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As a high school student living in the fast-paced first-tier city of Shenzhen, I often walk through the streets, looking at the different styles of the people around me, and I feel more and more that clothing has an undeniable influence on our lives. It shows our personal tastes, hobbies, and identity and blurs gender boundaries through the diversified development of clothing. For a nation, clothing carries a rich history, unique legends, firm ideas, and traditional customs.

 

When I was a child, I would follow my family back to my hometown in Nujiang every Spring Festival. Walking on the streets of my hometown, I always wondered why there were so few people wearing minority costumes. Only during celebrations or important festivals could I see people wearing ethnic costumes. Once I saw people wearing Lisu clothing, I would excitedly take out my camera to take pictures. However, with the increase in the number of times I went back, I gradually understood, after all, now the pace of life is so fast, wearing ethnic clothing to work, and traveling, really not very convenient.

 

My family sometimes lets me wear Lisu clothing to participate in activities. At first, I felt fresh and agreed. But one day, I suddenly got to thinking: why should I wear it? Although my father is Lisu, I grew up in Shenzhen, and I am a stranger to the people of Nujiang, except for my close relatives, and I know very little about the city, the landscape and the customs here. Did I become a member of this ethnic group by wearing Lisu clothing? I didn't wear my Lisu costume to that event, and I made a point of introducing myself to everyone: I am a “musician” from Shenzhen.

 

I think a person's identity label should be in line with his long-term living condition. James Clear, author of Mastering Habits, said, “When you repeat a behavior, you are actually strengthening the identity associated with that behavior.” As also mentioned in The Most Important Thing in Life, “identity” is derived from the Latin words “essentitas (presence)” and “identidenm (repetition)”, which literally means “repetition of existence”. Thinking about it, does the fact that fewer and fewer people are wearing national costumes in minority neighborhoods nowadays mean that people's identification with their own national identity is weakening? Or does it mean that the traditional characteristics of many ethnic minorities are slowly disappearing?

 

With such questions, I went to find some of the Lisu national costume content to see, want to explore these costumes behind the interesting and magical things: Lisu according to the color of the dress, can be roughly divided into black Lisu, white Lisu, flower Lisu three groups. Black Lisu are mainly distributed in northwestern Yunnan and the northernmost part of Myanmar, their clothing is mainly black, and look both solemn and mysterious; White Lisu mostly live in parts of the Nujiang River, clothing is mainly white, giving people a pure and simple feeling; Flowering Lisu distributed in the western part of Yunnan and northeastern Myanmar bordering the place, their clothing color is the most colorful, full of vitality. The colors of these different styles of dress not only reflect the regional differences and aesthetic concepts, but also the unique culture of each branch.

 

The colors of Lisu costumes are very rich, with red, yellow, blue, and green intertwined with each other, behind which is the Lisu people's reverence and love for nature. The red color symbolizes the sun, bringing warmth and hope; the yellow color represents the land, nurturing life and harvest; the blue color represents the sky, carrying people's reverie for the future.

 

In the Lisu culture, there are many touching legends behind the costumes. Take the Lisu women's “Ole” hat, a long time ago, the earth suffered a drought, and a pair of young men and women who lost both parents, with a long knife, rice, and rooster, to find a new place to live. The girl picked nettles and spun threads to weave a horizontal striped tunic for the young man. The young man saw that the girl's hair was often blown by the mountain wind and her eyes stung and wept, so he wanted to make her a hat. He went through a difficult time, found the giant clam shells under Tanggula Mountain, polished them into giant clams, picked the colorful tree fruit, threaded with twine into a string, and made the “Ouler” hat. Since then, the “Ole” cap has become the Lisu young man to give the sweetheart the love token, which has been handed down to the present.

 

In addition to the Lisu dress, I also noticed the Dulong dress pattern and bright colors. In the past, my grandmother would weave Dulong blankets, which were used for the sofa cover and bed sheets at home, which were moisture-proof and anti-static and could add color to the room. Last year, when I went back to my hometown during the Spring Festival, I visited a Dulong weaving factory opened by Shanghai people in the area. Once inside, I saw the colorful threads hanging all over the room, and my mood instantly changed for the better.

 

Thinking back to the streets of Shenzhen, everyone dressed in different styles of modern clothing, in a hurry. And Nujiang is home that colorful Lisu, Dulong, Nu, and other costumes, as if from another world full of stories. These exquisite national costumes were not just a piece of clothing, but also a living carrier of national culture, they witnessed the years of change and inherited the wisdom and feelings of their ancestors. Although the pace of modern life has accelerated, national costumes no longer appear frequently in daily life, but they carry the national spirit and cultural values, and will never go out of fashion.

 

Perhaps, the national identity is not determined by the region or daily dress, but by the cultural genes deeply imprinted in the soul?

 

Nowadays, projects like the Dulong Weaving Factory have already taken the step of inheritance and development, but in the fast-food culture, how can our young people participate in the inheritance of national culture more actively? How to break the regional and cultural barriers, so that these precious national cultures in a larger stage? This is not only a problem for Nujiang's ethnic culture, but also a topic for the whole multicultural society to think about.

 

I look forward to the day when I can confidently tell the story of Nujiang on the streets of Shenzhen so that the ethnic culture of Nujiang can be known by more people in this fast-paced city, and realize the wonderful leap from the region to the larger world. Perhaps, at that time, I will not be entangled in the Lisu clothing, but more concerned about thinking: every person who has a memory of the national culture, should be the cultural heritage of the fire, so that the flame of national culture, in the years never extinguished.