Weaving preservation with tradition

"Many of our members were also farmers toiling in the fields," Liu says, adding that the women have learned these traditional skills and improved their incomes and living standards.

In her spare time, Liu also teaches at vocational and primary schools to share the beauty of Li brocade.

According to Liu Liting, head of the cultural center in Wuzhishan, there are more than 60 city-level inheritors of Li brocade, and the city supports training in several forms.

In recent years, Hainan has invested in training institutes to teach Li brocade to locals. Since 2012, it has been a course in Hainan's primary and secondary schools.

Local authorities have also formulated a raft of measures to strengthen the protection and development of Li brocade, aiming to ensure the survival of these traditional skills.

Over the years, Li brocade has made appearances at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference many years in a row, and has been given as a national gift to visitors in China and abroad.

Wuzhishan has sent groups of Li brocade practitioners to countries like Italy, Singapore and Japan to provide audiences with a firsthand experience of this art form.

In September last year, Li brocade made its way to Paris Fashion Week.

One of Liu Xianglan's recent engagements was demonstrating the art form to visitors to the 2024 (4th) Hainan Brocade and Embroidery World Culture Week in November.

"Cultural exchanges like this have inspired me," she says.

In December, the Li ethnic group's traditional textile techniques were among the three items — along with the Qiang New Year festival, a traditional annual event of the Qiang ethnic group in China, and traditional design and practices for building Chinese wooden arch bridges — to be moved from the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

This marks a significant step in intangible cultural heritage protection in Hainan and signifies that after years of preservation and development, the project is growing stronger and more resilient, says Chen Yi, vice-curator at the Hainan Provincial Museum of Nationalities.

"Our next step is to ensure the preservation and continuation of this project within the framework of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage," Chen says.

Cultural authorities in Hainan plan to introduce a five-year inheritance and development action plan for the traditional spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery techniques of the Li people.

"This initiative seeks to enhance the visibility and influence of traditional skills, making them a vibrant cultural symbol of Hainan," Chen says.

Liu Xianglan says she is thrilled by the announcement.

"I sense an increase in the number of people who appreciate Li brocade. I believe its inheritance will go much further," she says.