1. The Miao language belongs to the Miao branch of the Miao-Yao language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family. In the early 1950s, the Second Working Group of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Minority Language Survey carried out on-the-spot investigations and conducted scientific research on the characteristics of the Miao language in various places, which have roughly the same word formation but different pronunciation. They divided the Miao language into three major dialects, namely: Xiangxi Dialects, Qiandongfang dialect, Sichuan-Guizhou-Dian dialect and seven sub-dialects, eighteen dialects.
2. At the beginning of the 20th century, some Miao intellectuals created some dialect scripts in order to develop Miao culture and education, such as the square Miao script created by Shibantang in western Hunan, the shorthand Miao script created by Shi Qigui, and Guizhou Songtaolong Shaohua’s Miao textbooks compiled using the International Phonetic Alphabet, etc. Some foreign missionaries also created some Miao scripts for the purpose of preaching.
3. The main objects of natural worship of the Miao people include heaven, earth, sun, moon, boulders, big trees, bamboos, rocks, bridges, etc. Some Miao people in Jinping Malipo and other places in Yunnan offer sacrifices to "God of Heaven and Mother of Earth" every time the crops are earing, praying to heaven and earth for a good harvest. This is a relic of the Miao people's worship of heaven and earth.
4. There are more than a hundred styles of Miao women's clothing. The more representative traditional "dress-up" includes dozens of headdresses inserted in the bun. Miao women generally wear narrow-sleeved, large-collared, double-breasted shorts on the upper body and pleated skirts on the lower body. The dresses may be long enough to reach the foot, elegant and colorful, or short and graceful to the knees. Miao men's attire is relatively simple, and their tops are mostly double-breasted short jackets or right-sided long jackets.
5. The Miao people have two surnames, one is Miao and the other is Han. The Miao surname was originally inherent; the Han surname was imported later. Because in the past, the Miao people did not have written characters to write their Miao surname, and only used Chinese characters to write their Han surnames, which led people to mistakenly think that they only had Han surnames and did not know that there was a Miao surname. Before the use of "Han surnames", the Miao people had their own "Miao surnames" to distinguish between blood relatives and clans.
Extended information
National culture is the soul of national tourist destinations and the core element of tourist attraction. The most obvious and attractive core resource that enables Xijiang Miao Village to develop tourism is the village landscape composed of thousands of wooden stilted buildings built on hillsides, as well as the excellent traditional Miao culture contained in the village.
Xijiang Miao Village has always relied on rice agriculture as the main way of livelihood. The villagers make a living mainly by planting rice, burning wasteland to grow millet, and hunting in the mountains during slack periods to make up for the lack of meat. Before the reform and opening up, agriculture occupied a dominant position in Xijiang Miao Village. After the reform and opening up, various merchants began to appear sporadically in Xijiang Miao Village.
By 1995, only 10 households in the entire village were engaged in commercial operations, and about 20 households were engaged in embroidery processing. Like many ethnic villages across the country, the livelihood was single, the economy was weak, and there was no modern industry. Development basis. Since the tourism development in 2008, Miao culture has been closely followed in the creation of scenic spots, supply of tourism cultural products, and marketing strategies.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Miao Nationality
People's Daily Online - Xijiang Miao Village has developed rapidly for ten years with Miao culture as the guide