Interpreting Ancient Chinese Fashion (Day 1)

Today was our first day in Longda, Shaanxi village, and we received a really warm welcome from the Miao villagers that live here. We were able to experience our first welcoming ceremony, which was just amazing. We were greeted by all of them coming down. So guests climbed this incredibly steep stone staircase up to the village's gate. It's located on the side of a mountain, and all along the way, you're sort of forced to drink the local wine, which is a rice wine. So there were fireworks going off. Colleen and I, we started at the bottom. Maybe every few steps, we were offered wine by the local women. So I guess the point is to make you joyful and definitely get you in the celebration mood once you get up to the top. My experience was very interesting. I was greeted by a cup of wine, but not only just one cup of wine. It's the same thing. Colleen was definitely feeling the alcohol, and so was I, for sure. And then the grand finale at the top of the staircase was final two cups of wine served in water buffalo horns before entering into the village gates. It was wonderful, but it was just like 10, 12, 15, 20 cups. And I never drink. It's early in the morning. I usually just drink miso soup. But I know it's a celebration, so I'm really going to try to celebrate. I'm really respecting. I think I sort of made her the sacrificial lamb because I tried to use her to keep going without drinking too much. But hopefully she'll survive this round. The Miao have a history that's over 4,000 years old. This Miao village is over 500 years old, and over 500 people live here. After the welcoming ceremony, we got to go up into this village plaza and watch the locals perform some of their traditional ceremonies. So there was initially a ceremony called the Offering of the Wine, which was like an invitation to join the villagers in celebrating. And the dancers in full costumes with the traditional silver crowns and beautiful silver necklaces and bracelets made this fantastic jingling sound. And they passed around more wine in the water buffalo horns. And that was a really unique experience. It was really warm. So it really draws the visitors into being part of the Miao experience. As I saw the beautiful women dancing in their costumes, they were just so delightful, presenting themselves in such an elegant way with live music. The Miao of Long De village are known as the Long Skirt Miao. I love the way the costume was when she had tons of ribbons all around her waistline. And they were elongated enough so that women were able to reach over and create a ribbon dance effect. And it was like a bonding of women with wonderful energy celebrating life. I was really fascinated by this instrument called the lu shang, which is bamboo pipes or some kind of flute. I'd never seen anything like that before. And it made a really beautiful melody. Really sort of this haunting sound that we could hear throughout the village all day. Their hair was just consistently beautiful in a little twist with a little beautiful flower on it. I think the last performance was a group performance and it was very inclusive. The villagers danced in a circle around a pole. So one thing that stuck out in my mind is the lu shang players had these really incredible black robes that were really unique. So they had this really fantastic asymmetric front and it really looked chic. So it's something that I can't wait to experiment with and try and make my own versions out of it. Afterwards, we went to the house of a woman named Miss Yong. I saw her sitting in the plaza doing this really incredible technique with su tash. It was very three-dimensional. So it was a really lush sort of embroidery that I hadn't really ever seen before. She was able to take us up to her beautiful, I would say, chateau up in the mountains. With a fantastic view of the city. Definitely the best house in the village. I felt strongly connected to her. She really, really loved her work and she valued work in a way that she would create her pieces for her children for generations to come. And she actually shared this most important technique. And it was embroidery that was shared by her grandparents or possibly even further than that. And we got to learn directly from her how she did this really wonderful embroidery. So it involves using su tash ribbon and these really fine stitches and filling in a large area. So she was working on, I think, a dragon and flower motif that was really indigenous to this area. And then when I was learning more about her embroidery and really listening to her technique, she offered me if I could wear one of her pieces. And so she started dressing me. She put on the wonderful jacket, actually, that she's planning to save for her children, her daughter. Also she put on this beautiful belted skirt, which was part of the costume, too, of the ceremony. And each little applique was hand embroidered and each little motif was a different animal. She put on the crown. I've never ever worn a beautiful crown. I felt so royal in some ways and very special. We also got to hear some really touching stories about how she learned this technique and how it was only utilized by her and her family. She actually started embroidering when she was very, very young. And it was more of a choice that was chosen by her family. They were very, very poor. And the way to create support and money for them to live was to have her embroider. And so her mother actually taught her when she was 10 years old. It was really great to get that personal connection with the member of the village.