The full name of Qiandongnan is Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture. It is an autonomous prefecture of Guizhou Province, China. Qiandongnan is comprised of one city (its capital Kaili) and 15 counties. It is home to 38 minority groups, with Miao (41%) and Dong (31%) being by far the largest. It is named by the United Nations as an important natural and cultural area and is known rather poetically as "the last ballad of humankind and the homeland for exhausted souls."

The Miao are one of several ethnic minorities living in the subtropical mountainous areas of southwestern China. Different groups include the Dong, Yi, Yao, Shui, Bouyi, Li, Gejia, and Bai among many others. For thousands of years, these migrating peoples have developed rich, cultural traditions and they are increasingly being recognized for their extraordinary handcrafted textiles and silver jewelry. It is the area of costume where mythology, technical skill, and cultural identity coalesce in vivid aesthetic expression. Until recently, most of these remote, ethnic villages were relatively isolated from the majority Han Chinese population. China's rapid modernization, however, has penetrated even the minority districts of Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guangdong provinces.