Costumes of Ethnic Minorities in China

   Clothes of Chinese ethnic minorities are flowery and colorful, extremely exquisite, and highly distinctive. They constitute an important part of the rich history and culture of the ethnic groups.

   Every aspect of their garments, such as raw materials, textile technology, fashion and decoration, retains a distinct characteristic of the ethnic group and the locality. The Hezhen① ethnic minority people, who mainly make a living on fishing, used to make clothes with fish skin. The hunting ethnic groups, such as Oroqen② and Ewenki③, used roe skin and animal tendon to stitch up their clothes. The Mongolians, Tibetans, Kazakstans, Khalkhases, ‘Yugur, etc④, who are mainly engaged in stock breeding, make their apparel mostly from animal skin and hair. And, farming ethnic minorities usually take the locally produced cotton or hemp thread as raw materials to spin cloth and silk and make clothes.

   There are numerous clothing designs and forms in Chinese ethnic minorities. Generally speaking, they can be classified into two types: long gowns and short clothes. People usually wear a hat and boots to match long gowns, and headcloth and shoes to match short clothes. The gowns take various forms: the high-collar and big-front type worn by the Mongolian, the Manchu, the Tu and so on; the collarless tilted-front type worn by the Tibetan, the Moinba and so on; the tilted-front type worn by the Uygur and other ethnic minorities; and so on. 

   As for short clothes, they fall into two types: trousers and skirts. In terms of fashion of skirts, there are pleated skirts（百褶裙）, tube skirts（筒裙）, short skirts, one-piece dress and so on. In any kind of clothes, no matter it is the gown, the coat, the skirt, or the trousers, different ethnic minority groups employ different structures, techniques and styles. Take high-collared big gowns for example. Some of them have kick pleat（开叉）, some don’t have any kick pleat, some have kick pleat both in front and on the back, and some have front and back kick pleat and edging all around. Women of the Li, the Dai, the Jingpo, the De’ang⑤ ethnic minorities and so on all wear tube skirts, but those tube skirts worn by the Li are brocade skirts made of cotton, those worn by the Jingpo are woolen multicolored skirts, those worn by the De’ang are skirts with horizontal stripes, and those worn by the Dai are usually skirts made of common cloth.       

   Costumes of ethnic minorities vary greatly not only with different nationalities, but also with different branches and different regions within the same ethnic group. Differences can be seen from province to province, from county to county, and even from village to village. Costume is the most obvious symbol of an ethnic group, and in the history, many ethnic groups were named just according to their garments. In a vast country like China, with so many ethnic groups and an unbalanced social development, styles of clothes vary a lot due to different economic lives, cultural levels, natural environments and geographical conditions and climatic conditions. This is one of the characteristics of folk garments.

                                                         Abridged and revised from

                       http://www1.chinaculture.org/library/2008-01/28/content_28129.htm

                

Notes:

①Hezhen:赫哲族，是中国东北地区一个历史悠久的少数民族，来源于东海女真赫哲部。使用赫哲语，属阿尔泰语系通古斯语族满语支。无文字。早年削木、裂革、结革记事。因长期与汉族交错杂居，通用汉语文。

②Oroqen: 鄂伦春族，中国少数民族之一。主要分布在内蒙古自治区东北部的鄂伦春自治旗，鄂伦春民族有自己的语言，一般通用汉语文。信奉萨满教，崇拜自然物。

③Ewenki: 鄂温克族，鄂温克族人主要分布在中国东北黑龙江省讷河县和内蒙古自治区，俄罗斯也有分布。鄂温克是民族自称，意思是“住在大山林里的人们”。

④Mongolians, Tibetans, Kazakstans, Khalkhases, Yugurs: 蒙古族人，藏族人，哈萨克斯坦族人，柯尔克孜族人，裕固族人。

⑤the Li, the Dai, the Jingpo, the De’ang: 黎族，傣族，景颇族，德昂族。