Da Shu Jia village

(Da Shu Jia village is in Xin Zhou township, Longlin county - 6km from Longlin itself - Guangxi province, south west China.  It was originally a Clean Water Miao village but it has absorbed influences from (and probably intermarriages with) Red Hat Miao and White Miao.)

The photos were taken during a visit to Da Shu Jia village in October 2000.  We were greeted by a troupe of young (and some very young) girls and boys who gave us a performance of singing and dancing with song, flute and Jew's harp solos.  The troupe's clothing was very glitzy and had influences from various groups, especially Clean Water and Red Hat Miao.  The choreography for the performance had been created by a village girl in Senior Middle School.  She also performed, compered and sang a final song of farewell to us.  The village women had arranged demonstrations of waxing batik lengths for skirts and then we were able to purchase textiles with the school girls helping the older women to read and write figures.  There was some fine batik lengths for sale which had been waxed twice - with two intensities of indigo dye.  Although the village received quite a few visitors during a year they were very welcoming and we were received with freshness and charm.

all text & images © Pamela A Cross

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