Decoration Patterns on the fabric of Pu Peo people

Pu Peo people do not embroider their clothing fabric but use the colorful cloth attachments on the hems of the shirts, on the diamond shaped cover in front of the skirts as well as their hems and the turbans. Often these cloth attachments are in basic shapes such as triangle, diamond, rectangle and in color of green, red, white, purple and yellow. They are skillfully arranged to make the patterns like rooster combs, the sun … to convey the common spiritual meanings. The Sun and the Ying-Yang theory are the basis for human and nature development and prosperity.

Concentrated topics, simple reflections, impressing people by the color connection and conversion to symbolize the natural and universal movement and changing, are often considered the limitation of decoration arts; Pu Peo people, however, have applied these rules to make typically beautiful decoration motifs thanks to their fine artistic understanding. The rigid parallel layout regulations are replaced by the flexibility in style; colorful beads with metal twinkling whetted sides bring up the evocatively impressive values of the decoration motifs.

In the late tens of years, women of minorities in general and Pu Peo in particular, tend to use industrially printed colorful flowery materials to make the decoration patterns on their clothes. It seems to be that in their mind, they would love to apply the naturally beauty and smooth lines that they find on those massive printed materials to complement their traditional decoration. Nevertheless, their usage has partly broken the impressive, symbolic fundamental decoration agreement, raising the questions for the successive generations about the traditional decoration heritage that their ancestors pass on. This rings a bell on the changes in the traditional costume decoration of the Pu Peo people in the future.