One in every five sweaters worldwide comes from Dalang, a small town in Dongguan, Guangdong. The town produces approximately 900 million sweaters annually, with the entire industrial chain generating over 72 billion yuan in transaction value and employing more than 200,000 people. On June 25, the 10th Textile Intangible Cultural Heritage Conference was held here, directly linking centuries-old textile heritage with one of the world's most renowned knitting clusters. This was not merely a cultural event but a strategic move by the textile industry to find differentiated value anchors amid overcapacity and intensifying homogenization.
Heritage and Clusters: From Cultural Symbols to Productive Forces
Dalang's knitting industry began in the 1980s with processing trade and has evolved over four decades into a complete chain covering yarn, design, weaving, finishing, and sales. With 30,000 market entities, 900 million sweaters annually, and 72 billion yuan in transaction value by 2025, the cluster faces shrinking profit margins as cost advantages diminish. Where is the breakthrough?
The conference's answer is 'symbiosis with intangible heritage.' Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, stated that textile ICH is a key resource for enhancing industrial value and a vital carrier for expanding cultural influence. This implies that ICH can be systematically embedded into modern industrial chains as a value-adding element. Local enterprises like Impression Plateau focus on high-end cashmere, Tongmen Fashion integrates traditional Chaozhou hand-hook techniques with computerized knitting, and Zhouhong Apparel emphasizes the deep integration of aesthetics and knitting—all showing that heritage craftsmanship is becoming a support point for product differentiation pricing.
Policy and Market Dual Drive for Living Heritage
Deng Xiaoding, Second-Level Inspector of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, proposed four suggestions: preserve the fundamentals, empower with culture, innovate scenarios, and collaborate. These outline a clear path for industrial transformation: preserving traditional techniques is foundational, but the key is converting them into marketable consumer goods through modern retail channels.
The 2025/2026 China Textile Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Report released at the conference is not a simple annual summary but an attempt to provide quantifiable decision-making references. It systematically reviews core achievements and demonstrates industrial integration and fashion innovation. Meanwhile, the 'Heritage·Origin—China Youth Design Support Project' launched by CNTAC and Beijing Fashion Week targets young designers, reflecting the industry's alertness to the risk of generational gaps in heritage transmission—only by engaging younger talent can ICH commercialization be sustainable.
Three Breakthroughs in Commercialization: From Single Products to Lifestyle
In the discussion on 'Commercial Transformation Paths of Textile ICH,' practitioners shared practical experiences. Ning Manli, Chairwoman of Guizhou Danzhai Ninghang Batik, proposed 'let those who know the craft keep the roots, and those who know the market open the door'—essentially a division of labor logic where inheritors preserve purity while companies handle market conversion.
From a product perspective, the challenge is moving from single items to a 'lifestyle.' Tao Yanjie, General Manager of Impression Plateau, shared how the brand extended ICH from clothing to home and accessories. Professor Guo Ruiping from Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology demonstrated the possibility of deeply integrating ICH techniques with knitted products through her 24-solar-term series. Her core view: the key to ICH transformation is multi-dimensional cognitive enhancement, requiring adaptation to local conditions with a focus on contemporaneity, fashion, lifestyle, and industrialization.
For buyers and factories, ICH is not a simple 'label' but a deep modification that must be involved from the design stage. Every link—from material selection to production processes, pattern design to marketing narratives—needs re-adaptation.