The Hongyao people in Longji, from the Multinational Autonomous County of Longsheng, Guangxi province are a sub-branch of the Yao ethnic group. The Hongyao are named as such because they like to wear red costumes. On the 6th of the 6th month of the lunar calendar, the Hongyao celebrate the “Clothes Hanging Festival” by bringing out their best and fanciest folk costumes and drying them in the sunlight so as to kill off bacteria and ward off bad luck. During this festival, different costumes will decorate the wooden houses in the Yao villages just as rosy clouds cover the sky. Pan Jifeng, a representative heiress of intangible cultural heritage of Yao costumes who lives in Huoluo Yao Village, Longji, said, ”Those costumes bearing the Yao culture are sewn by generations and generations Hongyao women. It usually takes half a year to make a set of Hongyao costume and in some cases it might take two to three years.” Although the process of making the costumes is complicated and time-consuming, Hongyao women are still preserving the ethnic legacy in today’s world that is experiencing rapid economic development and a constant changing of costume styles.

In Huangluo Yao Village, Longji, Multinational Autonomous County of Longsheng, Guangxi province, six Hongyao women model Yao costumes on July 3, 2014.

 

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