De'ang women generally wear dark blue or black short jackets with buttons down the front that is inlaid with two strips of red cloth and sewn with four to five square silver fasteners. They wear colorful long skirts with horizontal stripes, covering the breasts and reaching the ankles. Women of different clans are distinguished by the color and designs of their skirts. Women from the Liang (a branch of De'ang people) wear skirts with blue and red stripes. The Bielie women wear skirts with several scarlet horizontal stripes measuring 5 to 6 inches wide at the lower hem, and those from the Raomai women wear skirts with red, green and white thin stripes on the dark blue background. Women do not keep hair, but shave their heads bald and wear kerchief. And, the two ends of the kerchief droop down the back like two plaits. But women of Raomai branch keep hair after their marriage. They wear short jackets with buttons down the right and the upper part of their skirts only reaches the waist.
De'ang men usually wear indigo or black robes buttoned on the right together with short broad trousers. They used to wrap their heads with black or white kerchiefs decorated with colored pile beads on two sides. However, nowadays, many De'ang boys have the same hairstyle as the Hans and do not like to burden their heads with so many ornaments. In some areas, men have the custom of tattooing their bodies with designs of tiger, deer, bird and flowers.
To add to their charm, young people, no matter male or female, put on silver neck rings, earrings and large silver earbobs, etc. Women usually decorate their jackets with red, yellow or green velvet balls on the lower hem. Men and women decorate some colorful velvet balls at the two ends of the kerchiefs. Young men always hang a string of five-color velvet balls on the breast while girls decorate their collars with velvet balls.
Email to Friends
Print
Save