A confident smile lights up the face of Samawuzhi, beauty
pageant contestant in Tuojie Township, Liangshan Yi Autonomous
Prefecture. |
For many young women like Jiliemore'amu living in the mountainous area
of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in Sichuan Province, the Torch Festival
is likely to be the most anticipated holiday of the year.
Dreams of becoming a beauty queen are fulfilled or dashed on the last day of
the festival when the contest curtain rises.
An age-old tradition, it is open to all young women of the Yi minority,
married or single.
"I think every little Yi girl dreams of winning some type of a beauty
contest," said Jiliemore'amu, who was born and grew up in a small village of
Tuojue Town in Liangshan.
"Ever since our childhood, we've heard many tales about the legendary
beauties of the Yi minority," she explained.
But the 18-year-old hardly expected she would take the crown at last summer's
contest in Tuojue where she competed against over 100 other girls.
"I was shocked with the outcome, and just covered my flushed face with my
hands when people gathered around to congratulate me," she recalled.
In addition to the title of "Yi Beauty," Jiliemore'amu went home with a prize
of 100 yuan (US$12).
Her fame was soon known to all the people in her village and in the days
following the contest, many young men and matchmakers frequented her home with
attractive proposals.
But for those winners already married the post-contest experience is
different and not so life-changing.
"I did become the pride of my family after the contest," recalled Ali'eliang
who came second in a contest held in Butuo County in 1999. Her family held a
great celebration to mark her success, but the title of "Yi Beauty"brought few
changes to her life.
"I'm still an ordinary married woman, doing household chores, taking care of
my in-laws and helping my husband," she said.
Age-old tradition
For the Yi people, the beauty contests are more about tradition than anything
else, according to Lawai, a local official of Tuojue Town.
Dating back to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), they are still as alive today
as ever. Many villages, towns and counties crown their own beauty queens at the
Torch Festival which falls on the sixth month of the Chinese lunar calendar.
"Held at an open-air venue, it is far from typical of beauty contests in
other parts of the world. There is no catwalk, stage lights or backstage. And
contestants do their own make-up in a corn field near the venue," said Lawai.
Young women spend several months, sometimes even a year, preparing for the
event.
With the help of their family and friends, they make their own costumes.
These usually include a hat decorated with flower and bird patterns, a pleated,
red and blue woollen skirt and black or white shawl.
An absolute must is a yellow parasol, which is practical as much as
decorative, and shields contestants from the scorching high-altitude sun.
But preparations go way beyond the outward adornments and natural beauty.
The highlight of the beauty contest is duoluohe, a traditional song-and-dance
performance unique to the Yi minority.
"Contestants have to rehearse for several months before strutting their stuff
in the competition," Lawai explained.
The Yi have developed their own criteria of beauty: A tall and well-formed
figure, healthy skin, thin lips, sparkling eyes, curved eyelashes and, long and
beautiful hair are the epitome.
"But we also believe beauty is not just skin-deep," said Rezi, one of the
judges at last year's contest held in Tuojue.
To be a winner, contestants must be hard-working and have a good personality.
Crowd puller
Thousands of locals, old and young, men and women, flock from neighbouring
areas to watch the contests. Gaily dressed in their traditional coloured garb,
they throng the roads leading to the venue.
At noon the curtain rises on the competition with a performance of duoluohe.
Young contestants wear white shawls and pleated skirts and hold a parasol.
Split into teams, each forms a circle and the singing and dancing begins.
The sunlight flitting through the yellow parasols illuminates each face. And
the scores of yellow parasols waving with the girls' every movement are like a
field of golden poppies, suddenly sprung up.
Judges move from one team to another, watching them dance, listening to them
sing.
"It's not an easy job to choose the most beautiful ones from among so many
dazzling women," said Rezi.
The melodies and swirling colourful skirts, not surprisingly, attract many
young men, who approach and flirt with the girls.
"The event is a good opportunity to start a courtship. Many young men and
women meet during the contests and later become engaged," he adds.
Wrestling bouts and horse racing meanwhile, are played out on the sidelines
of the beauty contests. Occasionally, the young women slip away to the woods for
a rest, returning refreshed to continue dancing and singing until dusk when the
judges announce the winners.
Changing values
Though the beauty contest tradition remains strong among the Yi people in
Liangshan, the past two decades have seen it hit by a whirlwind of change.
As the country becomes a more open and market-orientated society, local
governments have realized the economic worth to be had from exploiting folk
culture, particularly as a means of alleviating poverty in those backward areas
where it often prevails.
Consequently, more and more contests are now held on stage, instead of the
simple open-air venues of old. And the panel of judges, once made up of senior
clan members, now mostly comprise local officials or folk culture experts, as
local governments take over the role of organizers of such events.
The First Liangshan Beauty Contest organized by the prefecture government was
held in 1989 and it has since become an annual event drawing tourists and
featuring dozens of stage performers.
And a great number of well-educated Yi women have started to tread the beauty
contest catwalk.
"It's not just about looks," said Rezi. "Many girls with a higher education
are able to present themselves in a more confident, attractive manner."
Qubimoshazuo, one of the winners of the Liangshan Beauty Contest held in
Xichang last year, described her experience when competing against 60 other
girls from across the prefecture.
"Most of the girls had degrees and had a specialist skill in dancing,
singing, English or art," she recalled.
"It's completely different from the contests we used to know about. "The
catwalk, the stage lights, our dresses and make-up - everything was modern," she
added
At another televised contest the organizers invited viewers and the live
audience to vote via telephone or the Internet for their favourite "beauty
queen."
Rather than providing an opportunity to meet a marriage partner, the contests
nowadays offer a stepping-stone for young women to pursue a new career.
Qubimoshazuo and other recent winners were offered jobs as air-hostesses with
Sichuan Airlines.
None, however, took up the offers.
One of the winners Lama'aniu, a 19-year-old college student, insisted that
she would not give up her schooling, even though the offer was pretty
attractive.
