* Despite the vast distance between them, China's Miao embroidery and Ghana's Kente cloth speak a remarkably similar language -- one of memory, meaning and resilience.

* Kente and Miao embroidery not only contain beautiful fabrics but also carry living legacies of pride and creativity. These stories echo far beyond Ghana and China. They are part of a wider tapestry of cultural revival, one that is unfolding across the Global South.

GUIYANG/ACCRA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- From the coast of West Africa to the Karst mountains of southwest China, two iconic textile traditions -- Kente and Miao embroidery -- carry the soul of their communities. Though separated by continents, they share a deep connection to memory, identity and artistry.

Whether through the rhythmic clatter of Kente looms or the quiet focus of Miao embroidery, a new generation of artisans and designers are telling a vibrant story of cultural pride and creativity rising from the Global South.

DESIGN & LIFE

At 2025 China International Fashion Week, 45 children from Guizhou's villages stunned the runway, as they walked confidently in traditional costumes hand-crafted by their mothers and grandmothers, with wooden plough, suantang (hot sour tomato soup), or Zimei rice (steamed sticky rice dyed with herbal extract -- a traditional food for Zimei Festival, celebrated every year on the 15th day of the third lunar month by Miao people) in their hands.

The inspiring encounter between China's most prestigious fashion event and these children wouldn't be possible if not for the Internet sensation Village Runway, or Cun T (rural fashion show) as called by Chinese netizens, a fashion initiative rooted in Guizhou's rural communities.

Yang Chunlin, an entrepreneur and fashion designer of Miao ethnicity from southeastern Guizhou Province, is a critical figure behind Village Runway.

"When my mother, me and our group of Miao embroiders got back from international fashion weeks in London, Milan, Helsinki, Singapore, Vancouver... I told myself that we need a runway of our own. Our traditional attires -- not only from Miao people but all ethnic groups in China -- deserve a stage of our own," Yang said.

While Miao embroidery designers are transporting the beauty of rural life onto runways, artisans in Ghana are keeping their heritage alive through Kente, a kind of woven cloth that moves just as fluidly between tradition and contemporary life.

"Kente can be used for many occasions, depending on the type of cloth or the colors you choose: during church activities, outdooring, marriage, festivals, even for funerals, among many others," said Kwasi Barfuor Asare Gyeabour, curator at the Bonwire Kente Museum.

"Kente, as it is in its shape, we do them in stripes, then we cut it, and we join all the stripes together," said Okyere Mafro, chairman of the Kente Museum Weavers and Sellers Association in Bonwire, a small town in the suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of central Ghana, standing in front of a Kente fabrics exhibition wall, adding: "It makes us unique. It identifies us."

CRAFTS & MARKET

In Bonwire, it is likely to find a Kente loom in nearly every household. The majority of residents in this heartland of the iconic Ghanian weaving craft work with Kente as a main or auxiliary income-generating avenue.

"Through Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok and Instagram, we are gradually catching up to the market through social media," said Mafro.

"The Kente business has helped a lot of people, not only the people from Bonwire, but the entire nation. It is the type of work our youth always do to pay their school fees," said Eric Afranie, a Kente weaver and seller at the Bonwire.

On the other side of the world, Miao embroidery faces a different challenge: the time-intensive manual labor makes it harder to scale for mass markets.

"Now our approach is to create different lines of products to reach a wider range of customers. We have a machine-produced embroidery line for the public at a very affordable price. We believe that it takes time and effort to raise awareness and cultivate aesthetic taste," said Yang, the fashion designer.

Wang Yunan, founder of the Hilo creative studio in Kaili city of southwest China's Guizhou province, said the studio approached the market ecosystem from another perspective.

"We focus on empowering entrepreneurs, to find niche and build a strategy, to create a feasible business model, to bridge urban customers' tastes and intangible heritage crafts."

Pan Xiulan, a 50-year-old Miao embroidery artisan, is now a resident partner at Hilo. "I started learning embroidery when I was seven or eight years old. Here at Hilo, I still constantly find new sub-styles that I have never seen -- it is fascinating," said Pan.

By working closely with seasoned artisans like Pan, the younger generation of designers like Wang connects the marketing insights and management methods with crafts, ensuring embroidery remains relevant to China's increasingly urbanized population.

CULTURAL CONFIDENCE ACROSS GLOBAL SOUTH

Despite the vast distance between them, Miao embroidery and Kente cloth speak a remarkably similar language -- one of memory, meaning and resilience. Both are more than decorative traditions; they are intricate systems of storytelling, expressions of identity, and acts of cultural preservation.

"When it comes to Kente cloth, we say it's a visual representation of our history and philosophical or oral literature, political thoughts, ethics, and even religious bodies," said Gyeabour.

That same spirit resonates in the embroidery of the Miao people, whose motifs -- birds, flowers, myths -- encode generational memory in thread. "It was the living environment that nourished the art," said Wu Xiaoqiu, a retired professor from Guizhou Normal University, recalling how women gathered under ancient trees to embroider, share songs, and pass on techniques by hand and heart.

This shared philosophy, that fabric can hold a community's soul, has become a driving force for a new generation of artisans and entrepreneurs across the Global South.

"It was my working experience at Oaxaca that inspired me to set up this studio in Guizhou," said Wang Yunan, founder of Hilo creative studio.

"Their model of cooperation among brands, designers and artisans enlightened me. I want to apply it for Miao embroidery, to create sustainable livelihoods for artisans while bringing these arts to urban customers," said Wang.

From the vibrant looms of Bonwire to the delicate needlework in Guizhou's mountain villages, young artisans and designers stitch together threads of memory and modernity.

Kente and Miao embroidery not only contain beautiful fabrics but also carry living legacies of pride and creativity. These stories echo far beyond Ghana and China. They are part of a wider tapestry of cultural revival, one that is unfolding across the Global South.

(Video reporters: Ni Yuanshi, Liu Qinbing, Cui Xiaoqiang, Xu Zheng; video editors: Zhang Mocheng, Zhu Cong)■