Ecology, Capital, and Resilience: Socioeconomic Transformation and Public Policy Restructuring of the Shui Ethnic Group’s Horse-Tail Embroidery

Abstract

“Shui Horse-Tail Embroidery,” a national-level intangible cultural heritage, serves not only as a “wordless history book” of Shui cultural identity and totem worship but also as a quintessential “eco-cultural” synergy system that has emerged from the fragile karst and desertified ecosystem of Southwest China. Under the impact of modernization and urbanization, Horse-Tail Embroidery faces dual challenges: high labor opportunity costs and substitution by modern industrial products. Based on field visits and surveys conducted by our research team during winter and summer breaks from 2024 to 2026 to the homes and workshops of Horse-Tail Embroidery artisans in Sandu Shui Autonomous County, Guizhou Province—and drawing on literature such as Research on Shui Culture in China and the Economic and Social Survey Report on China’s Ethnic Regions—this paper systematically analyzes the dynamic evolution of Horse-Tail Embroidery amid ecological resource constraints, market-oriented transformation, and institutional protection from the interdisciplinary perspectives of environmental economics, cultural sociology, and public policy. The study finds that through the low-carbon, circular utilization of natural resources, the regeneration of women’s social capital, and micro-scale innovations in cultural and creative products—such as embroidery combined with silver—Horse-Tail Embroidery has successfully charted a transformation path that balances ecological sustainability with community economic resilience. Finally, this paper evaluates the effectiveness of current “productive conservation” public policies and proposes a modern public policy restructuring plan to promote the sustainable development of Horse-Tail Embroidery from the perspectives of environmental property rights protection, cultural compensation mechanisms, and social governance.