In this article, discusses further issues of
marketization of ethnic artefacts in Guizhou. Marketization of
traditional cultural
resources such as Miao costumes and their associated techniques in Southeast Guizhou is not quite a recent phenomenon, but embodies a long history involving a variety of market forms. Cases of commodification of the Shidong
traditional costumes and ornaments and the Xinzhuang indigo suggest that folk crafts relying on natural materials and on manual production develop primarily in the traditional market of agricultural economy. As modern markets flourish and alternative industrial products pour in, traditional craftsmanship begins to decline and is mastered only by a handful of technicians. Rise and fall of traditional workshops in Taijiang County, on the other hand, raise not only the problem of traditional technique management in modern society, but also issues concerning ways by which products made of native resources get transported for sale in distant and outside markets. Despite alterations of functions,
marketization has, to some extent, helped those tradition crafts in decline to persist in modern societies.