"I strongly disagree with his idea," says Yang Yuan, an MCWC researcher.

With the need to wear traditional garments dying out in ethnic areas, the most effective way to protect a costume culture is to adapt it to the modern world, she says.

"Young people in my village don't know how to make a suit now. The only ethnic garment I have was made by my mother when I was a little girl," says Wang Zhifen, 39, of the Yi ethnic minority.

Wang, who works at the Wumayao Anthropological Museum in Kunming, says people only wear traditional costume to celebrate festivals or attend religious ceremonies in her home in Mile County in Honghe Autonomous Prefecture of Hani and the Yi nationalities in Yunnan, home to 25 ethnic groups.

"The clothes of China's 55 ethnic minority groups are unique in terms of their patterns, weaving, embroidering and dyeing techniques and are of great value for academic research," says Yang Yuan.

"Carrying forward the intangible cultural heritage will play a significant role in preserving China's cultural diversity," she says.

Clothing cultures are not meant to be museum specimens or living fossils, says Li Hong, of the MCWC.

They should actively move with fashion trends and tastes.

Style-setters instinctively return to the past for inspiration, particularly to traditional cultures, she says.

Theng, who has taught costume design at the Northeast Normal University in Changchun, capital of Jilin Province, encourages her students to create their own styles.

"Many world-class brands have their products made in China. China has all the clothes-making techniques - what it needs most is design skills," Theng says.

She says Chinese designers have a responsibility to establish unique brands and take them to the world.

Pan agrees. "While keeping the living fossils in the museums, we should also find a good way to revive the centuries-long cultures in everyday life."

(Shanghai Daily August 11, 2009)