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Following this author’s recent experiences in some of China’s remotest nooks and crannies, she ponders: From fashion to travel destinations…
What’s up with the fascination with ethnic cultures coming about among Chinese millennials and Gen Zs?
Rising up from the chimneys of dark-wooden cottages dotting the mountainside, wisps of smoke adorn the crisp air on January 13, 2024. This is Hongyang Village, a place inhabited by the Miao ethnic group, nestled snugly amid rolling hills and shrouded in mist in Taijiang County of Guizhou Province in southwest China. Photo: Elsbeth van Paridon
“Hey, you’re too tall, we need to fill you up! Don’t you like it?!” Amidst the cacophony of jangling silver trinkets, the melodic tunes of traditional songs and the deep sonorous blasts of the lusheng (芦笙 | lúshēng in Chinese), mouth organs fashioned from six-meter-long bamboo pipes, this author crouches down and attempts to elegantly sip bowl after bowl of rice wine offered by spirited women of the local Miao ethnic group. Spoiler alert: graceful consumption wasn’t exactly the end result.
Rewind.
It was a crisp early January morning, and yours truly was about to do a deep dive into Miao ethnic culture while shooting for China Daily’s Potside Chats series. Our destination was Hongyang Village, a Miao town tucked snugly amid rolling hills and veiled in mist in Taijiang County of southwest China’s Guizhou Province.
Guizhou, known for its great peaks and being the only region in China without plains, is the beating heart of the Miao legacy, home to around 4.2 million members of the ethnic group. The Miao, tracing their lineage back over 5,000 years, can also be found across Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei and Hunan provinces, as well as in Southeast Asia, where they are known as the Hmong.
Sauntering along the slippery cobblestones, the mist lifted to reveal the scene of smoke lazily curling from the chimneys of the small dark wooden houses dotting the mountainside, oozing a sense of unpolished mystery.
Strolling among the houses and laneways, it was impossible not to notice just how many young tourists were joining us in exploring the village.
Given the bucolic beauty, it’s no wonder flocks of young Chinese have found themselves drawn to explore this town and the count(r)y’s other hidden gems.
Then my inner Miss Marple emerged: How did this new fascination with ethnic cultures come about among Chinese millennials and Gen Zs?
I was thirsty for more.
Putting Yourself Out There
The key to stepping into the world? Infrastructure.
Infrastructure development in Guizhou kicked off in the early 21st century as part of a broader push to boost connectivity and progress in China’s remote regions. Bridges—especially important in Guizhou, ya know, because of the total lack of plains and all that jazz, roads, railways… the works. All aim to connect secluded hamlets in less developed areas with the rest of the country, opening up new pathways for development. The Chinese Government has, since 2012, pursued a “no ethnic group should be left behind” policy and is continuously rolling out new initiatives to nurture these once forgotten enclaves under the national rural revitalization strategy—hey, props when and where due.
Quick explainer: This rural revitalization strategy, introduced in 2017, promotes the economic prosperity and overall development of rural areas. It involves developing rural industries and improving the living standards of rural residents, who, especially in the southern and southwestern regions, more often than not belong to smaller ethnic groups.
Related
A Taste of Miao Mastery–Nestled Deep in the Mountains of Hunan
But the most interesting infrastructural evolution might be China’s almost unparalleled digital development. Over the years, the country has invested heavily in the telecommunications sector to ensure widespread coverage and connectivity—from bustling metropolises to remote villages.
And beyond the realm of data streams and signal strength lies a phenomenon that has permeated every corner of Chinese society: social media.
China’s social media landscape is undeniably one of the world’s most pervasive, with platforms like the Weixin super app, Weibo (the country’s X equivalent), Douyin (China’s version of TikTok), Xiaohongshu (a wildly popular lifestyle and e-commerce app) and Bilibili (a YouTube-like platform mainly targeting Gen Zs) collectively boasting hundreds of millions of users. They are not just communication tools, but also avenues for accessing entertainment, e-commerce and news. Douyin, for example, had over 750 million daily active users and Xiaohongshu over 200 million monthly active users as of late 2023, according to Statista.com.
Just to provide a glimpse into the magnitude of China’s social media.
The platforms have evolved into potent instruments for China’s ethnic groups, thrusting their heritage from the shadows into the spotlight of economic opportunity through enchanting short videos, livestreams, photos and other media.
In the past four to five years, roughly coinciding with the domestic commercial rollout of 5G technology in 2019, the groups have captivated China’s younger generations, millennials and Gen Zs hungry for authenticity and diversity, and spellbound by the medley of colorific customs brought to life on their screens.
Fascination: ignited.
On Douyin, the hashtag “ethnic culture” had 6 billion related posts as of June 12. And circling back to where we started: the hashtag “Guizhou Taijiang” boasted 100 million posts on the platform.
What’s more, the call for media products celebrating ethnic cultures has grown louder over the years. As of late May, China’s TV hit of the year (so far) was To the Wonder (the OG Chinese title being 我的阿勒泰|wǒde ālètài or My Altay) . A series set amid the rugged landscapes of China’s remote northwest, it’s a story about Kazak nomads that has domestic viewers raving—the related hashtag had garnered 4.3 billion posts on Douyin as of June 9.
But this symphony of connectivity and culture today also resonates far beyond the confines of the screen.
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Pastoral Preachers
It appears that many poster children of the urban jungle are now becoming preachers of all that is pastoral.
In Hongyang, yours truly went to grab an Americano at a tiny café she stumbled upon, and you may take that to the letter–heels (don’t ask) and slippery cobblestones don’t make for a great pair. Sitting next to a rustling creek winding its way down the hillside, its owners turned out to be a young millennial bonafide Beijing couple, who in 2023 decided to leave behind the urban rat race and move to the village to set up shop there. Their motivation? A passion for all that is, yep, pastoral and the ethnic cultures it comprises.
And this author would dare wager that with the influx of tourism starting this spring, their dainty coffee haunt must have transformed into a real daka joint.
Daka ( 打卡| dǎkǎ, literally “punching a card” or the act of using a card to punch in and out of work) means taking one’s photo in a picture-perfect place to then show off on social media. Daka tourism is a trending Chinese phenomenon slash hardcore industry.
So speaking of tourism...
In the lead-up to both the recent May Day and Dragon Boat holidays, from May 1 to 5 and on June 10, respectively offering five days and three days of respite, young Chinese delved into a digital treasure trove of travel recommendations on Xiaohongshu and Bilibili. In the digital realm, whispers of hidden charms echoed, drawing attention to places like the small, rather isolated county of Anji in Zhejiang Province, east China, where people can lose themselves in the lush bamboo forests—and a budding coffee culture percolates. Taijiang also stirred excitement online, with many netizens discussing the “magic of its local Miao customs.”
Judging from the social grids, young urbanites are yearning for rural tranquility combined with contemporary lifestyle experiences. Their wanderlust is a reaction to the copy-paste cultural format, i.e., join a stream of visitors to walk around an entirely rebuilt village/ get a colorful souvenir/ bite into whatever local snack/ that’s a rural Universal Resort wrap, that has been applied to a host of revamped countryside towns.
Winter casts its spell… Here are a few more glimpses of Hongyang Village, painted with a marvelous mystique in January 2024. Photos: Elsbeth van Paridon
These explorers seek more than just a change of scenery; they crave immersive experiences. From participating in traditional festivals to mastering local crafts and cuisines, this is where China’s ethnic groups hold an advantage.
If you’re throwing a little soirée and decide to whip up some sour fish soup and sticky rice cakes, two Miao staples, and can regale your guests with the story of how and where you learned to cook them, you’re sure to earn some culinary kudos.
Destinations like Yunnan, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guizhou, known for their ethnic diversity, perfectly cater to the ever-more-refined palate of the young vacationer and have subsequently become popular travel spots in recent years.
Not much of a chef? Dazzle your guests with pictures from your ethnic travel shoots. From Xizang and Xinjiang autonomous regions to Guizhou, everywhere you turn in the Middle Kingdom, tourists bedecked in traditional local ethnic garb and sporting impeccable makeup are striking poses for the professional lens. The results? Glossy material.
A sample mosaic of patterns and motifs from the studio of Miao embroiderer Shi Chuanying. Photo: Elsbeth van Paridon
Fashionation
Many of China’s traditional ethnic fashions have become sources of artisanally treasured inspiration for contemporary fashion designers and brands, which have been taking a leaf out of the extensive fashion and beauty pages written by these population groups.
The legend of Mother Butterfly, for example, is preserved in Miao song and embroidery and inspired Shenzhen-based fashion designer Zhao Huizhou, who featured the motif at a Miao art exhibition curated by her during Milan Fashion Week in September 2023. She brought along Shi Chuanying, a Miao embroiderer from Taijiang who had created many of the patterns on display. Speaking about her creative zeal, fashion Zhao told this author in Hongyang Village that, “Fashion needs a cultural imprint; I love the Miao culture, because its embroidery is like ‘wearing history books on the body’.”
The designer has showed at Milan Fashion Week more than 10 times, most recently in February, with her catwalk collections telling the front row more about the Miao story through the language of contemporary fashion. “The group’s embroidered motifs are the threads of life itself, weaving together the daily rhythms, the rites of passage and the records of the community lore,” Zhao continued.
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For Zhao, the current young(er) fascination with all things ethnic are a matter of rekindled cultural confidence—we’re talking guochao (国潮| guócháo). Literally meaning “national wave,” guochao refers to products, from fashion to food, packing traditional Chinese cultural elements. This wave is among the most significant currents in the contemporary young cultural narrative since it was “officially” popularized by Chinese athletic apparel brand Li-Ning at New York Fashion Week in early 2018.
Zhao isn’t the only one turning to China’s ethnic tapestry for inspiration. Shanghai Fashion Week regularly features brands and designers infusing their creations with some ethnic panache. And in 2022, Queen Bey (ok, Beyoncé) wore a cloak, created by post-00 couture designer Yuan Qiqi, inspired by the shawl worn by the Yi people in southwest China, recognizable by its over-the-top contour, during her Renaissance album cover shoot. Chinese netizens were over the moon.
Beauty brand Florasis (known as 花西子| huā xī zǐ in China), headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, has been raking in young Chinese (and international) fans since its inception in 2017.
The label explores wisdom in traditional beauty rituals, inherits the philosophy of Chinese aesthetics and adopts modern technologies in creating its cosmetic products. One trademark product is the loose powder containing floral infusions and Chinese herbs.
The brand also consistently seeks inspiration from the cultural wealth of the nation’s ethnic communities. The brand’s “Impression of Miao” limited edition collection in 2020 reproduced the ethnic group’s gilding crafts. The “Nomadic Glam” limited series in late January paid homage to the nomadic lifestyle of the ethnic Mongolian culture.
All these products sold like hotcakes.
A combination of cultural confidence and contemporary convenience has turned the younger Chinese generations into Curious Cathies, eager to explore the hidden wonders their homeland holds. Enticed by what they see on their smartphone screens, they want to seek refuge from the urban neon so many of them reside in and take a big gulp of all the traditional culture China still has to offer.
It seems China’s younger generations have decided that today…
“ethnic” equals “euphoric.”
ALL IMAGES: ELSBETH VAN PARIDON
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Perpetually in pursuit of the greater good that is “China Fashion”, van Paridon set up The China Temper to help promote the dynamite dynamic fashion scene sprouting within Beijing, Shanghai, and China overall. Catering to anybody and everybody who reads English and/or Chinese, Temper covers all the basics and bases. From China's street style scenery to its budding photographers, internationally renowned designers, and underground quirks plus phenomena: We present one hot-hip-happening current collective weaving The New "Made in China" tag.
The term “Made in China” is undergoing the ultimate 21st Century makeover. Escorted by the increasingly strong influence of a new thinking among China’s younger generations, regarding individuality and the expression thereof, the fashion scene in the Middle Kingdom is exploding. And stretches far beyond what meets the eye. It’s appliqué, one might say.
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