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The Zhuang Nationality |
Zhuang is China's only ethnic minority group that has a population of over ten million.There are about 15.48 million Zhuangs, mostly living in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region with the rest scattered over Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou and some other provinces.The Zhuangs are mainly involved in agriculture. They speak the Zhuang language for which a written form was created in 1956. They believe in polytheism and worship their ancesters.The Zhuang are a many-talented people. Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is known as"the land of songs," and the Zhuang lengend singers are honorned with the title of "celestial singers." Zhuang brocade enjoys a worldwide fame.
As the earliest inhabitants of the hilly and moutainous ever-green areas to tile west of lingnan in southern China, the Zhuang nationality boasts a long history. Their region is known to the world for its scenery with curious limestone formations. Due to a warm climate and plenty of rainfall, the fertile land abounds in subtropical fruits and crops.
The houses of the Zhuang nationality are two-storied bamboo buildings --wooden structures built on sloping ground and supported by pillars of different lengths depending on the terrain.Hidden amongst dense forests with streams winding around, they cling to the mountain from the foot to half way up its sides.
The ground floor of the house is used as a shed for livestock while the family lives on the upper floor. In each household, the shrine for idols or ancestoral tablets must be placed near the central pillar of the building. There is a front hall which is used for social activities and important ceremonies, a back hall which serves as a living room, and bedrooms on both sides of these. Life in the living room centres around the fire so that the Zhuangs have all three meals a day by the fire.
Of all the Zhuang festivals, the most distinctive is the Ghost Day, when every Zhuang household busies itself preparing large amounts of food, first offering a sacrifice to Heaven and their ancestors, and then holding a big banquet for both the family members and their close relatives. The Zhuangs' favorite foods are the five-colored glutinous rice meal and Zongba(which is made of sticky rice, pork and bean flour wrapped in leaves of a canna-like plant).Both symbolize good luck and happiness. Zongba is especially essential for almost every traditonal Zhuang festival and is given as presents by the Zhuang people amongst themselves.
The Zhuangs excel in spinning and weaving. Most of their clothes are made of home-produced cloth with a great variety of patterns. Zhuang costumes differ from place to place. Generally speaking, most women are dressed in blueish black, with distinctive loose-legged trousers. In addition, they wear scarves with a floral pattern over their heads, and embroidered aprons. The costume of most Zhuang men is of the Tang dynasty style, tied with a belt around the waist.
Zhuang brocade, a splendid hand-made product, is world-famous, along with Xiang brocade from Hunan and Shu brocade from Sichuan. Traditional designs of Zhuang brocade usually feature butterflies amongst flowers, phoenix with peonies, two dragons playing with a pearl, lions rolling a silk ball, and so on. Products of Zhuang brocade include braces, blankets, quiltcovers, aprons, waistbelts, handbags, knapsacks, satchels, scarves and clothes.
On the cliffs that extend for several hundred miles away in Zuojiang and Mingjiang, Guangxi, sixty sites of Zhuang artistic masterpieces have been discovered; altogether there are 1770 murals depicting various human figures, animals and objects. The human figures can be grouped into large, medium and small ones. The large one looks like a chieftain standing on horseback and wearing a big curved knife, while the other figures face him, either with their hands raised or their legs apart. The paintings are vivid and life-like, showing scenes of warfare, revelry, and sacrificial rites.
According to archaeologioal research, the Huashan murals (so called after the cliffs) are the works of the Zhangs' ancestors and date from as early as the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history (770-476B.C. ) and the time of the Warring States (475-221B.C.). The murals are considered in art circles to be incomparable in terms of their wide-spread distribution, the range of their themes and the steepness of the cliff faces on which they were painted.
Bronze drums reveals a high-level Bronze Age culture. In Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as many as 500 bronze drums have been unearthed from this period. The biggest of these, known as "the King Bronze Drum," is 165 centimeters in diameter. In ancient times,the drums were used for sending messages and issuing orders, and they also symbolized power and wealth. But today, the Zhuang people have turned the old usage into an art form to be performed only on important occasions.
Guangxi Song and Dance Troupe have created a performance for the stage called "Huashan Battle Drum-Beating." Based on the murals on the Huashan cliffs and the designs found on the bronze drums when they were dug up, as well as on Zhuang folklore, the show describes in graphic form the life of the Zhuang's forefathers. Through the description of their various activities, including fishing, marshal arts, fighting against invaders and celebrating victories, it shows the important role bronze drums used to play in the Zhuang people's lives and subsequent development.
March 3rd is the Zhuang's most important traditional festival, the Song Festival. To celebrate it, hundreds and thousands of people come together in their holiday best to sing songs in call and answer style at places chosen before-hand. The celebration can also take place during the Spring Festival, on the eighth of the fourth lunar month or at the Mid Autumn Festival.
At the March 3rd Song Festival, stages and colored tents are set up for singing contests. In addition, people go in for other entertainments like throwing silk balls, clinking colored eggs and setting off fireworks. Young people also take the opportunity courting, looking for a life-long partner.
Bayin (or eight-sound) music, specific to the Zhuang, is popular among people in Longlin Tianlin and Xilin in the northern Zhuang areas. The music gets its name from the eight musical instruments played in concert; they are a local two-stringed erhu fiddle, a three stringed plucked instrument, a Zhuang flute, a Bayin gong and a Bayin drum, a cymbal and two local double-stringed bowed instruments. Bayin music is mostly played on festive occasions or for joyful celebrations. In slack seasons it is played simply for entertainment, and often joined by a group of singers and sometimes accompanied by drum beatings.
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