NANNING, May 16 (Xinhua)
-- Seamstress Fan Wenying's greatest
wish is to make beautiful clothes
and see celebrities wear them
someday.
Although no stars have
donned her threads yet, her unique
designs are already starting to become
popular, particularly among the Jing
ethnic group.
Fan, who hails
from the city of Dongxing in
south China's Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region, designs and produces
traditional clothes for the Jing, one
of China's smallest minority
groups.
Dongxing, which is
under the jurisdiction of Guangxi's
city of Fangchenggang, is located on
the China-Vietnam border and is
adjacent to the Vietnamese city of
Mong Cai.
Fan's ethnic
clothing designs are so distinctive
that they were added to
Guangxi's regional intangible cultural
heritage list in 2010, according to
Yang Chanming, deputy director of
Dongxing's broadcast, film and
television bureau for cultural and
physical education.
"I think
Fan Wenying is weaving the 'China
dream' of the Jing people, which
is to develop and promote their
distinctive culture around the country,
or even the whole world," Yang
said.
Fan's desire to
create clothing took root in the
1970s, when she was just a teenager.
At the time, China was under a
planned economy and many people were
still living in poverty. Fan and
her six brothers and sisters did
not even have proper clothes to
wear during the Spring Festival
holiday.
Fan decided to remedy
the problem by making clothes for
her siblings using discarded clothing.
As she became more skillful, she
grew bored making plain clothing for
her family. In 1987, she left her
hometown to study under a
Chinese-Vietnamese tailor, who greatly
enhanced her skills.
After
sufficiently boosting her abilities, Fan
opened her first clothing workshop in
her hometown. To make her clothing
more unique, she closely studied the
fashion designs she saw on TV
and in magazines, incorporating the
styles she saw into her own
creations.
Clothing styles were
not particularly diverse in China at
that time. Fan's innovative designs
made a splash in her hometown.
Shoppers even came all the way
from Mong Cai to purchase her
clothing.
But despite her
success, Fan was not yet satisfied.
She had always wanted to design
new clothing for the Jing, as
many of them live in her
hometown.
The clothing typically
worn by the Jing, in her
opinion, was a bit dull and
plain-looking.
"My mother and
friends, all Jing people themselves,
had always admired the beautiful
clothes of other ethnic groups, which
made me determined to improve Jing
clothing," she said.
Fan worked
hard to create stylish and colorful
clothing for the Jing, including
clothes based on the "qipao," a
traditional Chinese dress that emphasizes
women's curves. Once again,
Fan's clothing was a hit with
the local populace.
In China,
more often than not, garment factories
use high-tech machines to manufacture
clothes. But Fan has always insisted
on using her 20-year-old sewing
machine.
"Producing Jing clothing
is highly demanding, particularly the
collar, sleeves and waist. High-tech
machines just can't do the
job," Fan explained.
But Fan
is worried about the survival of
her craft, as it is hard to
persuade young people to take the
time to learn the art. She said
most young people prefer to leave
her hometown to look for
jobs.
"I am now teaching
my daughter how to make Jing
clothing and I hope she will
stick with it so that the craft
will be handed down," Fan
said.
