One out of every five sweaters globally comes from Dalang, Dongguan—900 million pieces annually, a GDP of 47.37 billion RMB. This number represents the most typical scaled model of China's knitwear industry. But the flip side of scale is thin margins, severe homogenization, and weak bargaining power. On June 24, the 10th Textile Intangible Heritage Conference, the 23rd China (Dalang) Knitwear Products Trade Fair, and the 95th International Wool Conference kicked off simultaneously, sending a clear signal: Dalang knitwear is seeking a third path—using intangible cultural heritage to find new premium for 900 million sweaters.
Background
The three events running concurrently are not a simple schedule overlay. Since its inception in 2017, the Textile Intangible Heritage Conference has traveled through provinces including Zhejiang, Beijing, Yunnan, Liaoning, Guizhou, Hebei, and Sichuan. Its landing in Dalang is driven by the cluster's advantage of integrating industry and culture. Dalang's foundation is not just the roar of looms but also the Lingnan millennium-old dyeing techniques, hand embroidery, and Qilin zha zuo (paper crafting) intangible heritage resources. The conference theme, 'Intangible Heritage Coexistence, Weaving the Future,' centers on bringing intangible heritage techniques from museums into workshops, turning them into 'wearable cultural assets.'
The signing sessions revealed a stronger operational orientation. The China National Textile and Apparel Council's Intangible Heritage Office and CCICT signed the 'Textile Intangible Heritage Standard and Certification Cooperation,' meaning heritage products will soon have industry-standard backing—a critical step for buyers and brands to reduce selection risks. Additionally, the 'Strategic Cooperation for Textile Intangible Heritage and Knitwear Product Innovation and Development' was signed by the Dalang town government, local companies like Image Grassland, Tongfa, Xinhongfeng, and Lanmei, as well as China's top ten fashion designer Wang Dong and heritage inheritor Wan Gongxue. This four-party structure of 'government + enterprise + designer + inheritor' aims to bridge the entire chain from creativity to industrialization.
Industrial Impact
For buyers, what does heritage certification mean? In the past, knitwear products featuring embroidery, plant dyeing, or hand weaving had vague pricing logic, and consumers found it hard to verify the cultural value. Once standard certification is implemented, products will gain traceable and verifiable cultural labels, directly boosting the persuasiveness of brand premiums. For factories, the question is more practical: how can heritage elements be embedded into production lines without disrupting scale efficiency? The conference's solution is 'Dalang design, Dalang manufacturing, Dalang presentation'—starting from local heritage motifs (like Qilin) and completed by local enterprises through industrial precision manufacturing.
The fashion show's three chapters, 'Qilin Awakening,' 'Qilin March,' and 'Qilin Shine,' demonstrated this fusion. Image Grassland's plant-dyed cashmere, Tongfa's embroidered knitwear, Xinhongfeng's crossovers with Song brocade and Xiangyun sha—these are not small-workshop one-offs but industrial-scale ready-to-wear. This means heritage is no longer a 'sentimental business' but a replicable product development model. For foreign trade companies, this model offers a differentiation path away from low-cost competition in Southeast Asia.
However, risks exist. The integration of heritage and industrialization can easily fall into 'label-sticking' formalism—just printing a motif and calling it heritage. The role of standard certification is to prevent such dilution. Moreover, whether consumers will pay for cultural premiums depends on the coherence of brand narrative. Dalang's advantage is that it not only has heritage stories but also the trust endorsement of 900 million pieces of manufacturing capacity.