First, there are many kinds of ethnic minorities in China, which are widely distributed. For a long time, the vast minority areas have inconvenient transportation and difficult communication with each other. Therefore, ethnic costumes are colorful, rich in costume culture and inexhaustible in costume resources.
There are 55 ethnic minorities living in 70% of more than 2,000 counties in China, which are widely distributed. Among these ethnic minorities, some have many branches. For example, Miao people are divided into five categories: red seedlings, black seedlings, white seedlings, seedlings and flower seedlings, among which flower seedlings are big-headed seedlings, one-horned seedlings, veiled seedlings and flower-footed seedlings, all of which are divided by different costumes. In this way, not only different ethnic groups have different costumes, but also different costumes within the same ethnic group because of different branches, which makes the costumes of ethnic minorities in China particularly rich.
In the past, because the clothing of Han urban and rural residents, who account for the vast majority of China's population, was mostly limited to black and blue, and some ethnic minorities also advocated black and blue, so some people dubbed us "the country of blue ants". In fact, if we look at the colorful costumes of a considerable number of ethnic minorities, the title of "country of blue ants" is unrealistic. China's ethnic costumes are very rich in quality, color, style and collocation. Yunnan province, which has 24 ethnic minorities, held the first national arts festival in September, 1988. Thousands of ethnic minority literary and art teams, that is, thousands of ethnic minority costume performance teams, have amazed Chinese and foreign guests. The Kunming National Song and Dance Troupe presented a national costume party with the theme of "Sun, Moon, Wind and Fire". Three hundred sets of national costumes were displayed in four scenes: Beautiful Spring, Dissolution of Xia Yue, Cool Autumn Wind, and Fire in Winter. The varieties, styles, colors and varieties are amazing. The performance of just one and a half hours convincingly proved that Yunnan is not only an ocean of songs and dances, but also an ocean of national costumes. This is a microcosm of multi-ethnic China.
Secondly, due to the differences in natural environment, national customs and aesthetic tastes, China's national costumes show great differences between the north and the south, mountains and grasslands, showing different styles and characteristics.
The natural conditions in China are very different between the north and the south: the north is cold and snowy, with vast forests and grasslands, and most of the northern ethnic minorities living in it live on hunting and animal husbandry; The south is humid and rainy, with mountains, basins and mountains alternating, and most of the ethnic minorities living there are engaged in farming. Different natural environments, modes of production and lifestyles lead to different national personalities and psychology, as well as different clothing styles and characteristics. Mongolian, Tibetan, Kazak, Kirgiz, Tajik, Yugur, Tu and other ethnic minorities who live in plateau grasslands and engage in animal husbandry mostly dress in animal fur. Clothes, trousers and coats sewn with sheepskin are mostly plain, and some are inlaid with colored cloth or fine wool on the collar, cuffs, skirt and hem. Tibetan and Kirgiz robes and skirts are decorated with precious fur and look elegant and heavy. The Kazakh "Kupu" is a kind of coat made of camel hair, which is very light and warm. Their clothing style is wide robe and big sleeves, heavy and solemn.
The southern minority areas are suitable for growing hemp and cotton; Self-woven linen and homespun are the main materials of the dress. Most of the tools used are simple, but the fabrics are exquisite and the patterns are wonderful. Due to the hot and humid weather, it is necessary to expose the chest and legs, so the dress is short, narrow and light, and the style is lively and changeable. In a word, the styles are diverse, distinctive and outstanding, which constitutes another feature of minority costume culture.
Thirdly, due to historical, geographical, political, economic and other reasons, China's ethnic minorities are still in different stages of social development and corresponding productivity levels until the middle of this century, and the resulting differences are very profound and have not been completely overcome so far, so the cultural content displayed by ethnic minority costumes has obvious levels.
Due to various historical, geographical, political and economic reasons, before liberation, some ethnic minorities in China had obviously sprouted capitalism, while others remained at the end of primitive communes, showing great imbalance in social development. In this respect, Yunnan province, which is called "a living history of social development" by ethnologists, can be regarded as a typical representative. Before liberation, among the 24 ethnic minorities in Yunnan, the capitalist factors of Bai, Hui and some Yi have developed quite well. The vast number of Zhuang, Hani, Naxi, Bai and Yi nationalities have entered the feudal landlord system. Dai people entered the feudal Lord system; The Yi nationality in Xiaoliangshan is a typical slavery. A considerable number of ethnic minorities, such as Jinuo, Bulang, Jingpo, Dulong, Nu, some Lisu and Wa, still stayed at the end of the primitive commune. The Naxi nationality (Mosuo people) in Yongning still retains the remnants of matriarchal system. In other provinces where ethnic minorities live in concentrated communities, this situation also exists to varying degrees, but it is not as complete and typical as Yunnan. In this way, the cultural content reflected by minority costumes is hierarchical. At the same time, this hierarchical system also determines the hierarchical system of minority costume culture. Some people have a misunderstanding, as if all the distinctive features in ethnic costumes are "primitive" and are concrete manifestations of primitive culture, which obviously does not conform to the facts. The grading system of minority costumes should be analyzed according to the actual situation.
Fourthly, China's national costumes are facing the impact of the whole social modernization process and the requirements of reform, and some traditional costumes have changed. Therefore, on the one hand, we should rescue the clothing resources, on the other hand, we should guide the clothing reform purposefully, organized and planned, and strive to maintain the national tradition and cultural characteristics of clothing to meet the needs of modern production and life.
Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, China society has started an all-round modernization process. Reform and opening up have brought great changes to the way of life of the people all over the country. The development of commodity economy has injected vitality into the previously closed and backward minority mountainous areas and brought a lot of information, including many modern and fashionable fashions. In this case, China's minority costume culture is facing a huge impact. Because some ethnic minority costumes use a lot of materials, are complicated in decoration and technology, are difficult to make, are inconvenient to wear and are difficult to wash, many young people in ethnic minority areas change to wear Han costumes, and even some areas can't see ethnic costumes. In view of this situation, on the one hand, we should actively and urgently rescue the resources of ethnic costumes to avoid the disappearance of some distinctive ethnic costume cultures; At the same time, we should actively, purposefully, systematically and systematically guide the minority people to carry out clothing reform, and organize some experts, scholars and fashion designers to design on the basis of listening to the opinions of the minority people.
Under the premise of maintaining the basic characteristics of national costumes, new national costumes should be generous, beautiful, concise and applicable, which is convenient for production and life and for organizing large-scale machine production in the future to meet the needs of modernization. It can be said that this is not only a problem that needs to be solved in China minority costume culture at this stage, but also a characteristic of China minority costume culture at this stage.
Fifth, China minority costume culture has long lacked scientific and systematic research, expecting theoretical summary, theoretical generalization, theoretical accumulation and theoretical breakthrough.
For a long time, in the study of ethnic issues, Chinese academic circles have focused on the study of ethnic history, ethnic politics, ethnic economy and ethnic policies, while always ignoring the study of ethnic culture, a "secondary" issue. Not to mention the study of national costumes: perhaps, when determining national needs, investigate costumes; Perhaps, when talking about the lifestyle of a nation, list clothes; Perhaps, out of personal interest, individual researchers have specially investigated clothing. As a result, ethnic costume culture is in an intuitive, scattered, disorderly and theoretical state. Although there are many clothing materials, they lack induction and theoretical sublimation, and many related problems lack scientific and systematic research. Therefore, China minority costume culture is looking forward to theoretical summary, theoretical generalization and theoretical accumulation, thus producing some theoretical innovations and breakthroughs. This is not only the need of the research and construction of culturology, literature and art, aesthetics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology and social psychology, but also the need of socialist modernization and clothing reform. It is precisely because of this that we took the liberty to carry out such a cultural tour of minority costumes.