Chuxiong Nationalities Saizhuang (Costume Competition) Festival
Basic Introduction
- Chinese Name: 楚雄民族赛装文化节
- English Name: Chuxion Nationalities Saizhuang (Costume Competition) Festival
- Location: Chuxiong City
- Festival Dates:March 28th, and the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
The Garment Festival of Yi ethnic girls has two locations in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture. One is the Garment Festival in Zhiqu Village, Yongren County, which takes place on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month each year. The other is the Garment Festival in Santai Township, Dayao County, held on the twenty-eighth day of the third lunar month.
The Garment Festival provides an opportunity for young men and women who live in dispersed communities, making it difficult for them to gather and get to know each other, to express their love. The girls showcase their charm by demonstrating who wears the most beautiful clothes. The clothing of Yi women is entirely handmade with peach blossoms and embroidery, and making a complete outfit can often take one or two years. Therefore, those who have more clothes and better designs are seen as hardworking, capable, and skillful individuals.
Unlike past traditions of the festival, people no longer wear all their clothes at once but instead change into new outfits repeatedly, with some girls changing five or six times in a single day. As a result, the festival now features another scene: under the shade of green trees, the elders set up countless tents where they cook food, loyally guarding the clothing of their daughters.
From the very beginning, the Garment Festival has had a competitive nature, making it one of the earliest fashion shows. The difference is that Yi girls are not only the designers of the clothes but also their makers, and they serve as the “fashion models” during the performance.
Festival Features
Every year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Yi people living in the Zhiqu area of Yongren County and nearby Zhonghe and Dayao County in Yunnan gather to celebrate the Garment Festival. The Garment Festival is a day for a grand competition of clothing and adornments. It is a festival that fully showcases the intelligence and hard work of the Yi people and is also a celebration of beauty and elegance.
At the garment competition, colors abound, with vibrant and eye-catching clothing everywhere, making it a visual feast. Yi women not only embroider flowers on hats, clothes, and waist wraps, but also cover bags, shoes, and insoles with various patterns. Each person’s craftsmanship, composition, and color choices are unique, showcasing their individuality. Embroidery can depict everything from rain and thunder to the sun and moon, mountains, and rivers, as well as various plants and animals. The intricate balance of simplicity and complexity in the compositions, exaggerated and transformed images, and striking color contrasts leave spectators in awe.
Legend of the Festival
The Garment Festival of the Yi people in the Zhiqu area of Zhonghe Township, Yongren County, Yunnan, commonly known as the “Clothing Festival,” originates from a beautiful, mystical, and alluring legend. It is said that long ago, brothers Chaoliruo and Chaolaruo came from Yiliba to the heart of Zhiqu for hunting and discovered that the mountains were green, the waters clear, and the soil fertile. They remarked, “If we could plant millet here, it would surely yield abundant harvests year after year.” As they bent down to drink the sweet spring water, three grains of millet rolled out of their quiver. Ignoring their thirst, the brothers hurried to gather the seeds and scattered them in a mud pond, wishing, “If this is a place where our people can settle, may these three grains grow into three large clusters, each as thick and long as a horse’s tail.” Not long after, the brothers returned with blankets, bows, and farming tools to tend to the crops. As fate would have it, the three grains did indeed grow into three large clusters, which had golden ears that were as thick and long as a horse’s tail. The brothers brought back the harvest, and news spread throughout the villages. Many villagers followed the Chaoliruo brothers to Zhiqu, and large tracts of land were cultivated, planting seedlings for buckwheat, wheat, beans, and sesame. By the golden autumn, every family in the Yi villages celebrated a bountiful harvest.
To honor the brothers for their contributions to developing Zhiqu, the elders were determined to find them suitable partners. When the elders consulted the brothers about whom they preferred, Chaoliruo said he would marry the girl who was skillful, while Chaolaruo expressed his love for the natural beauty of Zhiqu and said he would marry the girl who could embroider the mountains and rivers of Zhiqu onto her clothing. The elders announced the brothers’ conditions for choosing brides throughout the village and decreed that all the village girls would participate in a garment competition on the mountaintop, in the woods, and under the green canopies on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month the following year. Thus, the village girls busily prepared during the slack farming season: planting mulberry, spinning threads, dyeing threads, cutting, sewing, and embroidering—until the fifteenth day finally arrived. Early in the morning, the elders donned their festive attire, while the Chaoliruo brothers and other young men dressed handsomely. The girls, wearing their self-embroidered garments, flocked to the competition site, where the brothers carefully toured the entire venue, examining the outfits worn by all the girls and each choosing their intended.
To inherit the beautiful, mystical, and alluring legend, the Yi people wear their newly embroidered clothing every year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, gathering to compete, sing, and dance, mirroring the brothers’ search for their loved ones. This tradition has been passed down through generations, forming the Yi people’s traditional Garment Festival. In 1987, American cultural expert Mark Bendel traveled a great distance to Zhiqu to attend the Garment Festival and later wrote enthusiastically about it in “Pig Shooting—The Tiger Man with Copper Cannon,” introducing the grandeur of the Zhiqu Garment Festival to the overseas audience.
To promote ethnic traditional culture and raise awareness of the Yongren Yi Garment Festival, various activities are held each year, including Yi clothing competitions, ethnic and folk sports competitions, torch celebrations, mountain songs, Yi cultural inheritance, Bimo performances, and street fairs.
Historical Significance
The Yi “Garment Festival,” which embodies ancient history and rich cultural traditions, originates from ancient sacrificial and “huotou” handover ceremonies. According to historical records, it has a history of over six hundred years. With the opening of the ancient salt road from Shiyang Salt Wells to Sichuan, it has witnessed the fusion of Sichuan and Yi cultures. As an important post along this ancient salt road, Zhiqu has incorporated many new elements into its traditional sacrificial activities, encompassing religious beliefs, agricultural rituals, and various cultural expressions, including clothing, songs, dances, and music. It represents a unique cultural landscape of the Yi people, integrating song and dance competitions, clothing displays, ethnic sports, and trade exchanges. There is a saying among the locals: “When the hulusi sounds, the feet begin to itch.” At present’s garment competition, elderly grandmothers dance alongside toddlers who have just learned to walk—everyone joyfully dances, showcasing the beauty of their costumes. With thousands of participants and spectators, the atmosphere is lively and grand. Most Yi clothing is predominantly red, with “rooster hats” worn atop, and the entire ensemble, including clothes, pants, shoes, and hats, is adorned with stunning colors and intricate embroidery, creating a breathtaking world of flowers.
Nature of the Festival
The garment competition is not only about displaying beautiful attire but also serves as an excellent venue for Yi youth to express their affections and find love. During the day, women of all ages dance together, led by a few elders who must lead the way for others to join in gradually. Many young girls change several vibrant outfits throughout the day to present themselves. All the males in the vicinity are only spectators and judges. During this time, some young men attentively observe and assess each girl on the dance floor, hoping to find a talented embroiderer to become their beloved. As night falls, it’s the time for these unmarried young men and women; many lovebirds secretly meet. It becomes a Yi masked dance party. Under the bright moonlight, young couples meet frequently, singing by the spring or whispering under the trees while the girls play leaf flutes and mouth harps, and the boys play bamboo flutes and hulusi. As the saying goes, “The garment competition lasts until sunset, and the dancing goes on until the moon is high.” In addition to the garment competition, the Yi Garment Festival also includes various ethnic sports competitions such as plowing, tying bundles, crossbow shooting, stilt walking, shoulder lifting, and rope pulling. This is the moment for Yi young men to demonstrate their strength and wisdom, and it is also essential for Yi girls to choose their life partners.
Festival Customs
In places like Yongren, Yunnan, the Yi people hold the annual Garment Festival. During this time, girls as young as six and elderly women up to eighty years old wear their most cherished and beautiful embroidered garments, flocking together to participate in the joyous Garment Festival, showcasing their exquisite skills and intelligence while learning from each other’s experience. They admire and exchange ideas, competing to see whose clothing is the most beautiful and whose skills are the best. They also sing and dance together until their joy finally disperses.
The Yi people are primarily distributed across Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, with a population of over 6.57 million, the highest in Yunnan, accounting for over 4.05 million. The Yi are the largest ethnic minority in Yunnan, comprising about 60% of the overall Yi population in China. The Yi people are widely distributed throughout most counties and cities in Yunnan, with a more concentrated presence in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, the Ailao Mountain region, the Wumeng Mountain area, and the Daliang Mountain area in northwestern Yunnan. The Yi have a long history, with their own language and script, and their folk cultural arts are vibrant and diverse. Their “Solar Calendar” and “Twelve Animal Zodiac” have unique features. They are known by various names, mainly including Sani and Axi.
Traditional Culture
The “Garment Festival” serves as a “living fossil” of Yi traditional culture and is a prominent expression of it, possessing significant anthropological, ethnological, and folkloric research value. Therefore, Yongren County is applying for the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage status for the “Garment Festival.”
The Garment Festival symbolizes the handover ritual of “huotou” power and associated sacrificial activities, presided over by the “huotou,” who embodies the religious, military, and political triad. Numerous ceremonial rites of primitive agricultural worship, ethnic beliefs, and cultural creations have been preserved in the activities of the Garment Festival. The Yi Garment Festival not only reflects the political organization forms of primitive tribes but also encompasses almost all forms of art within Yi culture, including song, dance, music, and embroidery. It showcases a diverse spectrum of cultural expressions, including sacrificial culture, clothing culture, marriage customs, and cultural traditions of the ancient salt road. The most representative element is Yi clothing, richly adorned with flowers in bold colors, exquisite compositions, flexible stitching, and unique craftsmanship—each stitch an artwork, every flower and petal a cultural symbol. Throughout its long development, the accompanying song and dance arts have established their unique patterns, while the activities themselves continuously develop and enhance skills. Due to its significant impact on folk cultural life, it has become an essential stage for artisans in Yi folk songs, dances, music, and crafts to exchange and inherit their skills. It holds immeasurable value for studying the developmental history of Yi traditional music, dance, storytelling, and embroidery. The Yi Garment Festival is, therefore, a representative “business card” of the Yi people, a “living fossil” of traditional Yi culture.
Fashion Show
The Lantern Festival is also the annual “Garment Festival” of some Yi in Yongren County and Dayao County in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, where Yi girls can fully display the beauty of their clothing and adornments. It is said that the Yi have been holding the “Garment Festival” on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month for hundreds of years. Early in the morning, girls don their carefully embroidered garments from the past year, as bright as the blossoming mountain peach flowers, playfully making their way along the mountain paths to the “Garment Competition.” Young Yi men, in groups of three or five, play hulusi flutes, seeking their beloved at the competition. Fathers and mothers also come, concerned about their children’s lifelong affairs. Brothers from nearby ethnic groups also arrive to witness the talented Yi girls showcase their clothing.
Yi women are skilled embroiderers, deriving inspiration from nature—elements like rain, thunder, the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, wood, stone, animals, and flowers feature prominently in their embroidery. They do not just embroider flowers on hats, clothes, and waist wraps; they also create various patterns on bags, shoes, and insoles, making their artworks simple in composition, exaggerated in form, striking in tone, and vividly colorful, to provide an aesthetic delight.
Competition Format
The garment competition begins at noon with a collective match. Each village’s skilled embroiderers form teams, entering the stage one after another, dancing gracefully to the accompaniment of suona and lusheng, showcasing their beautiful clothing and elegant dance moves to win honor for their village. After the group performances, families spread out for free performances. Some families, dressed in beautiful clothes, gather under trees for people to admire their lovely apparel while enjoying the delicious foods they’ve brought. Others hang their embroidered hats, waist wraps, hand sleeves, and lace pants on trees or lay them on the ground for public display, reminiscent of a clothing exhibition.
At the competition site, some girls constantly change their outfits, swapping seven or eight pieces in a single day. They wear one outfit and stroll through the crowd to attract attention, showcasing their skills. If a young Yi man has eyes for a girl, he might sneak away with one of her embroidered pieces to the woods outside. If the girl is uninterested, she may ignore him, and the young man would naturally return the embroidered gift. However, if she has feelings for him, she playfully demands her piece back and runs after the young man into the woods.
The “Garment Festival” does not have judges or rankings; it ultimately depends on the feelings of the lovers whether they see the most skillful and beautiful. At noon, groups of Yi girls dressed in pink outfits elegantly arrive, filling the venue with bright colors. The competition ground has become a sea of people, as thousands of tourists from Kunming, Dayao, Yuanmou, and Panzhihua in Sichuan flock to Zhiqu, converging at this high-altitude area of 2,189 meters. They enjoy a cup of Yi rice wine and taste sweet honey-covered buckwheat cakes.
After a sincere offering by the Bimo elder for the successful hosting of the Garment Festival, teams of participants from all ages join hands to the accompaniment of lusheng, performing traditional Yi “three stomps” dances and showcasing the garments they have lovingly embroidered and sewn.
Characteristics of Clothing
Upon closer examination, each person’s clothing possesses unique features. The compositions and color usage differ greatly. The simplicity and complexity in the designs, the exaggerated forms of the images, and contrasting tones leave a lasting impression. Guests who have come to experience the festival are enraptured by the scene. Teams of skilled embroiderers dance to the sounds of suona and lusheng, the brilliant colors clashing vibrantly with the interplay of light and shadow. It feels as though the world morphs into a kaleidoscope of beauty, with dazzling and unusual clothing aesthetics and vibrant yet elegant colors exuding endless charm.
The Garment Festival is a celebration of beauty and intellect, showcasing the creativity and skill of Yi women to the fullest. They stitch vibrant threads into expressions of their longing, love, and experiences of beauty. They embroider not only on hats, clothes, and pants but also on bags, shoes, and insoles, filling them with intricate designs.
Dancing
“Dancing” is another important activity of the Garment Festival. People form a circle hand-in-hand, joyfully singing and dancing to the tune of the erhu. The melody and steps transition from soft to strong, gradually quickening. As the dance reaches its climax, the movements become more synchronized, creating an upbeat and lively atmosphere. In the evening, the moon shines brightly, as if just lifted from the water, illuminating the night sky and casting the layered peaks in a snowy glow. Bonfires dot the clearing as young men and women clasp hands, dancing joyfully to the beautiful melodies of the erhu and graceful music until dawn.
