Head Cloth, Miao people, Yunnan, South China

More than 5.5 million Miao live in China, making them one of the largest minority groups in the country. They inhabit wooded mountain regions in southern China, particularly in the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Hunan. Some also live on Hainan Island, as well as in Sichuan and Guangdong.

For poverty-stricken provinces such as Yunnan, the Chinese government has now discovered a supposed miracle cure: tourism. For years, the Han Chinese regarded resident ethnic minorities as barbarians, considering them closer to animals than to human beings—i.e., the Han Chinese themselves—even though the Hmong settled in China at the same time as the Han.

Their history spans more than 5,000 years and was, for the most part, passed down orally until the early 20th century. As Mongols of uncertain origin, they were not treated particularly well, and the rapidly expanding Han Chinese increasingly displaced the Hmong, ultimately leading to their status as an ethnic minority.

III. quarter 20th century

0,9 x 0,34 m