Yanfei Yang, Sijin Li

Yanfei Yang, Sijin Li

Oct. 30, 2026

Digital-intelligent technologies, Guizhou Miao embroidery,

In the dual context of globalization and urbanization, Guizhou Miao embroidery—a living heritage that embodies the migratory memory of the Miao people and a women-centered knowledge system—faces a deepening crisis of transmission rupture. Although the introduction of digital technologies has substantially expanded capacities for documentation, dissemination, and representation, it has also brought to the fore global ethical issues concerning the ownership of representational rights, the definition of data sovereignty, and mechanisms of community participation. Drawing on representative research published since 2000, this paper systematically reviews five strands of scholarship: the ontology and cultural interpretation of Miao embroidery; fieldwork and identity construction; digital documentation and safeguarding; intelligent generation and design transformation; and communication, consumption, and culture–tourism integration. The review shows that scholarship is undergoing a paradigm shift from “rescue documentation” to “creative generation,” with digital-intelligent technologies evolving from auxiliary safeguarding tools into a paradigmatic force that is reconfiguring the ecology of Miao embroidery transmission. However, the field remains constrained by fragmented subgroup research, the absence of standards for evaluating cultural accuracy, the disjunction between technological and cultural logics, and the marginalization of transmission subjects. Facing the digital-intelligence era, efforts should consolidate the foundation of a cultural gene bank through digital empowerment, build a human–machine collaborative mechanism for safeguarding authenticity under the guidance of the “AI Plus” initiative, and improve the full-chain closed loop of “documentation–research–transformation–feedback” under the concept of systematic safeguarding, so as to promote the sustainable cultural reproduction of Miao embroidery between technological empowerment and community subjectivity.

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license