Yang's hometown Fengdeng village in Guizhou lives 96% of the Dong minorities. Although the Dong women are all good at their traditional craft skills, they are not able to make a living with it. Instead, most of them went to big cities as the local men to support their families financially. Due to lack of education, the work they did often causing physical harm. Meanwhile, their textile handicrafts are gradually disappeared.
Yang Chenglan, the change maker, deeply sensed the responsibilities to to bring the dying arts back to the limelight and help the local women, she decided to return to her village to build a traditional textile atelier. Without any business experience, she suffered from no order, unclear market channels, and lack of workers before she met her first buyer. Later, she opened an online shop and sole her products all over the world.
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Yang Chenglan's passion and respect to her Dong minority's culture encourages to carry on her dream of passing down the skill generations after generations and introduce the intangible heritage to the global stage. She has worked with brands such as Herms, Muji and so on.
