Geyi Miao Costumes & Patterns: Hidden Codes of Qingshui River

The geographic location of Geyi is located between the upstream and midstream of the Qingshui River. The Geyi do not consider themselves waterside people, but instead people from the hill or people from the mountain. Geyi clothing is classified as kaitang style. The miao who wear this kind of clothing, centered around kaitang, are adept at paper stencils, embroidery and folded silk applique. If we want to classify the clothing of Geyi, it will be categorized according to age. It will also be categorized according to occasion. It will be categorized according to the type of clothing. Formal and casual clothes are separated by the ratio of embroidery to woven decorations. Fully embroidered clothes are called grand jackets, while those with one woven band on the jackets, woven trim around the collar, woven lapels and embroidered everything else is called grand jacket with six embroidered decorations. Both of these are the most formal kind of dress, worn at important occasions like the sister's festival or when one is getting married. For example, this kind of clothing is called 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. It is a kind of grand jacket. Embroidery can be categorized into two categories. The first one is embroidered with patterns. The second one is embroidered with paper-cut patterns. The pattern of paper-cut patterns can be bought on the market. For example, if you want to make 6-1, you can buy a set of paper-cut patterns on the market. This set can be pasted on the cloth and then embroidered. Geyi embroidery uses mostly seed stitch and folded silk applique. Folded silk applique is often used on the collar, lapel, shoulders and sleeves of garments. In the case of geyi embroidery, the silk cloth is cut into small pieces and folded into a triangle. After folding it into a triangle, the pattern is made. In the universe of Miao people, there is an important ideal that we should be able to reproduce the next generation. So the role of the bride becomes important. On the one hand, she is still an outsider, but she has to carry the fertility of the family she married into. So the flowers on her body are not the flowers of her family. Her flowers are bought on the market and embroidered on her. In general, geyi clothing values embroidery over weaving. But interestingly, whether it's the material needed for the embroidery or the designs used, the geyi people refer to it with the umbrella term of Han embroidery, meaning it is foreign treasure gained from trade. On the other hand, embroidery samplers that pass from mother to daughter have become the plainest and most authentic patterns, belonging to the local people in the intermarriageable circle. Towns that center around geyi are more adept at weaving. Yang Xinyan has been making a living via weaving, and many people would order a complete set of all the decorations used in an ensemble. To the geyi, designs need to be separated by the strip-like dragon, vang, in order to make the patterns clearer and stand out more. Geyi embroidery samplers require that the reader must be someone who understands weaving and embroidery. The motifs on geyi embroidery samplers are pretty abstract, so it's hard to identify the connection between the samplers and clothes. When Mr. He was arranging the patterns, we found that there were at least two clear logics. The first is that the name is the technique. For example, this pattern requires 13 stitches to complete it, so it is called the 13-stitch pattern. The other is to use the shape of the pattern, or the meaning of the pattern. The patterns in geyi embroidery samples are mainly classified according to where they are used and their purpose of use. Chang is similar to the threshold of the ridges used in farmland. It is a thin and long continuous pattern. When you look at the pattern and zoom in, you will find that this is where the women of the Miao people in geyi were smart in weaving. It is divided into three sections. When the people of Geyi were weaving, they had a base pattern and a flower pattern. So the base pattern was the upper and lower part of the fabric. The flower pattern was to be calculated according to the relationship between the upper and lower patterns. So they used three patterns for a single unit. When they were processing the diagonal picking, it is easier to calculate it correctly. Once calculated incorrectly, it would be very troublesome to remove it and start over. So this is a very important design for them, I think. This is my son. He was very young when he died. He was very young? Yes, he was very young when he died. He was very young when he died. Yes. He was very young. Oh, he was very young? Yes. Now, the first step is complete. This is the first step of the flower. Let me see the front. What does it look like? It's beautiful. Look, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. The lapel patterns bāng are composed of strips. Bāng cannot be translated, but looking at the locations it is used and the function it serves, it must be similar to strip or ravine. While constructing the design, bāng will come with chāng on its top and bottom, forming a group. Bō has a similar design, but it doesn't require chāng to encircle it in the middle of the sleeve. Of the center patterns on sleeves, the most important is the path, little horse, and the hū gā bō. This is 21 little horses. How do you count them? How many do you have? How many? This row. How many do you have in total? This is small. This is how you count them. This row. When I first started doing field research, the old ladies would count how many little horses there were. I couldn't see any little horses. Later I found out that when they were designing, they had a way of counting the height of the patterns. Like this, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. It would tell you that there are 22 little horses. Of these 22 little horses, there are some main patterns. So in their design, the path is the most important element of the center pattern on sleeve. As it decides the entire layout of the center pattern, little horses will be added to the middle of paths, and the number of little horses will decide the height and complexity of the design while the hū gā bō is used to fill in the details of the paths. So in the early days, before the roads were built, the paths were transported by horses. So another level is that this pattern is called Little Horses, and the horses symbolize connecting different places. The embroidery samplers document the principles of the color scheme preferred by the region, which in ge'i is mainly blue. Elderly people often wear the entirely blue visiting jacket with four embroidered decorations, but younger people will add white, green, red, and yellow as accent colors. The patterns used on women's clothing are various and often appear in their surroundings. Children's clothing often features small figures, butterflies, and Chinese spinach patterns. During the Great Leap Forward, the most capable women were the ones who carried iron-headed bandannas to work in the mountains. So this is the clothing of young and vigorous women. When the elderly returned, the patterns were simple again, with little horses and ge'i. Woven patterns are usually designed around groups of three warps, moving as either twills or tabby weaves, forming all sorts of patterns by moving the group of three warps up and down, left and right. Careful analysis of how the ge'i miao design, hu ga bo, show that they form the base of their designs, dots, circular or square dots, curves and hooks, and then each element is transformed. The combinations of two elements, three elements or more than three elements, form into various shapes of hu ga bo. If you look at the hu ga bo design, you'll see that it hasn't changed much You'll find that it has a basic, DNA-like element embedded in their culture. The teacher's work is very academic. From the perspective of the mediator, I have to think about how the people who don't understand can deal with it more easily I hope that when they enter this space, they can at least acquire a pattern that they are familiar with. Because as long as they are interested in it, they will have it again. Many students think that the pursuit of heart and change is a very important value. But in this exhibition, I hope they can see the core and value of a cultural heritage.