traditional costumes of the ethnic minority Yi

With around 6.5 Mio people, the Yi are the 4th largest minority in China. Originally from Gansu and Qinghai, the Yi moved to the southwest around 1500 years ago and are nowadays to be found mainly in southwestern Sichuan and Yunnan. The Yi are very proud and always have been fiercely resisting the assimilation of the Han people. Until the late 50ies, the Yi society was a cast system with the family clan as its core. The "Black Yi" as aristocrats and landowners, with approx. 8% of the population, owned around 80% of the territory. The "White Yi", with around 50% of the population, had no freedom of movement and had to work a certain amount of hours in the fields of the Black Yi each year.

The Aija with around 33% and the Xiaxi with around 10% were freely traded as slaves and had no rights at all. When Mao Zedong ended this cast system in 1958, they found an American pilot who served during WWII and was shot down by the Japanese. Although he could save himself with a parachute, he landed right in the Yi territory in a 14-year long slavery.

The costumes of the Yi perfectly represent the pride of the people. The Yi men with rather long and slim bodies and noble traits wear mostly a black turban or shave their hair that only a hair knot remains. The women wear beautiful long dresses in all kind of colors and very special head wear.

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