Jacket, Miao people, Guizhou, 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.

IV quarter 20th century, hand dyed with indigo, embroidery all by hand, cotton & synthetic parts

Size S/M, Length 60 cm, width 53 cm (single messure) arms 42 cm