Apron, Miao people, South China

More than 5,5 million Miao live in China, making them one of the largest minority groups in the country. They live in wooded mountain regions in southern China, in the provinces Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi and Hunan, but some of them also live on Hainan Island, Sichuan and Guangdong. For poverty-plagued provinces such as Yunnan, the Chinese government has now discovered a miracle cure: Tourism. For years, the Han Chinese considered resident ethnic minorities to be barbarians and more closely related to animals than human beings, i.e. the Han Chinese themselves – even though the Hmong settled in China at the same time as the Han. Their history is more than 5000 years old and was, for the most part, passed on orally until the beginning of the 20th century. As Mongols of uncertain origin they were not treated particularly well, and the rapidly expanding Han Chinese displaced the Hmong more and more, which is how they eventually became an ethnic minority.

III quarter 20 century, the apron was part of the woman’s costume.

100% Cotton, cross stich embroidery all by hand

Length 53 cm (with frings) waistband 65 cm