Of all the 56 ethnic minority groups in China, the Miaos has probably been the most prominent. Hidden in areas locked by lofty mountains and torrential rivers, they is world-famous for making Asia’s most beautiful silver jewels.
And because of the poor geography they are in, they live today with some of China’s oldest and most distinctive customs that hasn’t changed much for thousands of years.
The third month of the Chinese lunar calendar is when the Miaos celebrate the Sister’s Meal Festival in a year. The festival, dubbed the ‘The Orient’s Oldest Valentine’s Day’, is specifically designed to encourage new relationships amongst single youths of the tribes.
As the tradition dictates, the 3-day festival starts with a cheerful Lusheng dance, and is participated by all single young men and women of the tribes. Lusheng is a traidtional Miao wind instrument played much the same way as a Chinese reed pipe.
Girls dance to the rhythm in layers of circles, and at the same time, selects their perspective partners from the Lusheng players. Slowly, she dances to the young man she lays her eyes on, and ties a flower ribbon to his instrument. If he accepts her advance, the young man sing antiphonal love songs with her.
From here the romance between the two starts.
The romance doesn’t stop there. After the dance, the courting Miao male gifts his new love a small parcel of steamed rice. The rice is returned the next day, but with small tokens of love tucked inside.
A bamboo hook in the rice makes a confession that she expects to keep a frequent contact with the recipient. A small cotton ball is a sign that she will think of him every day. A coriander leaf indicates that she is expecting a proposal of marriage.
What every courting Miao male fears the most, however, is receiving a package of chilli, which denotes a change of mind or, to be more direct, refusal.
D. Cheng likes researching craftman techniques to make silver jewels. Discover more about this subject. Visit his website about silver jewels here.