"At first, I only tried weaving for fun," Tao admitted. "I never thought it could become a career. Doing a craft traditionally associated with women can feel unusual — even a little embarrassing."

Beyond gender stereotypes, the craft itself has often been dismissed as outdated — something practical and ordinary, and seemingly irrelevant to young people today.

"Weaving was common among those born in the 1960s and 1970s — my mother's generation," Tao said. "But very few people my age chose to learn it. Most saw it as a thing of the past."

The turning point came in 2016, when Tao returned to Hong'an to assist his mother with her weaving business. As he spent more time at the loom and began observing each part of the process, he noticed something unexpected: the mechanics of weaving closely mirrored the principles he had studied in engineering.

"A loom is all about balance, tension, and motion," Tao explained. "The warp and weft are similar to engineering concepts like the X and Y axes, where vertical threads intersect with horizontal ones."