Bouyei Costume
01 · Historical Records
From the Qing dynasty onward, related records became more abundant; the garments are mentioned in documents such as the Nanlong Prefecture Gazetteer of the Qianlong reign and the Qiannan Regional Records of the Daoguang reign.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Buyi costume has a long history reaching far back. The Hongzhi-era Guizhou Illustrated Gazetteer of the Ming dynasty records: "Zhongjia women wrap a square of black cloth around the head and wear a finely pleated black skirt of as many as twenty or more panels." Below the belly hangs a square of multicolored picked embroidery like a ceremonial sash, still covered over with black cloth. The process of making Buyi costume in Guizhou is lengthy, covering cotton growing, indigo planting, indigo beating, yarn twisting, spinning, combing the thread, cloth weaving, brocade weaving, dyeing, embroidery, tie-dyeing, and garment making; every step is rich in folk custom and traditional craft. A complete set of women's formal dress includes a head cloth, an upper garment, an apron, a waistband, a short pleated skirt (or long trousers, or a long skirt), and embroidered shoes. Buyi costume favors shades of blue, dark blue-black, and white; the style is elegant and graceful, simple and dignified, with fine floral patterns inlaid and embroidered, the colors layered in harmonious overlap. Formal dress is usually worn on important occasions such as marriage rites, funeral and sacrificial ceremonies, and festival celebrations, and carries multiple layers of folk cultural meaning. Buyi costume is both a marker of ethnic identity and closely bound up with rites such as mourning and sacrifice, marriage, and festivals. It is made by women who themselves grow, spin, weave, dye, sew, and embroider the materials, combining the crafts of weaving, printing and dyeing, picked floral work, embroidery, batik, and brocade, and fully embodying the basic characteristic of agrarian culture in which "men plow and women weave." Its types, colors, patterns, and forms fully express the aesthetic ideals of the Buyi people. Buyi costume in Guizhou has accumulated a deep historical culture, embodying the beliefs and ethnic memory of the Buyi people.
Growing cotton and indigo
Cotton and indigo are grown first, then beaten, spun, woven, dyed, embroidered and made up — a chain that begins in the field and never leaves the land.
Beating indigo and dyeing cloth
Blue, indigo-green and white dominate; the depth of the blue comes from repeatedly beating fermented indigo and dyeing the cloth again and again.
Twisting, spinning and combing
Yarn is twisted, spun and then combed; combing is what allows it to survive the tension of the loom and come out of the cloth flat.
Weaving brocade and embroidery
Brocade weaving, cross-stitch and embroidery belong to the same tradition; a dense pattern is possible only because warp and weft alike are made at home.
A full women’s outfit
A full outfit runs from headscarf through jacket, apron, belt, pleated skirt or trousers to embroidered shoes, a coordinated set that shows the household’s standing.
Long and short tunics for men
Men’s dress is little varied, in long and short tunics; women’s dress counts more than twenty local types, the simplicity and richness of each marking a division of labour.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Buyi costume in Guizhou is distributed mainly in Buyi settlement areas in the valleys of the southern and northern Panjiang and the Hongshui River. The more representative places include southwestern, central, and southern Guizhou, parts of Liupanshui City, and Piantuo Township of Guiyang; there are roughly twenty or more types, such as the Xiaohuajiang type of Zhenfeng and the Dayi type of Wangmo. Men's dress varies little from place to place and falls mainly into two styles: the long coat and the short jacket.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
As a cultural vehicle concentrating the wisdom of the Buyi people, Buyi costume is of important reference value for the study of Buyi production and daily life, cultural customs, religious worship, and local conditions and customs, and it holds considerable historical and socio-cultural value. Wang Jing (record of the associated inheritor's official file): Female; Buyi; born in March 1971; native of Xingyi City, Guizhou Province. She is a deputy to the 12th National People's Congress and a national March 8th Red Banner Holder. She received authentic instruction from her mother in her early years; in 1993 she worked as a garment pattern maker and designer. In 1997 she began designing and making Buyi costume. In 2001 she developed Buyi tourist costume products for the Maling River scenic area. In 2005 she established the Cuckoo Ethnic Industry Development Co., Ltd. She has been engaged as an instructor in Buyi costume for the "Ethnic Future" summer camp programs of Tsinghua University and Peking University. Emphasizing both transmission and innovation, she has trained more than one hundred technical backbones, including young ethnic costume designers, pattern makers, cutters, handmade frog-fastener makers, and machinists on the production line. She has run training classes, teaching more than one thousand Buyi women handwoven cloth weaving, hand embroidery, batik, and costume processing techniques. She is a representative inheritor of Buyi costume, a fifth national-level intangible cultural heritage item. Buyi costumes, scarves, and embroidered waist bags that she designed and made won the 2006 Ethnic Specialty Award and the Best Creativity Award.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Jing 05-3067
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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