In 1971, he had discovered Afghanistan and in Kabul had started an artistic collaboration with
women embroiderers, creating tapestries such as his political Maps which would evolve according to the world's political mutations.
The
embroiderers were known for being particularly extraordinary; Guo Pei has changed history because, during the Cultural Revolution, that skill was stopped, so people in the area lost the skill of embroidery; and now that she's brought it back, there's even a
woman in her studio whose great grandmother was one of the
embroiderers in the last dynasty.