The Best Of Miao: Silver Jewels And Courting Etiquette

Of all the 56 ethnic minority groups in China

, the Miaos has probably been the most prominent. Hidden in areas locked by lofty mountains and torrential rivers, they is world-famous for making Asia's most beautiful silver jewels.

The people lives in the remote and long-forgotten mountainous areas of southern China, and with a silver jewel crafting tradition as old as 3, 000 years.

Each year on March 15 on the Chinese lunar calendar there comes the Sister's Meal Festival. Dubbed the 'oldest Valentine's Day of the Orient', it is a time for the young single ladies of the Miao tribes to get pro-active and find their 'the other half'.

The festival lasts 3 days, and a Lusheng dance taken part in by all villagers officially announces its arrival. Lusheng is a traditional Miao wind instrument, and is played much like a Chinese reed pipe.

Sister's Meal Festival usually starts off with a joyful Lusheng dance. Single youths all gather at the 'find a lover ground' for the big celebration lasting for 3 straight days. Unlike the rest of the country where a courting male takes the first move, here in the Miao tribes, it's the girls who go pro-active.

That starts off the romance between the two.

Even more unusual, after the dance a young courting Miao man gifts his prospective partner a small parcel of multi-colored rice. The girl returns the parcel the next day with small tokens of love inside it. Messages are conveyed this way.

Messages conveyed vary based on different tokens. A bamboo hook is a sign that the girl hopes to keep a frequent contact with the young man. A cotton ball indicates that she is already missing him a lot. Some coriander leaves make a confession that she is actually waiting for a proposal of marriage.

Despite all these tokens, what a Miao males hopes to see the most is probably a pair of chopsticks, which signifies that she can't wait another day to be his wife.

by: David Cheng

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