Ancient handicraft bucks gender norms

Like Wang, Fu Qirong felt the weight of inheriting the art from his grandparents, mother and aunts since childhood.

The man, in his 30s, grew up wearing Li brocade made by his elders and saw how they imparted the skills to the family's younger generations.

The deep-rooted family tradition had Fu bring together local weavers in his hometown of Dongfang city, on the west coast of Hainan, in 2018, when he was still a junior studying at the Yangtze University's College of Arts and Sciences based in Central China's Hubei province.