Yugur Costume
01 · Historical Records
The origins of Yugur costume are closely tied to the migration history of this people in the northern part of the Hexi Corridor. The Yugur first lived in Central Asia and in the region from Dunhuang to the Tianshan Mountains, and their dress was once predominantly nomadic; only after the large eastward migration to Sunan in the late Ming and early Qing period did elements of farming and semi-agricultural, semi-pastoral life clearly enter the dress. Today's Yugur costume still shows these two provenances: men's long robes, fur hats, and leather boots belong to the steppe foundation, while women's elaborate headpieces and embroidered accessories are closer to the fine, dense workmanship of the Han regions and the Qinghai-Tibet area. The two are layered on the same person and have never replaced one another.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Unmarried Yugur girls wear a geyaozeyinie on the forehead: a long red cloth band whose upper edge is set with coral beads and whose lower edge is strung with many tassels of five-colored coral and small jade beads, hanging over the forehead. In addition, they comb their hair into five or seven braids, with colored velvet thread mixed into the ends, tucked into the belt at the back. Married women wear a peaked red-tasseled felt hat and three long headpieces; the headpieces are fastened to three braids, each divided into three segments joined by metal rings and inlaid with silver plaques, coral, agate, colored beads, shells, and other ornaments, forming beautiful patterns. The length of the headpieces is determined by the height of the wearer: they should reach up to the earrings at the top and down to the hem of the long robe at the bottom. Yugur men wear white felt hats with gold trim, long robes with a large collar and overlapping front, colored cloth belts, and tobacco pouches sewn from fragrant oxhide hanging at the waist. The hat brims are trimmed with black and curve up at the back, and on the colored satin crown is a circular or octagonal pattern woven in gold thread; the long robes are mostly sewn from hezi cloth woven from white wool yarn, or from cloth and silk, and the belt carries a waist knife, tinder set, snuff bottle, and other items. The front edges are trimmed with otter fur and the like, and the hem is slit at left and right and also trimmed.
Knitting the brown sheep-wool jacket
The brown jacket is knitted from white wool, soft and body-hugging, learned from mother to daughter.
The forehead band of coral beads
An unmarried girl wears a long red forehead band strung with coral and coloured beads above five or seven braids.
The three-section headdress chain
Married women wear three long chains on three braids, each in three ringed sections studded with silver, coral, agate and shells.
Full dress at the wedding
Weddings and festivals call for the full set: jacket, hat, sash ornaments and the complete headdress, gathered only when everyone arrives.
Sorting the four sets of tribal samples
Collecting samples from each tribe and comparing origins, technique and pattern gives scattered garments a shared baseline.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Sunan Yugur Autonomous County in Gansu Province is the most concentrated center of transmission for Yugur costume. Within the county the Yugur belong to several tribes, and the women's headdresses and the making of hezi shirts differ from tribe to tribe; moving south from the middle of the Hexi Corridor where the Yugur are concentrated, the costume is in turn influenced by neighboring practices in Qinghai and Mongolia, forming a gradual transitional belt. Even the same hezi shirt is treated differently among the tribes: the thickness of the yarn, the tightness of the weave, and the trimming of the collar edges each have their own methods. Therefore, when comparing the complete dress of the various tribes, one first compares the hezi shirt, then the headpieces, and only last the accessories.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The distinctive features of Yugur costume are most prominently embodied in women's dress. Yugur costume is a vivid portrayal of the living environment, mode of production, and economic and cultural development of the Yugur people. It contains many taboos and norms related to ethnic life customs, religious belief, and hero worship, reflects the social life of the Yugur people, and carries considerable value for historical and cultural research. With social development, most of the traditional craftsmanship for making Yugur costume is on the verge of being lost; for some garments' accessories and embroideries, neither the traditional techniques nor the original patterns can be fully preserved and transmitted, so urgent rescue and protection are needed. Ke Cuiling (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Female, Yugur ethnicity, born in January 1962, from Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu Province. From childhood she followed her mother Li Guihua and her eldest sister Ke Yuling in learning the traditional wool-weaving costume crafts, including hezi shirts, hezi quilts, leather garments, and piwozi (leather boots), and she can skillfully apply traditional cutting and sewing methods. From the age of fourteen she began collecting costume accessories, embroideries, and everyday articles of her people from all around, and continually learned various crafts from fellow Yugur. She can skillfully make the costumes and everyday articles of the various tribes. Besides her production work, she has excavated, organized, and collected complete sets of costume designs from four tribes, researching and systematizing their commonalities and differences from the perspectives of historical origins, production techniques, pattern art, and formative causes. She is a representative inheritor of Yugur costume, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item in the fourth national-level batch. From 1996 to 2007, her works were exhibited at various expos and won prizes many times.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Kecuiling 04-1984
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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