• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.36
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• pp.77-95
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• 1998

The culture of a country is formed by the sense of value of a nation being a creator as well as on operator of the culture. So, the Chinese culture and fruthermore, the sense of value the Chinese people can be understood through the study of the costume of China. Above all, the culture of China, including the costume, have been formed through the his-tory of exchange between the central Chinese people and its surrounding minority races, and it should not be overlooked that its own culture of each race is existing with each other in the great Chinese culture sphere. In the paper, the concept of costume as relections of a culture is confirmed through the examination of the characteristics of the costume of the Miao tribe with such history and culture as a background and on effort is made to take those as resources modern fashion designs while inferring from them the characteristics of costume with universal and original values sthat can be sublimated into the modernistic beauty. The results of the study are as follows. First, the basic composition consists of a simple jacket made in a way of straight-cut-ting and a close pleated skirt and it tended to put emphasis on diversified and splendid decorations compared with the simple basis composition. Second, the costume of the Miao tribe are characteristic of hair done in a knot with head-dress around head. Third, the kinds of dress are multifarious by race and region due to a long period of mobile and disperse life. In the course of studying the universal value of the Miao tribe is confirmed which is by no means inferior to the standard of the medernistic beauty which keeping its originality. The study is made to be helpful for activating the design going with the trend that the basic harmony between the nature and man, that is a climate and the local cul-ture hearing formed a splendid culture in the past, are being found again.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.376-388
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to examine the types and characteristics of Chinese indigo dyed designs performed until today in private houses of Chinese minority races and to examine the modern value of traditional dyeing crafts of minority races by investigating the cases of utilizing modern private Chinese indigo dyed designs. As the research methodology for theoretical study about the history of Chinese traditional pattern dyeing, the origin, types and characteristics of Chinese indigo dyed designs, the preceding research data, photo data, and Internet data were utilized, and for the empirical research on Chinese traditional dyeing techniques and the cases of utilizing today Chinese indigo dyed designs, the on-site survey on Guizhou and Yunnan was conducted during February and March 2008 and the data were collected and analyzed. Based on the results of this research, it was found that Chinese indigo dyed designs represented Chinese traditional pattern dyeing, which was inherited and developed mainly in Chinese minority races and Chinese. It could be seen that according to geographical distribution and characteristics of each race, the types and characteristics of dyeing techniques were formed, which are classified into the batik of the Miao of Guizhou in the Chinese southwestern region, the tie-dyeing of Bai of Yunnan, and Chinese blue calico(resist printing) of Chinese private houses in the Hunan and Huseo regions, and these represent the three typical Chinese dyeing techniques today. Based on the results of empirical research on the utilizing cases, focusing on the traditional living handicrafts of Chinese minority races, traditional cultural articles, and artworks, the modern values such as practical, cultural, and artistic values of Chinese indigo dyed designs could be rediscovered.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.71-75
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• 1998

The Miaos who is the minority people mainly living in the southwestern part of China, expressed their indicator and solidarity through the costume in order to maintain their racial character while experiencing numerous adversities over thousands of years, where the costume has served as a source of cohesion as well as a primitive religious thought, and also showed their faith, desire, longing and aspiration. This study examined the Miao's traditional costume by classifying it into the following; hair style, headdress, upper and lower garments, and other costume. And the silver ornaments used for attire and their symbolic meaning were examined. The result of the study is summarized as follows. 1. The reason that types of the costume has been diversified is because there was promise of ancestors who intended to differently express the type of a kind as symbol of the racial branch that is the Miao's special type of society. Thus, the costume type could tell where a tribe live. Another reason is because only marriage between families with different surname but the same type of costume was accepted. 2. As women made and wore the costume themselves, it also served as a means of being proud of their skill or wealth, they tried to make it more beautiful and it was also used as a token of marriage or love between relatively enlightened men and women. 3. The design used on the costume was expressed as a symbolic meaning of indicator to strengthen the racial solidarity because it connoted worship to ancestors who had experienced lots of adversities. 4. The hair style was expressed in various styles by using Kache such as Chukye, Byunbal and Kokye. It is likely that ornaments used on the head of women in the form of cow's horn or silver crown were used as one of the methods to stress the valuableness of the cattle that were essential to agricultural life. In addition, various styles of turbans were used to indicate the respective regions. 5. Cock's feather ornaments or silver ornaments in the form of pheasant's feather on the edge of women's skirts, peasant's feathers that men wore on their head, or Baekjoui and men wore resulted from the Miaos' thought of adoration for birds, which implied a primitive religious meaning. 6. As the region where the Miaos live yields much silver, the silver ornaments were mostly used to be proud of wealth, which symbolized light and pureness.