Chinese villagers honor married women with ancient chicken ceremony

A village in southwest China staged a traditional wedding ritual this week that pits ancient traditions against modern views on animal welfare in a fast changing country.

The ceremony held in the ethnic Kam minority village of Gantuan in Guizhou province is based on a tradition dating back some 500 years that was revived and modified in the 1990s for villagers and tourists.

"I feel a little nervous and a little happy," Shi Litao, a 26-year-old bride wearing heavy layers of makeup and a colorful costume, said before the ceremony on the Chinese New Year.

The event, known locally as "steal the chicken at the drum tower," involves young men competing to be the first to tear apart live birds carried on poles by new brides into the village center.

It is rooted in the past when a bride was expected to marry a cousin, according to village chief Huang Xuexian.

If she wished to marry outside the family, her suitor and cousin would compete to be the first to bite off the head of a tethered chicken or duck and "win" the bride. This ritual was abandoned long ago as attitudes on marriage changed, said Huang.

"It was later that people realized this was not the correct way to marry. Now we have the freedom to marry whom we want," he said.

In the 1990s the village introduced a modified version of the ceremony that still involves young men tearing the live birds from the poles carried by the brides.

Huang defended the ceremony, saying there had been no public opposition to the annual event.

"This is our custom and this has never generated any controversy," he said.

Pet ownership and better education on animal welfare have fueled greater public sympathy for animal rights, activists say, but legal protection proposed in 2009 has not been implemented.

"China does not have a comprehensive law for ensuring the wellbeing of all animals or an anti-cruelty law for protecting animals," said Peter Li, China policy advisor for Humane Society International. He blamed "business interests involved in animal exploitation such as bear farming."

Ancient Chinese clothing

Ming dynasty (1400s AD)
painting by Tang Yin
People in China generally wore tunics (like long t-shirts). Women wore long tunics down to the ground, with belts, and men wore shorter ones down to their knees. Sometimes they wore jackets over their tunics. In the winter, when it was cold, people wore padded jackets over their tunics, and sometimes pants under them. In early China, poor people made their clothes of hemp or ramie. Rich people wore silk.

Most people in China, both men and women, wore their hair long. People said that you got your hair from your parents and so it was disrespectful to cut it.

During the Sui Dynasty, in the 500s AD, the emperor decided that all poor people had to wear blue or black clothes, and only rich people could wear colors.

X-ray pictures of someone with bound feet and a diagram

In the Sung Dynasty, about 1100 AD, a fashion started at the emperor's court for women to bind their feet. Women thought that to be beautiful they needed little tiny feet, only about three inches long. They got these tiny feet by wrapping tight bandages around the feet of little girls, about five or six years old.

A shoe for someone with bound feet

The bandages were so tight they broke the girls’ toes and bent them underneath their feet and then they had to walk on them like that. The girls spent most of their time crying for two or three years and then the feet stopped hurting so much. Women with bound feet couldn’t walk very well at all, and when they had to work in the fields often they would crawl. Some of the earliest versions of the story of Cinderella come from Sung Dynasty China. In these versions, the point of the story is that the Prince loves Cinderella because she has the smallest feet of any girl in the kingdom, so the slipper will only fit her.
Then in the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols brought cotton to China. At first people didn’t want to grow cotton, maybe because the people running the silk industry wanted to keep people buying silk. But the Mongol invasions in the 1200’s destroyed a lot of the mulberry trees that were needed to make silk. The Mongol emperors, like Kublai Khan, turned to cotton to fill the gap. In 1289 AD they ordered the opening of special training centers to teach farmers how to grow cotton. And in 1296 they ordered that farmers who grew cotton could pay lower taxes. Soon everyone liked cotton better than ramie or hemp. Cotton was warmer, and softer, and stronger, and cheaper. You could make it thin for summer, or you could make thick padded clothes out of it that were warm for winter.

To find out more about ancient Chinese clothing, check out these books from Amazon or from your library:

Know More About Ancient Chinese Clothing

The ancient Chinese clothing had a very distinctive social classes. Every of those has specific types and significance of dressing. Varied symbols are used on the clothing to distinguish between numerous strata of society. The ancient Chinese clothes have varied greatly throughout different periods of time. Each social or historical period brought about a brand new style.
Throughout the Pre-Qing Dynasty (also recognized because the Manchu Dynasty was the final ruling dynasty of China from 1644 to 1912.); the prevalent ancient Chinese clothing was broadly referred to as hanfu with numerous variations such as traditional Chinese academic dress. Each and every individual stratum displayed a various fashion. Actually, the military was totally distinctive in its appearance.

Chinese civil or military officials had an assortment of motifs to depict their rank and position. Hat knobs were used as an icon of their rank. There had been nine kinds of color coded hat knobs that represented the nine distinctive ranks. An additional well-liked insignia was the Mandarin square or rank badge.
The Chinese clothing known because the Hanfu (also referred to as guzhuang which means "ancient clothing"), was the conventional dress with the Han Chinese folk. The term Hanfu has its organ within the Book of Han, which says, "then numerous came towards the Court to spend homage and had been delighted at the clothing style of the Han [Chinese]." It had been fascinating for these visitors to determine the characteristic outfit – like a kimono and sandals created out of rice reed. As you are able to see, the Hanfu includes a colorful history dating back 3000 years and more. In fact, the dress was even worn by the legendary Yellow Emperor. It had been well-liked since long prior to the Qing Dynasty came into energy within the mid seventeenth century. Since the materials of this ancient Chinese clothing were always silk, supposedly found by the Yellow Emperor’s consort, Leizu, the Hanfu was also known as ‘silk robes’.
The Hanfu now is worn only at special occasions, which are mainly historical reenactment, hobby, coming of age/rite of passage ceremonies, ceremonial clothes worn by religious priests, or cultural physical exercise. Nevertheless, you will find attempts on to try and make it a part of more day to day wears or at least throughout Chinese celebrations and festivals, especially in China also as amongst the non resident community.
The Ancient Chinese clothes in its most conventional greatest can be explained as different parts of particular cloth that are draped inside a unique style. It would be totally different from the conventional garment of other ethnic groups in China such as the Manchurian qipao. There is a fantastic difference between the Han way of dressing and the Manchurian influence. It is as yet an unsolved issue which with the two would be the right traditional costume with the ancient Chinese. Some costumes commonly thought of as usually Chinese, like the qipao, are the result of influence by brutal laws (Queue Order) imposed by Manchurian rulers with the Qing Dynasty, and are regarded by some advocates as not being "traditionally" Han.

Chinese And Japanese Ancient Clothing Similar?

Ancient Chinese clothing for women was the Cheongsam which was a one piece suit consisting of a high neck with a closed collar and short or medium sleeves. The fitted waist and slits on the sides complimented women’s figures well. The tunic suit dominated ancient Chinese clothing, known as the ‘Zhongshan suit’, had a turned down collar and 4 pockets. Animal print embroidery patches were used during the Ming and Qing dynasty. Beautiful in appearance and very intricate, these embroideries also symbolized the ranks of officers who wore them.

Both the ancient Chinese clothing and ancient Japanese clothing evolved over the centuries and during different dynasties ruled. The major differences in the designs and embroideries were that while the ancient Chinese clothing symbolized religion and auspicious symbolism; the ancient Japanese clothing was more colorful and used floral patterns without any symbolic meanings. Both the clothing styles however distinguished in social ranking, age, sex and other aspects. Clothes of a wearer explained their social status or their marital status where women were concerned.

By 718, the clothing codes had restrictions entirely influenced by china. The influence of china on ancient Japan was no less than a military siege! While wearing a robe, the Chinese considered wearing a robe form right to left barbaric since it was easy for right handed people. The code in Japan specified that robes had to be worn right over left and it became a convention of Kimono wearing in Japan ever since.
Chinese ancient clothing has been setting trends for centuries. Rules of dressing were followed religiously and most dress patterns and designs were influenced by religion. Ancient Chinese clothing was in warm tones with a lot of embroidery and silk sashes used to tie the robes instead of buttons. During the Zhou Dynasty, dragon robes were seen mostly worn by emperors. These were heavily embroidered with nine yellow dragons and five cloud patterns. These were considered auspicious for the wearer and had a symbolic meaning. The nine and five combinations were calculated deliberately used while designing; this symbolized the dignity of the throne. Dragons were embroidered on the front and back of the robes, also the knee areas and even shoulders.