Obviously, Zhuang people dress regardless of age, including young adults, young people, young people, middle-aged and elderly people, as well as cross-dressing before and after marriage. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, women of Zhuang nationality in Debao, Guangxi * wore bangs, girls wore forehead shadow hair, and Longguang Township also wore neck shadow hair, braided long braids and combed vertebral buns. In the late Qing dynasty, I changed my hair to a bun. Comb both sides of the forehead hair after marriage, and comb them all backwards after giving birth. This is called "closing your head". Modern Zhuang costumes also have this function of distinguishing age and identity, which is mainly manifested in women's hairstyles or headdresses. Zhuang women in Liucheng ancient village are dressed up, and the old and the young are distinct. The girl cut her shoulder hair flat and tied it on her head with silk tape, which was shaped like two horns; Unmarried girls have long hair, two braids, HongLing at the tail and bangs on the forehead; Married women cut their shoulders flat without knitting or knotting; Widows have long hair, a long braid, or a bun at the back of their heads; Young women cut the hair at the root of their ears flat and put on hats or headscarves; Old women wear long hair, tie it behind their heads, tie it with a silver needle, and then put on a hat or headscarf.
In the Zhuang nationality in Longji area, girls aged three to five shave their heads and leave two locks of hair two fingers wide on their temples, which is called "covering their ears"; Girls aged six to fourteen have flat shoulders and a row of "silk hair" hanging from their foreheads, which is in line with their eyebrows; A woman aged 15 to 22, with long hair curled on her head, wearing a cloth cap inside and a printed towel outside to cover half of her drooping "silk hair"; Pull up the "silk-lined hair" after marriage and tie it in a cloth cap. Just above the temple, a long bow-shaped hair hangs down, which is called "curved silk hair" This hairstyle is for the elderly. There are three hairstyles for girls in Longzhou area: one is to comb bangs, which means that there is no object yet; The second is to comb the bangs on the forehead to the right and clip them with hairpins. The bangs on the left and back are still left, indicating that they are married or childless; The third is to leave no bangs, and comb your hair back into a bun, indicating that you have a family and children.
The girls in Fengshan, Changzhou and Qiaoya are all wrapped in pure white headscarves, with three one-centimeter-wide multicolored threads woven on their heads and white tassels at both ends. * * * A square towel with a blue thread on a white background, with black and white mixed dyed silk pendants at both ends; Old women wear pure blue or black headscarves, and there are no garlands at both ends. The headdress of Budai girl in Wenshan, Yunnan Province is orange, and the middle-aged and elderly women use sky blue; The satin on the cuffs is red, pink in middle age and green in old age. Zhuang women in Wuxuan, Xiangzhou, Liujiang, Wuming, Napo and Donglan have to change clothes after marriage.
Childbearing is the primary criterion for marriage and childbearing roles to truly assume their own social responsibilities. It means the confirmation of the ability to carry on the family line, and it also means the establishment of the patriarchal status that clan society attaches importance to. The baby's crying announced an ordinary adult parent, male and female, and realized the first promotion of paternal status. In order to celebrate this important turning point, people often fix it through various ceremonies. Dressing up is one of them. Therefore, after becoming parents, Zhuang men's and women's clothing should also change accordingly.
For example, a Zhuang man in Funing, Yunnan, no longer wears raw shoes given by his "lover" other than his wife after having children. As mentioned above, after giving birth to a child, Zhuang women usually tie a bun without bangs or headdress, and their clothes tend to be calm and plain, without the gorgeous decoration when they were girls. This kind of dress shows that he is a parent and his status is different from that of the past. Be careful what you say and do. In Zhuang nationality with free marriage and love customs, childbirth is an important "incision", which enables parents to show the appearance of their elders and make a clean break with the past of picking flowers and playing butterflies. From this point of view, clothing, as a symbol system, conveys all kinds of information that does not need to be expressed or is inconvenient to express in the process of nonverbal communication, and its significance is rich.
Professional role is an important aspect of people's social and cultural role. People of different occupations have formed their own different social groups, and also formed professional clothes that can recognize each other. Because Zhuang people are mostly engaged in agriculture, their livelihood is relatively simple, and their culture is mainly self-sufficient and simple consumer culture, the division of social occupations is not too complicated. Except for religious professionals who have clothes related to their specific occupations, the clothing characteristics of other occupations, such as teachers or Taoist priests, are ordinary people at ordinary times. Only in this way can they change into teacher's clothes or robes and perform the duties of clergy.
There are also some costume customs of Zhuang nationality, such as focusing on black, regarding black clothes, skirts and headscarves as holiday costumes, which are only worn on important days such as visitors, visiting relatives, festivals and celebrations. In some places, you must wear black clothes when you get married to show nobility and good luck. White clothes are usually worn at work, while blue clothes, blue skirts and blue headscarves are worn at home and in a hurry. It is common in all ethnic groups to use clothing to express or restrain people's behavior as a warning. Here, clothing has become an indispensable decoration and symbol indicating social roles and specific identities, and an unwritten, intuitive or symbolic normative style.