Young designer reimagines ancestral embroidery, bringing new appeal while creating opportunities for village artisans, Li Muyun and He Chun report in Changsha.

The tiger-faced hats feature a traditional Miao embroidery motif. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A playful tiger-faced hat has turned a young designer from Central China's Hunan province into an unexpected ambassador for one of the country's oldest embroidery traditions.

The traditional hand-embroidered tiger motif found on children's clothing among the Miao people of the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture is usually fierce and imposing. Passed down through generations, the design is believed to ward off evil and protect the child who wears it.

But Li Wen, a 23-year-old designer from the region, decided to give the centuries-old motif a fresh look.

Designer Li Wen adapts the centuries-old pattern, infusing it with new vitality. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Last year, she created a hat featuring a much friendlier tiger face: the tiger playfully sticks out its tongue, revealing its six pearl-strung teeth, while floral patterns sit beneath its wide, expressive eyes.

On May 14, this hat was seen inside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, worn by the 6-year-old son of Elon Musk. Within hours, videos of the boy in the traditional Chinese outfit spread rapidly across social media, drawing attention from around the world.

The hat had been purchased from the Remote Mountain Bazaar, a Beijing-based platform that helps traditional artisans in remote regions bring their handicrafts to market.

Miao embroidery has become an important source of income for women in Shibadong village, Xiangxi, Hunan province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

On a day after the video went viral, more than 1,000 orders poured in via the platform to Shibadong village in Xiangxi, where local embroiderers make the hats by hand.

Like many others, Li first learned about the attention through news reports. The experience reinforced her belief in the potential reach of Miao embroidery.

"I never imagined I would be connected in any way to the world's richest man," she says with a laugh.

Every detail on the tiger-faced hat carries meaning and blessings, Li explains.

The tiger's face is made of six half-circle pieces sewn together, creating a fuller, rounder appearance than the traditional flat design. Along the edge runs a row of "dog-tooth stitches" — a classic Miao embroidery technique believed to protect children from harm. The ears feature pomegranate patterns symbolizing blessings and family prosperity. Beneath the eyes, dahlia flowers represent good fortune and abundance, while a lotus on the tongue conveys purity and grace.

Li adapted the centuries-old pattern and infused it with her own aesthetic sensibility.

"The traditional tiger face in Miao embroidery is flat, dark and serious," Li says. "This one is cuter and friendlier."

She softened the lines, rounded the contours, and replaced the heavy colors with a lighter palette of blue and purple.

"That's always been my design style," she says.

"I like beautiful, cute things. My work reflects a bit of that — a bit of me."

Growing up in Luxi county, Xiangxi, Li spent much of her childhood watching her mother embroider shoe insoles and headscarves. Flowers, fish and birds gradually emerged beneath her mother's needle.

"I followed her and learned embroidery from a very young age," Li says.

A variety of bags are designed with the tiger motif. [Photo provided to China Daily]

After graduating from middle school, she enrolled in Xiangxi Vocational and Technical College for Nationalities, where she majored in arts and crafts. There she studied Miao embroidery and other intangible cultural heritage crafts, including batik, Tujia brocade and wood carving.

Under the guidance of local inheritors, she learned not only traditional techniques but also how to reinterpret historical patterns for contemporary audiences.

"Some of my college designs eventually reached factory-production standards," she says proudly.

After graduating in 2024, Li joined the design team of a Miao embroidery company in Shibadong village. There, her designs and those of her colleagues are transformed into finished products by local embroiderers, most of them women from Shibadong and neighboring communities.

Design work, she notes, extends well beyond sketches and computer screens. From creating the first sample to refining every detail, she regularly works alongside embroiderers on the production line.

"You have to understand the process," she says. "Something that looks simple on paper can be very difficult to make."

To inspire new creations, Li has developed a habit of collecting antique embroidered pieces, searching for them online and at local fairs. Some date back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), offering a rich source of traditional motifs and techniques.

One of the qualities Li values most about Miao embroidery is its sense of "freedom", reflected in its spontaneous, nature-driven patterns.

"Our Miao ancestors migrated over long distances," she explains.

"Legends say that they used embroidery to mark their route, stitching what they saw along the way. Flowers, birds, insects, and rivers, whatever caught their attention, became part of the patterns on their clothing."

That sense of openness still defines the craft today, she adds. "There's no rule that says you must stitch this to the left or that to the right. It's natural, free and fluid."

In 2021, Miao embroidery in Xiangxi was added to China's national intangible cultural heritage list. For the women of Shibadong, however, the craft represents more than cultural preservation.

Since a national poverty alleviation campaign was launched in the village in 2013, embroidery has become an important source of income.

According to local authorities, embroiderers in the village and surrounding areas earn an additional 2,000 to 3,000 yuan ($295 to $443) per month through embroidery work. Last year, Miao embroidery generated more than 5 million yuan for the local economy.

For Li, new ideas continue to take shape through fabric, thread and color. Her upcoming projects will focus on other creatures, including fish and shrimp, she says.

"I want to make them come alive. I want every creature in my work to have its own spirit."