Life and Leisure
The long and short of Miao fashions
By Yu Feng (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-06 08:26
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Secluded in the mountains for hundreds of years, the Kongshen Miao ethnic group remained little known until 1996, when their unique costumes came under the spotlight at a festival in Rongjiang county, Guizhou province.
A recent trip to their village hidden in the mountains of Yongping town, threw up several more surprises.
The Kongshen Miao call their village ou xi, which means "clear brook" in the Miao language. Indeed, a clear brook runs through rows of wooden houses on stilts scattered over rolling, green hills, where children welcome visitors with a ready smile.
According to local legend, the first settlers led a very hard life. Women wore hats made of tree bark and wrapped themselves in banana leaves to shield themselves from sun and rain.
The ingenious women later made V-shaped cloth hats that they tied with slender dyed ribbons, a sight that will remind visitors today of the witches in fairytales.
They also wore black blouses with short lake-blue sleeves to match their beautiful skirts, which are about 30 cm long and made from some 30 layers of black cloth, with pleats resembling the veins of banana leaves.
The skirts fit in nicely with the warm and humid climate, and do not get in the way when the women climb the hills and work in the paddy fields.
The mini-skirt is, however, covered in front by a knee-length embroidered apron. The women also wear silver necklaces and other silver ornaments that produce a pleasant sound as they walk and dance.
The most interesting folk custom here is the maoren festival, which falls on the third day of the third lunar month - sometime in April.
The festival is looked forward to by single men and women, as this is their opportunity to find their love partner through song and dance.
After a special meal of boiled herbs, whose plain appearance masks a delectable taste, the entire village gathers in the center - and the dancing begins.
As some young men blow into their bamboo lushengs, a wind instrument that makes melodious music, others form a circle and dance with a rhythmic switching of arms and light steps.
Next comes the climax of the festival - climbing the maoren slope. As women disappear behind a hill, young men busy themselves cutting tree branches and binding them with cogon-grass to make simple, scarecrow-like maoren, which stand in a line facing the village.
The tallest maoren represents an older sister and is placed in the middle, with her shorter, "younger" sisters standing on both sides.
The young men sit in a row and begin singing. Quietly, the girls come out of their hiding places and sit behind the one they like, singing softly in the Miao language.
As dusk falls, pair after pair get up and leave.
The story first appeared in Trends Traveler magazine.