The Miao people of China: silver, embroidery and the Miao New Year

Who the Miao are, and how they relate to the Hmong

The 2020 census counted 11,067,929 Miao in China, out of 125,467,390 people who belong to ethnic minorities. That puts them fourth among the minorities, after the Zhuang, Uygur and Hui.

‘Miao’ is a Chinese umbrella name rather than one people. It covers several groups with their own names for themselves, usually described as four main ones: the Hmu (Hmub), the Hmong, the Xong (Qo Xiong) and the A-Hmao. Britannica notes that these groups are only distantly related in language and culture. Locally, Miao communities are also known by names drawn from their dress, such as the Long-horn Miao (长角苗).

Hmong is the name English speakers usually know. In China the Hmong are classified as a subgroup of the Miao, so the census does not count them separately; one estimate puts them at roughly a third of all Miao. Outside China there are large Hmong communities in Vietnam (1,393,547 in the 2019 census), Laos, Thailand and the United States, so ‘Hmong China’ searches usually lead here.[1][2][3][4][5][17]

Silver, embroidery and dress

Silver is the first thing most people notice. Miao women wear silver both every day and on formal occasions, and at festivals the full set appears: headdresses and crowns, neck rings and chest locks. Silver jewellery is also a mark of a family’s wealth and matters most at weddings and spring celebrations. In Leishan county the craft is said to be more than 600 years old; making a single hairpin, by melting, forging, carving and brushing, takes at least three hours.

Miao embroidery (苗绣, Miáoxiù) is just as celebrated. Guizhou alone has more than 100 local styles of Miao dress, each with its own embroidery, and the patterns run from animals and plants to people and geometric designs. Huaxi, Leishan and Jianhe embroidery were on China’s first national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006, and Taijiang embroidery, centred on Shidong town, was added in 2011.

One unusual technique is the tin embroidery of the Miao in Jianhe, Guizhou, which uses metal thread to make geometric patterns with a silver-tin sheen; it also became national heritage in 2006. Miao women are also known for weaving, paper-cutting and batik.

The Long-horn Miao of the high mountains of Liuzhi and Zhijin in western Guizhou are named after the women’s headdress: a horn-shaped wooden board wound with hair, linen and wool, which can be up to three metres long and weigh about two kilograms. China’s first ecomuseum, the Suojia Ecological Museum, opened in their community in October 1998.[3][10][13][14][15][16][18]

Where to see Miao culture: Xijiang and Taijiang

Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village (西江千户苗寨, Xījiāng Qiānhù Miáozhài, ‘Xijiang Thousand-Household Miao Village’) is the place most visitors go. It lies about 36 km northeast of Leishan county town in Qiandongnan, and is made up of more than ten hamlets with nearly 1,300 households; tour operators describe it as the largest Miao settlement in the world. Wooden stilted houses rise in tiers up the hillside above the Baishui River, with terraced fields beyond, and the village is lit up at night.

Inside, the Xijiang Miao museum holds more than 1,200 objects on Miao life, and there are daily song-and-dance performances on the lusheng ground. Admission was listed at ¥100 by the Guizhou government site in 2020. Buses run from Kaili, the prefecture capital, to Xijiang; allow two to three hours from Guiyang or Kaili.

For festivals, Taijiang county is the home of the Sisters’ Festival, with its riverside chorus and costume parade, and Leishan county holds the main Miao New Year celebrations. Food is part of the trip: sour soup fish (酸汤鱼, suāntāng yú), simmered in a fermented sour broth of rice and local tomatoes, began in Miao cooking and is now the signature dish of the whole province.[6][7][9][12][20]