, town mayor and deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Liumaowan Town.

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