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"When people come back, hope returns that our traditions can be passed on," Cao comments.
To help out Duzhima and others like her, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the central Chinese government, and cosmetic firm Jala Group, recently launched an initiative offering support and guidance to start and maintain a successful business.
The focus of this initiative is to provide the management skills to organize a workforce and make products by providing training workshops.
"We hope the program will help the local community build a sustainable culture-based ethnic minority business model, reduce poverty and instill a sense of pride among Mosuo women toward their culture that will cause them to protect it far more than policy alone could", says Silvia Morimoto, UNDP deputy country director in China.
Other Chinese institutions and individuals have also come up with initiatives to protect Mosuo culture.
For example, Liu Shiye, a senior high school girl in Beijing, opened an online shop that sells traditional Mosuo hand-made scarves after visiting the ethnic group in late 2010.
Despite these efforts to protect Mosuo culture, there are still concerns about its continuity.
"Old cultures are eventually superseded by modern mainstream cultures, it is an unavoidable trend," says Song Xiaoqing, a former officer with the Ministry of Culture.
"We cannot deny that our culture may disappear one day in the future," says MCRA's Cao. "But what we can do is slow down the process."
Even so, the UNDP's Morimoto is positive about the future of Mosuo culture.
"Ethnic minority groups possess rich and distinctive cultures, which, if properly preserved and managed, can be a strong driving force for development," she says.
"Since some cultures are only one generation away from extinction, the challenge therefore lies not in slowing down the process, but in convincing the people of its true value."
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