Yi Costume
01 · Historical Records
The emergence and development of Yi costume are closely bound up with the history and beliefs of the Yi people. It was not created in a single act, but accumulated layer upon layer as Yi society divided and migrated: the felt cape, the sheepskin jacket, the fire-steel-flame patterned armor, and the retrospective patterns embroidered on the chest — each one corresponds to a stretch of life or a sacrificial rite. Hence the saying that it is like a history worn on the body: to read its patterns and accessories is to read through the routes by which the Yi migrated and split apart.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Yinuo costume custom area, also called the wide-trouser-leg region, is typically represented by Qingheng Township and others; the Shengzha costume custom area, that is, the medium-trouser-leg region, is represented by Bi'er Township and others; the Suodi costume custom area, in other words the narrow-trouser-leg region, is represented by Dimo Township. By style, Yi costume divides into headwear, upper garments, trousers, skirts, and outerwear. From a functional standpoint it divides into everyday dress, work dress, the rite of changing the child's skirt, wedding dress, funeral dress, sacrificial dress, and festive ceremonial dress. Taking occupation as the criterion, there is the dress of the bimo (ritual specialist), the suni (shaman), the degu (mediator), and the warrior. By sex it comprises men's garments and women's garments; by age it comprises garments for the elderly, for the middle-aged and young, and for children. Zhaojue Yi men's dress includes headwear, an upper garment, trousers, and accessories such as the duta and a sword. Women's dress consists of headwear, an upper garment, a skirt, and accessories of gold, silver, and jewelry. Traditional Yi dress for both men and women is predominantly white, black, and blue. Both men and women wear the jiashi and the wala. Ornament is mostly made up of patterns based on fern tendril, fire-steel flame, and sheep-horn motifs. Ornamentation is commonly worked on the chest, shoulders, cuffs, and front edges of upper garments. The workmanship relies mainly on embroidery, using picked floral, appliqué, and patchwork techniques. The emergence and development of Yi costume are closely bound up with the history and beliefs of the Yi people; like a history worn on the body, it carries the Yi people's past years. Once apprentices have completed their training, they usually set up on their own and then pass the craft on to new apprentices, and so the cycle repeats. Yi costume is an important vehicle of Yi culture: a materialized spiritual product and a living folk culture. The crafts associated with this heritage item — plant dyeing and printing, wool felting and weaving, embroidery, lacquer work in the making of leather armor and leather bracers, and gold and silver ornament making — fully demonstrate the outstanding wisdom and rich creativity of the Yi people, and are of reference value for research in folklore studies, ethnology, and the applied arts.
The great-trouser style of Yino
The Yino area is also called the big-trouser region, typified by villages such as Qingheng; the wide trousers are lifted for walking and carry both ease of movement and dignity.
The middle-trouser style of Shengzha
The Shengzha area, the middle-trouser region, is represented by villages such as Bier; its cut is moderate and its decoration more restrained.
The narrow-trouser style of Suodi
The Suodi area, the narrow-trouser region, is represented by Dimo; between the three areas the size of a man’s trouser hem alone identifies the wearer.
Daily wear of jia-shi and wa-la
Both men and women wear jia-shi and wa-la in plain white, black and blue, the sturdiest working dress of the mountains and the base beneath festive attire.
Patterning the four edges of the jacket
Fern-base, firesteel and ram’s-horn patterns are placed at the chest, shoulders, cuffs and front edges — the parts most seen and most exposed.
The dress at the girls’ coming-of-age rite
A dedicated costume marks the girls’ coming-of-age, standing alongside work dress, wedding, funeral, sacrificial and festival attire, one set for each stage of life.
Distinct dress for ritual, elders and warriors
Divided by occupation, distinct garments are worn by ritual specialists, shamans, elders and warriors, each writing the wearer’s office into the dress.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yi have numerous branches, which have produced rich regional styles; the Yi costume of the Zhaojue area of Liangshan is an important component of them. Yi costume culture in Zhaojue County, Sichuan Province, has deep roots; it brings together the costume styles of the three major dialect areas of Yinuo, Shengzha, and Suodi, and has long been known as the "hometown of Yi costume culture." Within Zhaojue County in Liangshan, costumes of the three major dialect areas — Shengzha, Yinuo, and Suodi — are distributed; as a rule their differences can be told from the width of the trouser legs worn by Yi men.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Yi Costume.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Yi costume is one of the important symbols of the Yi people; in clothing, adornment, and accessories it has formed a cultural tradition handed down through the generations. Since its inception, Zhaojue Yi costume has been sustained to the present day through social and master-apprentice transmission. Jiabazize (record of the associated inheritor's official file): Female; Yi; born in November 1966; native of Xichang City, Sichuan Province. She learned Yi costume making from her mother from childhood, and by the age of fourteen had basically mastered the fundamental techniques of Yi costume. She has successively opened Yi costume workshops, founded a traditional Yi costume shop and a costume factory, and produced Yi costumes for the song and dance troupe of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. She has a complete command of the spinning, weaving, dyeing, cutting, sewing, and embroidery of traditional Yi costume, is familiar with and observes the customs governing its use, and is able to design and execute patterns; her workmanship is fine and meticulous. She has devoted herself to teaching the techniques of Yi costume making, taking on more than two hundred apprentices, many of whom have been recognized as inheritors at the prefectural and county levels. In addition, she established a Yi costume craft teaching institute, training rural women of the prefecture, helping them to find employment and raise their incomes while transmitting Yi costume craft. She is a representative inheritor of Yi costume, a fifth national-level intangible cultural heritage item.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Jia Bazize 05-3065
- Puyuzhen 05-3066
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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