Handicraft making provides working opportunities to poverty-stricken people in Inner Mongolia

Aijim (L) learns the method of making "Sun Flower" from her grandmother (C) in Ewenki Autonomous Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Aug. 6, 2020. Aijim is a post-90s girl of Ewenki ethnic group living in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In 2014, she returned to her hometown at Ewenki Autonomous Banner, Hulun Buir City, after graduation from university, and helped her mother Uran run a handicraft studio. They make handicrafts themed on "Sun Flower", and opened up online business to sell the products. "Behind the handicrafts we made is the folk story of 'Sun Girl' who brought warmth and light to Ewenki people," said Aijim. In order to commemorate the "Sun Girl" using her power to make the forest where the Ewenki people lived no longer cold in the Ewenki folktale, the Ewenki people used fur and colored stones to make handicrafts and named them "Sun Flower". Now the "Sun Flower" has been developed as a cultural product of Ewenki ethnic group. Every year, Aijim and her mother's studio receives more than 10,000 orders across the country. With the support of the Sun Flower Inheritance and Development Center, the studio has been expanded and offered training for over 1,000 people to produce the handicrafts. It provides working opportunities to many poverty-stricken people and helps them increase their income. (Xinhua/Liu Lei)