The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) represents a significant strategy through which China engages in the construction of shared human values and assumes responsibility for global peace and development in the new era. As culturally distinctive products shared by China and the ethnically cognate nations of the Indochina Peninsula—specifically the Zhuang, Dong, Miao, and Yao ethnic groups—these ethnic necessities have undergone an evolutionary trajectory from mere commodities to potent ethnic symbols. Today, they have emerged as quintessential cultural brands for these communities, gradually gaining international recognition. This study examines the socio-relational roles of Zhuang, Dong, Miao, and Yao ethnic necessities within the BRI framework. By adopting perspectives from intangible cultural heritage, ethnic necessities, and ethno-cultural symbolism, it comparatively analyzes the definition of these groups, brocade necessities and elucidates their contemporary value across three dimensions: semiotic significance, folkloric traditions, and aesthetic principles. The aim is to clarify the cultural bridging function of ethnic necessities in advancing the BRI’s objectives.