In choosing style and color of dresses, nature certainly
serves as an initial inspiration to people: green mountains circled with limpid
brooks, azure sky dotted with white clouds, rainbow accompanied by rays of evening
sunlight, multihued flowers and stripy coats of animals. People in such surroundings
could never resist being tempted to run wild with their imagination of color.
Indigo plants, scarlet ox blood, red ocher, white chalk and mica, kudzu vine
and Cape jasmine in purple or yellow, crimson madder, and wax for printing cloth
are all rewards granted by nature.
Natural environment, as well as religions, exerts a subtle influence on the
choosing of dress color of ethnic groups in China.
Besides their love for cleanness and purity out of religious belief, is the
white admiration of Tibetans, who are self dubbed Òmaster of the snow land,Ó
also partly a result of the influence of the white setting they work and live
in? For ethnic groups living in mountainous areas where water is scarce, they
prefer dark colors such as black and brown, which would not be easily soiled.
As for the Dai and Bai ethnic groups who live near waters, their dresses are usually
in light color. While ethnic groups in tropical areas prefer bright dresses, people
in frigid zones would choose quiet and dark colors.
The 55 ethnic groups in China all have their own choices of the colors of
their garments, from which we can see their diversified tastes for color. Taking
the Tu ethnic group in Qinghai province as an example, one might conclude that
the people prefer the colors of black, blue and brown after initially meeting
some of the ethnic group. However, the initial impression is far from being the
truth. The rainbow-styled color sleeves of women of the Tu ethnic group are pieced
together with five broad tube-shaped cloths in blue, red, white, green and black,
or in red, yellow, green, blue and purple. Whatever the colors are, the five pieces
of cloth are put in the pattern of rainbow. Also, each color has its own meaning,
for example, blue stands for sky, green for grasslands and red for the sun. All
in all, the colorful rainbow-styled sleeves of the Tu ethnic group are harmoniously
hued and in good taste.
Similarly, though the Korean ethnic group admires the white color, the garments
for children are bright in various colors. The sleeves of children’s clothes are
pieced together with silk in seven colors, just like a rainbow.
The examples of the Tu and Korean ethnic groups are illustrative enough to
demonstrate the diversified tastes of Chinese ethnic groups in choosing colors
of their dresses. According to the overall visual effect, Chinese ethnic groups’
tastes in choosing garment color fall into three categories:
