Li Tribe Calves' Nose Pants

Li calf-nosed pants are a traditional dress in the Li ethnic area.

Calf-nosed pants, also known as thong pants or loincloths, are mainly found in the Li ethnic area of Hainan. The calf-nosed pants usually consist of two pieces of trapezoidal loincloths made of kapok cloth or wild hemp rough cloth, mostly plain weave. It is characterized by a slender strip of crotch with a triangular front and back. When wearing, triangular cloth shape attached to the back waist, rectangular cloth from back to front clamped between the legs, and through the lower crotch to cover the male crotch to the umbilicus, and then connected to the ends of the triangular cloth tie pants line clip waist tied tied firmly.

The calf-nosed pants are part of the traditional Li costume, reflecting the wisdom and culture of the Li people. The Li dress culture has a long history and its development has gone through more than 3,000 years. The Li costumes are varied and colorful, and there are differences in the costumes of different dialect areas. The history of the development of Li costumes and the skillfulness of the techniques reflect the wisdom and creativity of the Li people.

The Li costume is a national costume passed down in Hainan Province based on the four traditional Li crafts of spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidery, using island cotton, hemp, kapok, bark fiber and silk etc., which is woven and sewn together, and has a history of evolution of thousands of years.

In the traditional Li costume, Li women often wear straight-necked, collarless, button-less tops, and in some places, a neck-length top, a tube skirt of different lengths, hair tied behind their heads, bone or silver hairpins, embroidered headbands, and earrings, collars, and bracelets. Men's traditional attire is usually tied in front of the forehead or behind the head, with a collarless, open-breasted blouse and a loincloth underneath (to spend time at home), and some of the men's blouses in Mobilai are not much different from those of women.

In June 2008, Li costumes were selected as one of the second batch of national intangible cultural heritages.

Introduction of the Li:

The Li mainly live in the south-central part of Hainan Province, in Dongfang, Baisha, Lingshui, Changjiang Li Autonomous County, and Ledong, Qiongzhong, Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County, while the rest live in other cities of Hainan, where they live in mixed communities with the local ethnic groups.

The Li have their own language, Li belongs to the Li branch of the Zhuang-Dong language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family. As a result of long-term interaction with the Han Chinese, many Li people can also speak Chinese. In the past, the Li did not have their own script and used Chinese characters, but in 1957 they created the Li script based on the Latin alphabet. Ancestor worship and nature worship were once prevalent, and now some people believe in Christianity.