A career that's a cut above

The addition of the experienced costume makers has helped bring more ethnic elements to the products. Li has also ensured that her products keep up with the times. "Although the embroidery products from my hometown are exquisite, we need to become 'fashionable' embroiderers to stay in line with market demand," Li says.

"Therefore, on the basis of preserving our ethnic traditions, we have conducted research and improvements on existing clothing and creative cultural products, so they can be more diverse, of better quality and with distinctive features," she says.

She has also built a livestream team and begun to sell products through various online platforms, with the highest daily sales reaching 20,000 yuan ($2,907) a day.

Now, her products enjoy brisk sales across the country. The booming business has also enabled Li to better respond to local authorities' efforts to boost villagers' incomes over the past three years. She has taken the initiative to arrange vocational training at local communities as well.

Her business has offered job opportunities to about 200 people, each of whom receives an extra income of 28,000 yuan per year.

Last year, Li took the lead in developing an ethnic intangible cultural street that features costume exhibitions, intangible cultural heritage handicraft training, production and livestream experiences.

Her promotion of local natural scenery, ethnic culture and creative products on online platforms such as Douyin has helped her draw a fan base of more than 100,000 people.

"Next, I will rely on the ethnic intangible cultural heritage sector to vigorously explore the integration of multiethnic culture and create more creative cultural products and mature production lines," Li says, adding that the goal is to connect the production line and the market and have ethnic embroidery highlight the local tourism industry.