China’s first museum dedicated to Miao embroidery
Historical record ↗︎Guiyang Miao's Tales Costume Museum · Since 2007
A museum. A work of art.
An integrated work of ideas, exhibition narrative and space.
Founded in Guiyang in 2007, the museum draws on two generations of fieldwork and collecting by Zeng Xianyang and his daughter.
The permanent exhibition, The Unwritten Book, looks through clothing to the patterns and symbols it carries, exploring communal memory and understandings of life and the world. Moving among garments and images, visitors encounter the thought held within the beauty of the textiles.
2022 · 2023
Guizhou’s Top Ten Non-State Museums
Listed first in both years, as reported by Guiyang Daily.
Guiyang Daily · 2024 ↗︎The founding story
Learning to collect Miao embroidery alongside her father
As a child, she helped her father, Zeng Xianyang, clean and catalogue the garments he brought back from villages, holding lights and reflectors when he photographed them. At first, she could not understand his fascination. Over time, the old clothes that had taken her away from play began to draw her in. She came to understand his passion, and father and daughter became fellow collectors.
She continued her father’s Miao embroidery collection, extending it through her own collecting, fieldwork and research. The collection built across two generations became the foundation of the museum, bringing garments from village life into a public space for understanding Miao culture.
When her father became ill, she took on his wish to establish a museum. In 2007, its permanent exhibition, The Unwritten Book, offered a deeper inquiry into Miao embroidery. Her father visited in a wheelchair. After a long, thoughtful silence, he said only:
“This is an exhibition with depth.”
After his death, she took his book Miao Costume Atlas back to the villages in its pages. Decades had passed; clothing, faces and village life had changed. Following his routes, she made her own records and began to form her own thinking. The world he had introduced her to became one she would continue to explore.
Film archive · 3:07
Miao’s Tales
An earlier film, in the artist’s own voice. Chinese audio; optional English subtitles.
Meeting the world
From looking to meeting
She invited Miao women and cultural practitioners to share the stage and tell their own stories. Urban audiences also travelled with her into villages, meeting and talking with local families. The museum’s work extended into everyday life, making room for understanding to grow through time spent together.
She later brought Miao embroidery to audiences in the United States: on screens in New York’s Times Square, in an exhibition in Virginia, and through a lecture and workshop at the University of Houston. Across these settings, she builds connections between Miao communities and the wider world, creating opportunities to meet, see one another and understand.
University of Houston · Talk & Workshop ↗︎Continue inside the museum
Explore the collections, exhibitions and visiting information on the museum’s own website.
Visit the museum website ↗︎For exhibitions, talks and public programs, begin a conversation.
Discuss a collaboration ↗︎Authorship and image credits
Historic textiles are the work of their original makers. Collaborators are identified within each project. Images come from the artist’s website and project archive; please get in touch before reuse.