Drum towers are unique and significant structures in all Dong villages. The oldest standing drum towers date to the seventh century, but they are believed to have been first constructed as early as the second century. Every tower is built entirely without nails and features carved or painted phoenixes and …

Miao’s Tales Embroidery Costume Museum in Guiyang, but she spends most of her time now in Beijing where she writes, designs, and educates, devoting her life to the study and preservation of Miao textiles. This may seem an unusual choice for a Han woman not born into Miao traditions …

Tourism plays a complex role in the ethnic minority areas of Guizhou. Since the 1980s, when ethnic minority villages opened to international and domestic tourists, local and national government, tourism bureaus, and cultural agencies have continued to push the limits of ethnic tourism. Often, visitors are required to pay a …

The challenge of a history so long in the making is that facts vary and fade, leaving some of the details more abstract than concrete, like so many Miao embroidery motifs. The minority ethnic groups live in Guizhou, but as you wander through their villages, you feel as though they …

About 39 percent of Guizhou’s population is made up of more than thirteen ethnic minority groups, including Miao, Dong, Gejia, and Shui. These ethnic groups date their time in China by the century, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that they were officially recognized by the Chinese government …