Miao Costume

01 · Historical Records

From ancient times to the modern era, the Miao people underwent several large-scale migrations, in the course of which a distinctive national culture was formed. Miao women believe that the colors existing in nature are materials to be chosen and drawn upon in their lives, and that these colors should be worn on the body, forming a beauty that originates in nature yet transcends nature.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The most vivid and concrete expression of Miao culture is its colorful ethnic costume, among which the dress of Miao women is the most representative. The Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture is located in western Hunan Province, in the border area of the four provinces and municipality of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing and Guizhou. Xiangxi Miao comprise more than twenty branches, mainly 'Red Miao', and each branch in turn contains several sub-branches; this makes Xiangxi Miao costume exceptionally diverse, ultimately forming the basic characteristics of one type (the Xiangxi type) and three styles (the Huabao, Fenghuang and Jilu styles). Xiangxi Miao costume includes head cloths, shoulder capes, upper garments, waist aprons, sashes, decorative waist bands, trousers, skirts, leg wrappers, socks and shoes; these garments are decorated with several hundred richly fanciful and deeply meaningful patterns, including geometric, animal and plant motifs. Xiangxi Miao costume is produced by a set of traditional techniques, including weaving, printing and dyeing, embroidery, brocade weaving, cross-stitch (tiaohua), counted-thread work (shusha), wax-resist dyeing (laran) and tie-dyeing (zaran); each technique has its own distinct production process and processing method. Among the Miao costume found in Xixiu District of Anshun County, Guizhou Province, four kinds are relatively common. First, women wear a crescent-shaped red wooden comb, their hair wound into a bun and coiled around the comb, with silver chains wound around the outside; the upper garment's two front panels cross and join; below they wear a long skirt, held at the waist with a hemp or brocade sash, and the apron is mostly edged with batik or embroidery. Second, women coil their hair into a bun surrounded by indigo batik-edged cloth folded up into a pointed top; the clothing is mostly in dark blue-black, decorated with lace of various colors; the garment front has two white lace borders, which on festive days are replaced with brightly colored borders decorated with various bird-and-flower patterns made by embroidery and dyeing; below they wear a pleated skirt longer than the knee, with lace at the hem, and they wrap their lower legs with indigo cloth bands. Third, women insert a bamboo slip with a small wooden comb tied to it diagonally into the hair bun, then wind the remaining long hair plus false hair around the comb; the garment is a short jacket with crossed diagonal opening, generally in blue-black, blue or indigo tones, with lace trim on the cuffs and collar; on festive or other celebratory days they wear colored clothes, mostly red; the skirt reaches the instep, alternating between blue and indigo or blue and white, worn with a brocade sash and a white apron. Fourth, women coil their hair into a bun, with an arch-bridge-shaped ornament of batik cloth, insert a silver hairpin on the forehead, wear a short upper garment with diagonal opening, with the sleeves and collar edged with floral cloth; below they wear a batik pleated skirt alternating between blue-and-white or indigo-and-white tones, with a decorative sash and apron at the waist. Guanling Miao costume is divided into garments and headdress. In the garments, the three embroidery patterns of differing sizes and motifs on the flat collar, the sleeveless waistcoat and the sleeves symbolize the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and the Yuan River of the Miao homeland; the different geometric figures within them represent the crisscrossing fields and paths within the three great river basins. The large motif at the center of the skirt symbolizes the Miao compatriots joined heart and hand; in the large rectangular colored embroidery patterns on the front and back of the upper garment, different motifs respectively represent the sun, the stars, flowers and so on. The three vertical flower-shaped embroidery patterns on the apron, arranged in the shape of the character 'chuan' (river), represent the three major dialects of the Miao language. Anshun Miao headdress is quite elaborate. Married women comb their hair from the temples into a bun twisted into a cylindrical shape, coiled from left to right above the right ear, and then insert an ox-horn-shaped wooden comb in red and green; unmarried girls' headdress parts their hair from the forehead straight forward, then braids the hair together with strands made from loose hair into a single braid, coiled from left to right around the head, with the end of the braid left hanging like a tassel at the top of the right ear. The Nayong Qingmiao (Qing Miao) costume of Guizhou is the branch among all Miao branches whose costume is the most completely preserved; its headdress is inserted into a high bun coiled into a 'V' shape resembling an ox horn. It is said that 'Chiyou's ears and temples were like swords and halberds, and his head had horns; he fought with the Xuanyuan (Yellow Emperor), striking people with his horns so that none could face him.' The Nayong Qingmiao headdress bears these 'clan emblem' marks of 'knotted hair' (zhuashou) and 'striking horns'. What is especially worth mentioning is that the all-embroidery costume of Nayong is exquisite in workmanship and its production process is plain and old-fashioned, making it a fine product among Miao costumes. Because different Miao branches have different cultural backgrounds, living environments and ranges of intermarriage, different costume culture circles have formed, of which the Jianhe Miao costume of Guizhou is one. It is distributed across ten townships within the county, with twelve major categories and nearly one hundred styles; embroidery alone comes in more than twenty kinds, and the stitching techniques and methods are highly varied. Taijiang Miao costume employs a wide variety of embroidery stitches, mainly including more than twenty kinds such as flat embroidery, embroidery over brocade, split-thread embroidery, braid embroidery and coil embroidery. Its compositions include symmetrical, left-right and centralized forms; artistically it shows features of variation and exaggeration, with strong conceptual content and a clear distinction between primary and secondary elements; a single composition is a story, and historians have called it 'a history book worn on the body'. The 'hundred-bird feather skirt' of the Baibei Miao costume is unique and is the most representative of the Miao costumes of Rongjiang County, Guizhou. Its robe and skirt patterns take the forms of a hundred birds as their main body, with dragon and phoenix images interspersed among them, reflecting this Miao branch's worship of the bird totem. The front opening, sleeves, apron, skirt and lower hem and other positions are covered with other patterns, mainly fish, shrimp, stone clams (freshwater mussels), spiders, snakes, chains, flowering trees, and mountains and rivers. The making of the costume must go through multiple processes such as rolling, pressing, kneading and pounding, in which techniques such as batik, woven-flower weaving and embroidery are used alternately; the whole production is exquisite and highly creative, displaying a distinct ethnic and regional character. The color expression of Suojia Qingmiao costume is very prominent; both the colored batik costume and the cross-stitch embroidered costume, produced mainly by hand, use natural raw materials. The colored costumes of the Suojia Qingmiao (mainly women's dress) preserve much information about ancient cultural customs; their unique patterns, lines and various expressive and symbolic signs have become an important component of Qingmiao culture. Danzhai County, Guizhou Province, is located on the slopes at the southern edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The multi-ethnic mountainous area here takes the Ganao branch of the Miao people as its main body, and the relatively independent geographical environment has enabled the Miao living and working here to form their own distinctive costume culture. Through development, the differences in costume among the sub-groups have grown increasingly marked, but they still share one common feature: each does its utmost to display the bird totem worshiped by the Ganao branch of the Miao people through embroidery or batik, expressing the bird motif to the fullest. The extreme worship of birds has produced the artistic charm of Ganao-branch Miao costume; costumes such as the 'hundred-bird robe', the 'golden pheasant dress' and the 'ancient batik costume' collectively embody the group consciousness of bird worship and have become important cultural symbols of the Ganao branch.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Miao living in the higher-altitude mountain areas of southern Tongzi County, Guizhou Province, in order to withstand the severe winter climate there, mostly use a jacket with two front panels opening to both sides (duikaijin) for the upper garment, and below wear batik pleated skirts and cross-stitch aprons, with cross-stitch sleeve covers over the sleeves and multiple layers of cross-stitch leg wrappers on the lower legs. The Guanling Miao costume of Anshun is a relatively representative costume of the Miao who speak the Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan dialects; it is concentrated in the Miao settlements of Dingyun, Guansuo and Huajiang in Guanling County, Guizhou, and is also found in the surrounding counties of Qinglong, Xingren, Anlong and Zhenning. The Miao costume of Taijiang, Guizhou, is renowned at home and abroad for its rich content, diverse forms, plain and mysterious modeling, and bold and ingenious color schemes. Divided according to local Miao dialect, its types include nine major categories, namely Fangni, Fangjiu, Fangbai, Fangxiu, Fangnan, Fangweng, Fangli, Baxiang and Wengmang, with more than one hundred styles in all.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The patterns and shapes of Jianhe Miao costume are rich and colorful, plain and mysterious; the layout is unusual, the composition full and rigorous, the images clearly ordered between primary and secondary, and the color decoration strongly contrasting, giving it unique aesthetic value and a distinct ethnic style. Comparing the ancient costumes that can be collected today, it is found that the differences among the seven sub-groups' ancient garments are very slight, of which the hundred-bird robe of the 'Yahui type' best preserves the original appearance. The highland style of Tongzi Miao costume is the most direct example of costume adapting to the local environment. Southern Tongzi County lies at high altitude with bitterly cold winters; the upper garment mostly takes the two-panel-opening style (duikaijin) for ease of putting on and taking off, with batik pleated skirts and cross-stitch aprons worn underneath for warmth, cross-stitch sleeve covers over the sleeves, and multiple layers of cross-stitch leg wrappers on the lower legs, layer upon layer keeping the cold out and also stacking the patterns several layers deep. The cross-stitch work on the aprons and leg wrappers here is not merely decoration but a practical item that can be repeatedly removed and washed; in winter an apron kept on the body is the equivalent of an extra layer of clothing. The patterns on the costume are still arranged according to branch memory: the hundred-bird feather skirt of branches such as Baibei takes the hundred birds as its main body with dragons and phoenixes interspersed, reflecting worship of the bird totem, while the colored batik and cross-stitch embroidery of the Suojia area make extensive use of natural raw materials, preserving ancient colors and lines. These practices show that even within a single branch, differentiation can arise from differences in the climate of the places of residence; the map of Miao costume is therefore not a homogeneous one, but a detailed projection of the mountain environment.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Tao Meiyuan 04-1970
• Yang Wenqin 05-3000
• Xiong Guangzhen 05-3001
• Jiang Laoben

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Miao Costume (Tongzi, Guizhou) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗