The Miao people are good at singing and dancing. The "Fei Ge" of the Miao people is high-pitched, loud and contagious; the dances include Lusheng dance, bench dance, copper drum dance, etc., with Lusheng dance being the most common. Lusheng dance is performed on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the third day of the third lunar month, the Double Ninth Festival and other festivals, as well as on days such as house building, harvest, and wedding receptions. The dance postures include multiple changes in the lower limbs. The folk mass Lusheng dance is usually led by two to five men playing the Lusheng, while others dance in a circle to the music. The scene is spectacular and the atmosphere is warm. Competitive Lusheng dance is usually performed at festivals or gatherings by a small number of highly skilled men and women, usually two to four people. The movements include squatting, bending, even lying on one's back, handstands and other difficult movements, and is very popular with the masses. Miao music can include both vocal music and instrumental music. Miao vocal music is generally performed by real people without instrumental accompaniment.
According to their content, Miao folk songs can be divided into several categories, including wandering songs (love songs), drinking songs, bitter songs, anti-songs, funeral songs, labor songs, current political songs, children's songs, riddle songs, etc., with different tunes. same. Fei Ge is a special form of folk song singing popular in southeastern Guizhou. It is usually sung aloud in the mountains. Its tunes are high-pitched, bold and unrestrained, and the lingering sound shakes the mountains. It is very distinctive. Its contents include love songs, current political songs, etc., and the singing form includes solo singing. , duet, chorus, etc. Various folk song forms include traditional lyrics and improvised arrangements. Gabaifu song is a rap literature popular in southeastern Guizhou. It is a fusion of folk poetry and legends. The singer sometimes narrates and sometimes sings, and its content mostly reflects civil disputes and social phenomena. Real people and real stories.
Pange is an ancient antiphonal way for young Miao men and women to express their wishes and talents to each other. The "Pange" of the Miao people in Zhaotong is very interesting. The young man took a fancy to a certain young woman, so he took two companions of the same age to the girl's home and asked her elders to explain his intention. If the girl's parents answer: "I don't know anyone yet, I am from the same generation." Then they are allowed to sing. The singing party of Pange is arranged by the elderly woman. The companions of both men and women who participate in the duet not only serve as advisers, but also find partners for themselves.
In Pange, the male usually sings first. Both parties showed their talents through duet. If the man loses, the woman throws water at him. Splashing water is not malicious in the Miao family, but a kind of baptism of goodwill. If Yi Fang answers the song fluently and sings it in harmony, he or she can even get engaged. But if the girl loses the game, she can continue to play the song until she gets engaged. On the day of the engagement, the girl's parents should prepare a wedding banquet for the boy in time and serve them to the villagers attending the singing party one by one. Finally, a pair of cow and sheep horns should be used as cups to serve to the young couple who are about to get married. Then they played the Lusheng and danced all night long to congratulate the young couple.
The musical instruments of the Miao people usually include Lusheng, Suona, Xiaodi, Huqin, Yueqin, etc. Main article: Miao dance
In the Miao people, the self-entertainment collective singing and dancing of young men and women is often called "Tai Tang". However, since the "Tai Tang" dance is inseparable from the accompaniment of Lusheng, now "Tai Tang" The traditional name "Tai Tang" has basically been changed to "Lusheng Dance". However, in order to reflect the differences and characteristics of "Lusheng Dance" in different regions, people had to put the name of the region in front of "Lusheng Dance" to distinguish it. Therefore, many forms of "Lusheng Dance" appeared, such as "Guangxi Rongshui Lusheng Dance", "Guizhou Qiandongnan Lusheng Dance", "Guizhou Huaxi Lusheng Dance". Men play the reed and women dance, which is a traditional custom of the Miao and Dong ethnic groups. But only in Guizhou, Miao girls, who are no worse than men, hold the reed and dance while playing the reed in the "stepping hall". It can be said that it is a scene that has never been seen among the "reed pipe people" in other areas. Young men of the Miao ethnic group must not only play the Lusheng well and be able to participate in the collective "Lusheng Dance", but also master the "Lusheng Dance" in the form of a single or double performance with special difficult skills, then he will become a man. The best among them will win the favor of unmarried women more often.
The young men and women of the Miao ethnic group in Huaxi, Guizhou Province, will automatically gather together during festive occasions to play the Lusheng and dance the "Lusheng Dance". Among the people playing the Lusheng, in addition to young men, there are also young girls. They stood in the same dance circle with the male reed players, playing the reeds in their hands and dancing with the women in the outer circle without any inferiority.
The two dance circles intersect and change positions, jumping towards the center for a while and dancing to the periphery for a while, just like flowers blooming in a hundred gardens, and like colorful butterflies singing and dancing to their heart's content. Although these dancers are not professional dancers, the simple and unrestrained dance style and the dancers’ inner joy will make the viewers on the sidelines infected by this vibrant song and dance, and they will happily follow the song and dance. Clap your hands and stamp your feet. Main article: Diaojiaolou, Miao Village
Due to their unique migration history, the Miao people have developed their own unique architectural style in the selection of building materials and construction of houses. The Miao people like wooden buildings, which are usually built with three floors. The first floor is generally used to solve the problem of uneven slopes, so it is usually a half house for stacking debris or housing livestock. The second floor is the main house, and the third floor is the granary. , some people specially set up a "beauty lean-to" on the third floor for young girls to look at and show their beauty, so as to establish a preliminary relationship with the elder brother of the Miao family.
Housing materials vary from place to place. The Miao area in southeastern Guizhou has more wood, so there are more wooden houses and tile-roofed houses, and fewer thatched houses with earth walls. In central and southern Guizhou, there are a combination of wooden houses, tile houses, thatched houses, and houses with earth walls. Generally speaking, thatched houses and houses with earth walls are the most common. In addition, many Miao people live in "chacha houses", which are not divided into rooms and have no furniture. They use wood as beds, straw mats as mats, and straw piers as stools.
In some areas of southeastern and northern Guizhou, there is a relatively special form of housing called "diaojiaolou". Built on a slope, the foundation is cut into a "factory"-shaped earth platform. Long wooden pillars are used to support the bottom of the earth platform. Fangs and beams are installed in sections according to the height of the earth platform. They are leveled with the earth platform and floor slabs are placed on the beams. It is used as the front hall of the house, and underneath it is used as a pen for pigs and cattle, or for storing sundries. The long-column vestibule is connected to the main room on the platform with beams, forming part of the main room. The main room on the stage is divided into two floors: the first floor is for people, and the upper floor is for sundries. The roof is covered with tiles (or covered with cedar bark), and the walls are decorated with wooden boards or masonry. Embroidery is a long-standing handicraft art of the Miao people. It is the main decoration method of Miao clothing and a representative of Miao female culture. Guizhou Province in southwest China is home to a large number of Miao compatriots, who create different styles and styles of clothing. Their clothes can be divided into casual clothes and fancy clothes. They wear casual clothes on weekdays and dress up for events or when girls get married. Both clothing and headdresses are complex and fine in workmanship. Although the theme selection of Miao embroidery is rich, it is relatively fixed, including dragons, birds, fish, bronze drums, flowers, butterflies, and pictures reflecting the history of the Miao people. Miao embroidery is very beautiful and has 12 types of techniques, namely flat embroidery, cross-stitch, pile embroidery, lock embroidery, patch embroidery, seed embroidery, broken thread embroidery, nail thread embroidery, crepe embroidery, braid embroidery, twining embroidery, horsetail embroidery, Tin embroidery, silk embroidery. These techniques are divided into several stitching techniques. For example, lock embroidery has double needle lock and single needle lock, and broken thread embroidery has broken thick thread and broken thin thread.
There are many types of Miao embroidery. In terms of color, it can be roughly divided into two types: monochrome embroidery and colorful embroidery. Monochrome embroidery is mainly made of green thread, and the embroidery technique is relatively simple. The work is elegant, simple and generous; color embroidery is made of colorful silk threads, and the embroidery technique is more complicated, either flat embroidery, plate embroidery or pick embroidery, mostly based on natural materials. With themes of flowers, birds, insects, fish or dragons, phoenixes and unicorns, the embroidery products are colorful and lifelike, making them exquisite among the Phoenix ethnic handicrafts. Batik is a traditional skill passed down from generation to generation by the Miao people in Danzhai County, Anshun County and Zhijin County, Guizhou Province. It was called "Wax Valer" in ancient times and "Witu" in Miao language, which means "batik clothing".
Danzhai County, Anshun County and Zhijin County are multi-ethnic areas inhabited by the Miao people. In the difficult environment of being isolated from the outside world for a long time, the residents here have gradually formed a self-sufficient lifestyle. The ancient batik technique has thus been preserved. According to Miao customs, all women are obliged to pass on batik skills, and every mother must teach her daughter to make batik. Therefore, Miao women have learned this skill since childhood. They plant indigo and cotton, spin and weave cloth, draw wax highlights, dip-dye and cut, and pass it on from generation to generation. Under this situation, these Miao inhabited areas formed customs and cultures such as clothing, marriage festival etiquette, social methods, and funeral customs dominated by batik art.
Miao batik is an art created for the producers' own needs. Its products are mainly daily necessities, including women's clothing, bed sheets, quilts, furoshiki, turbans, backpacks, handbags, straps, and funeral items. Funeral bills etc.