The Yi or Nuosu, an ethnic group in southern China comprising around nine million people, are one of 55 minority groups recognised by the Chinese government. They speak six “mutually unintelligible” languages, partly because their homes in the mountains are so difficult to travel between that languages have evolved in relative social isolation. The mountains are at the eastern end of the Himalayas – even the region’s capital, Kunming, is located at 2,000 metres above sea level – and are, in the west and north, theatrical and snowy, and in the south green and lush, harbours of misty valleys, alive with birds and animal life.

It was perhaps this sloping gentleness that Longhong Ziwei had in mind when she named her nascent jewellery brand in 2017. Soft Mountains was born from Longhong’s deep inquiry into the artisanship of the region, and produces silver jewellery that comes directly from the Yi’s long artistic relationship with the metal. In the collections, sheeny fat studs or delicate fretwork are paired with traditionally shaped jade beads. Everything communicates what the brand calls the “almost supernatural artistry” of the region, where ancient techniques are retained for their spiritual dimensions. A bead maker told Longhong, for instance, that he uses the traditional cow horn tool to create his beads instead of replacing it with a similarly shaped steel one, because the imperfections of the horn are what give each bead its singular identity. Similarly, the designs retain the symbolic resonances of their roots. The four-pointed star, for example, is an auspicious symbol; at Soft Mountain, they’re transformed into bracelets, necklaces, and cascading earrings.

The exclusive images across these pages were shot by Jin Jia Ji in Muli, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan, a region that Longhong learned of while reading the diaries of Zhuang Xueben, a photographer and ethnographer from the 1930s, who was one of the first to document the lives of ethnic minority communities in Southwest China and whose photographs remain one of the earliest and most important visual archives of daily life in the area 100 years ago. As Longhong explains, the area is home to both Yi and Tibetan communities, which gives it a unique cultural richness. “It still feels raw and untouched, not gentrified or touristic,” she says, “with almost no outside visitors. Nature is preserved, and the people remain very genuine, which makes it the right setting for us.” As the team passed through the area, they met people along the road whom they spontaneously approached to shoot. “Usually, people were open once we explained what we were photographing,” Longhong says, “But of course, some were also shy and declined, and we respected that. For me, being Yi myself also created an immediate connection because there’s a sense of shared language and mutual trust.”

This personable way of producing the images – unassuming, gentle – has its parallels with how Longhong built the brand in the first place, out of family and friend networks and word of mouth. It was a soft approach that paid off. “At first, it took a lot of time to find like-minded artisans, and it required patience to build mutual understanding, but once they realised we weren’t trying to change their traditions, just here to build from them, the collaborations became much smoother.”

Ultimately, it is a spirit of inquiry that moves on the mountains. “Curiosity drives me,” Longhong says simply. Beyond these familiar Yi communities, she’s exploring other minority crafts in China from her base in Shanghai. “The Lisu are known for intricate beadwork, Tibetans have a tradition of black pottery, and the Dai make beautiful beading works,” she says. “I’d like to bring these into conversation with Soft Mountains as well, not just through jewellery but also maybe lifestyle objects like vases, coffee mugs, or even carpets. Each project is a way of keeping these crafts alive while showing their relevance in the present.” The images across these pages, and the unplanned encounters they represent, mirror the brand’s introduction of historic craft to the present day – and the centrality of conversation and co-creation to it all. .