The Maonan minority group is located in the mountainous areas of Guanxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is a traditional agricultural group. Every family used to have a weaving machine and plant blue grass for to dye and make coarse clothes such as different kinds of coats and dresses. Maonan girls learn to spin and weave when they are young. Their abilities are measured by the quality and quantity of the clothes they make.
The Maonan costume varies according to gender, age, season, purpose and social status. The overcoat is called Gu Le Ban in Maonan dialect, the women's dress is called Gu Le Bie, the young wear Gu Le Zuo, children wear Gu Le Jie and the elderly wear Gu Le Lao. According to the season and purpose, winter clothes are called Gu Nian Xiang and summer clothes are called Gu Nian Tu. When people visit their friends and relatives, they wear Gu Bai Ban, when they go to work, they wear Gu Fei Gong. They all like blue and black clothes which they dye themselves. They seldom have clothes in white or yellow except those for mourning. However, they do not wear mourning clothes to visit others, or the hosts may feel unhappy or even be offended. They pay particular care to their underwear, which they regard as their soul. Women are not to reveal their bosoms and breasts.
Women's clothes are characterized by the three rows of black lace. Most of clothes are black and blue with silver decorations and flowers, which are adorable. The girls like to wear small dresses with beautiful embroidery. The women like to embroidery shoes, which are usually kept in suitcases. Only when they visit relatives do they wear these exquisite shoes. At home, they wear black shoes. They often wear grass shoes to walk long distances. Silver decorations are important for Maonan women. Besides earrings, there are silver hairpins, silver chaplets, silver combs and so on.
Men's clothes are similar to the women's, but do not have lace. Instead, they have five copper buttons. So they are called Gu Eni in Maonan dialect, which means "five buttons on the clothes". When they dress up, they wrap black headbands around their heads. On one side, there is a fringe which wobbles when they walk. They also wear a waistband, which has a cloth fringe in red, green, yellow, blue and white colors at the two ends.
