petite on board
June 2013 |
As a city in southern China and home to 12 different ethnic minorities. Being an Arts major, apart from exploring its well-known scenery, we were here to discover the beauty of minorities culture.
Cruising along the Li River - from Guilin to Yangshou and hiking up the terrace, we arrived our first village.
GUILIN
Queen of Minorities
|Theatre of the Huangluo Village of Yao Minorities at Longsheng region
| 油茶
(a mixture of tea, oil and rice) was served at the beginning of the performance.
The Yao Minorities (a.k.a. the long-hair tribes)
Of course, a costume try-out!
(Left) My pink outfit is the traditional costume from Yao.
(Right) Cobi's yellow ones was a Miao costume;
And our headpieces were actually from the Dong minorities. What a mixture lol.
The Miao Minorities
The Miao village that we visited located at the Rongshui region. This time, instead of tea, we were being served a shot of Chinese wine before the performance.
Comparing to the Yao minorities, Miao's dance seems to have more props. They even dance with long bamboo sticks!
Well, and fans. If we had to learn their dance, how could we not have our own fans? Instead of practising my Chinese painting and calligraphy, I drawn my self-portrait as if I am using water-colour.
The Dong Minorities
You could probably put on a large-scale musical in the rural areas in Guilin. Having the rice terrace as the backdrop, they work and sing in the fields every day like Smurfs.
| Fun facts about the Dong's spiders embroidery:
Before we found out that spiders are a significant mascot of the village, we actually had a big massacre in our hostel to clean out all the worms and spiders. God bless the spiders.
| Dong Traditions
Drum Tower (bottom left) - a symbol of the village and the Dong nationality. Celebrations and meetings are normally held inside the tower.
So what do they do during celebrations? The Dong minorities have their own national folk song and Yue Dancing. Some people said their voices echo with the nature and probably because of that, they build their house and instruments out of natural materials - wood and bamboo.
p.s.
| Performing Arts
If you are to look for a more contemporary performance with minorities features, definitely book yourself a ticket to the 'Impression Sanjie Liu'. Situated on the Li River, this outdoor performance will give you the best summary of what I experienced in this cultural trip.
