The danger of losing our traditions
What is the problem?
Our valuable traditions are slowly but surely fading and getting lost as the younger generations grow more and more a part of their culture and heritage. Many don’t identify themselves as Mien anymore, but as Thai. This is a consequence of the growing integration into the Thai culture due to mixing of Thai and Mien villages, cross-cultural marriages, and the big influence of Thai media especially on the younger generation. Since this generation is mostly not willing to learn from the elders, there is no one who can carry on the old traditions, which would mean the complete death of a whole culture in the next few generations.
What can we do?
To prevent this we started the Mien Project to help raising awareness of this problem. Our goal is first to help those Mien who still have the knowledge of the cross-stitching technique marketing the new products incorporating the Mien stitching so we have a successful base from where on we can encourage younger people to learn first more about the stitching, as it as a possible way of earning money, and then through this to also teach them about their culture.