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The Miao ethnic group has a population
of about 8 million, mainly scattered in Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan,
Sichuan, Guangxi, Hubei and Hainan provinces.
The Miao's ancestry can be traced back to the "Chiyou"
tribe, a tribe in the primitive society in the Central Plains. During
the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Miao's ancestors began to construct
their kingdom in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Later,
they gradually migrated to the southern part of China. (today Hunan,
Guizhou, Yunnan, Hainan, Guangxi and other provinces)
The Miao ethnic group has its own language which belongs to the
Miao-Yao Austronesian of Chinese-Tibetan Phylum. The Miao people
used to have their own character, but now it is lost. At the beginning
of the 20th century, the Miao people invented a kind of phonetics
character named "Old Miao Character". Now Chinese is widely
used by the Miao people.
The Miao people used to believe in many gods and worship their
ancestors or dragons. Now some of them believe in the Catholic or
Christian religion.
Much of the Miao area is hilly or mountainous, and is drained by
several big rivers. Due to a mild climate and sufficient rainfall,
major crops here include wheat, paddy rice, maize, potatoes, Chinese
sorghum, beans, rape, peanuts, tobacco, ramie, sugar cane, cotton,
oil-tea camellia and tung tree.
In southeast Guizhou, west Hunan, Rongshui in Guangxi and on Hainan
Island, the Miao eat rice, maize, sweet potatoes and millet as staple
foods.
In northwest Guizhou, Sichuan and northeast Yunnan, they mainly
eat maize, potatoes, buckwheat and oats.
The clothing of the Miao ethnic group is various and colorful.
In northwest Guizhou and northeast Yunnan, Miao men usually wear
linen jackets with colorful designs, and drape woolen blankets with
geometric patterns over their shoulders. In other areas, men wear
short jackets buttoned down the front or to the left, long trousers
with wide belts and long black scarves. In winter, men usually wear
extra cloth leggings known as puttees. Women's clothing varies even
from village to village. In west Hunan and northeast Guizhou, women
wear jackets buttoned on the right and trousers, with decorations
embroidered on collars, sleeves and trouser legs. In other areas,
women wear high-collared short jackets and full or half-length pleated
skirts. They also wear various kinds of silver jewelry on festive
occasions.
The Miao people are fond of singing and dancing. Their songs are
very pleasant, rhyming and affecting and with a very deep emotional
content. The Miao's dances include the lusheng dance, drum dance
and bench dance. Lushen is the favorite musical instrument of Miao
people. In addition, flutes, copper drum, mouth organs, xiao (a
vertical bamboo flute) and suona horn are popular with the Miao
people.
Miao people in different places celebrate different festivals.
In many areas, the Miao people have Dragon Boat Festival, Flower
Mountain Festival (May 5), Tasting New Rice Festival (between June
and July), Pure Brightness Festival and the Beginning of Autumn
Festival. In Yunnan, "Stepping over Flower Mountains"
is a popular festivity for the Miao. Childless couples use the occasion
to repeat vows to the god of fertility and young people sing love
song in antiphonal style to select a sweetheart.
Autumn Fair: As a traditional festival, the Autumn Fair is held
at the beginning of autumn every year. On this occasion, people
of both sexes and all ages exchange festival greetings as they meet
each other along the way.
Activities such as swing, ladder climbing, dragon dances and lion
dances would be held during this festival.
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