Weaving plants into cloth: a unique handicraft preserved by the Lisu people of SW China
By Globaltimes.cn, Published: 2016-09-28 17:34:20
Four generations of Li Conghui’s family sit outside their house in Jinsha Lisu Ethnic County under Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province on June 10, 2015. The huocao weaving technique was marked as a piece of national intangible cultural heritage in 2014, and Li Conghui is the sole inheritor of the art in Sichuan Province. Photo: CFP
Editor's Note:
Weaving huocao (Gerbera delavayi, a rare plant found in Southwest China) into cloth is a unique technique of the Lisu ethnic people of Southwest China. Locals dry huocao, twisting it into strips so that it may be woven into cloth. The whole process involves dozens of individual steps, meaning a single specimen can take several months to complete.

Li Conghui and her daughter-in-law braid linen strands outside her house as her granddaughter watches on. Photo: CFP
Li Conghui holds a bunch of linen lines outside her house. She continues to produce one suit every year. Photo: CFP
Li’s 80-year-old mother-in-law works on a linen line. Photo: CFP
Li’s family braids linen lines together. Li said most of the middle-aged women in the town are accomplished weavers, but few of them put their skills to use, and even fewer young people are willing to learn. Photo: CFP
Li Conghui weaves the linen into cloth with the help of a wooden tool. Photo: CFP
A member of the ethnic Lisu people shows onlookers how to weave huocao into cloth during the Firebrand Festival in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province on July 26, 2016. Photo: CFP
Two locals demonstrate the traditional huocao weaving technique during the Firebrand Festival in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province on July 26, 2016. Photo: CFP