A skilled embroidery artist from Daye County, central China's Hubei Province, has been revitalizing the traditional art through online and offline training programs that have enabled many local residents to use the craft, helping them secure jobs and even start their own businesses.
Liu Xiaohong, a skilled embroidery artist, began learning the traditional Daye Embroidery - a recognized provincial intangible cultural heritage from the southeastern region of Hubei - from her grandmother at the age of 12.
Traditionally used in daily clothing, Daye Embroidery caught Liu's attention during a trip to Beijing over 20 years ago, where she discovered that embroidery artworks could fetch surprisingly high prices, prompting her to reassess the modern value of this ancient craft.
"I took my embroidered works to a market in Huangshi. Back then, one piece could sell for several hundred yuan. And a screen could fetch as much as 800 yuan (about 117 U.S. dollars), which greatly inspired me," said Liu.
Liu boldly innovated and developed four new embroidery techniques. Her pieces have won awards at national and provincial embroidery skills competitions. In recent years, she set up an online brand, which integrates popular trends into embroidered products, and gained over 300,000 followers on online platforms by uploading free tutorial videos.
"Through online platforms, our annual sales revenue has hit nearly 2 million yuan (about 280,000 U.S. dollars)," said Liu.
In order to help more people earn a living through embroidery, the local government supported Liu to establish a handicraft skills training school, which has so far trained over 10,000 students. Thanks to the promotion of Liu's embroidery brand, more than 2,000 women in Daye city have either found employment or started their own small businesses through embroidery.
Chinese embroidery artist helps increase locals' income in Hubei
A survey released by CGTN to global netizens shows that respondents strongly condemn the U.S.'s unilateral bullying of other countries under the pretext of "reciprocal tariffs," saying that this move may trigger countermeasures from other countries and eventually evolve into a "tariff world war," seriously impacting the world economy.
The U.S. claims that it has suffered losses in international trade and is raising tariffs on all trading partners under the pretext of "reciprocity," aiming to reduce the trade deficit. However, 81.03 percent of global respondents do not agree with this, believing that such measures will not achieve the expected results. During his first term in office, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on major trading partners. According to statistics from the American Action Forum, a think tank, Trump's protectionist policies during the first term cost U.S. consumers about 57 billion U.S. dollars annually. According to the survey, 81.94 percent of respondents believe that "reciprocal tariffs" cannot solve U.S.'s own problems but will only harm the interests of U.S. consumers and drag down the U.S. economic growth.
The competitiveness of products from different countries varies. Each country can set appropriate tariffs based on its own products to achieve "mutual benefit" in the international market. The "tariff farce" of the U.S. side is a selective disregard for the balance of interests reached through multilateral trade negotiations. Some 82.8 percent of the respondents point out that in the context of unequal economic development and economic strength of different countries, the U.S. insistence on full and complete reciprocity in tariffs is extremely irrational.
The majority of the U.S. tariffs this time are targeted at developing countries. Regarding this, 82.96 percent of the respondents condemn the U.S. for conducting "indiscriminate attacks" on other countries on the issue of tariffs, believing that this is a deprivation of the development rights of other countries, especially developing countries. According to the survey, 84.43 percent of the respondents believe that the U.S.'s imposition of "reciprocal tariffs" will exacerbate the problem of trade unfairness with its trading partners and traditional allies, seriously damaging the country's credibility.
As a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the U.S. has unilaterally and subjectively introduced so-called "reciprocal tariffs" and insisted on implementing them. This is a typical act of unilateral bullying. In response, 79.47 percent of the respondents criticize the U.S. for seriously violating the rules of the WTO. In the survey, 79.58 percent of the respondents say that "reciprocal tariffs" have become a new tool for the U.S. to promote trade protectionism, which will further intensify international trade tensions and global economic fragmentation.
This survey was released on CGTN's English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian platforms. Within 24 hours, a total of 9,600 overseas netizens participated in the survey and expressed their views.
CGTN poll: US 'reciprocal tariffs' draw condemnation from world
