According to the earliest story about Fang Shiyu, the novel "Wan Nian Qing"-also based on the genealogy of Hongmen-designed for Fang Shiyu in the drama conflict, the villain Thunder Tiger / Li Xiaohuan / Li Bashan, which is opposed to (Zhaoqing) Fang Shiyu's structure Cantonese, this in itself is worth thinking about.
Although, in the original text, the location of the conflict was set in Hangzhou, the two parties in the text still bear the distinctive mark of the local ethnic groups in Guangdong. However, in the adaptation of the movie, the relationship between the two parties has been changed from the point of view in the novel, almost erasing the traces of ethnic groups, and even made efforts to break up the two camps.
It is worth noting that this antagonistic relationship has been preserved in the costumes of the female characters on both sides. Compared with Li Xiaohuan's more traditional slanted jacket, trousers, and embroidered Han-style clothing on the collar and hem (the same style is always maintained in the film, see also his daughter Lei Tingting); Miao Cuihua's clothing is just Quite different. Miao Cuihua has changed her outfit three times in total, except for her costume when she pretends to be a man: 1. The cloth shop sells cloth, 2. The daily clothing at home (even Fang Shiyu's attire when she is dressed as a woman), and 3. Fang Shiyu wears her wedding dress. , And these three visits without exception retained the same characteristics-short dresses and long skirts. More specifically, the upper body is wearing a collared, high-waisted, wide-sleeved top, a long pleated skirt, and a colorful waistband. At the same time, the arm position and waistband are sewn with colorful embroidery, and the waistband is woven.
Miao Cuihua is most noticeable when dressing up, with embroidered jackets extending from the cuffs to the shoulders; while Li Xiaohuan is now wearing a double-breasted jacket. The embroidery appears directly on the brocade fabric, with embroidered stitching on the edges of the clothes.
If you further observe the hair accessories on both sides, you can find that Li Xiaohuan and her daughter have braided hair and their hair is in the middle; while Miao Cuihua uses a hairpin to pull the back of the bun. (My observation has not been extended to other film costumes with Miao Cuihua as the protagonist.)
Although the overall differences in the costumes of the two are very obvious, this can only constitute a guess for the ethnic groups behind the two. However, when we put the costumes in the main scenes of the play, as well as the "metatext" story structure, something seems to emerge before our eyes.
It can be observed that all clothing materials in Miao Cuihua's play are blue cloth, with only the difference in depth (the lightest cloth is close to sky blue when the cloth is sold, and the darkest dress is close to navy blue). The first scene he appeared was a cloth shop, and then his husband Fangde engaged in silk sales, second only to the climax but the fighting scene that explained all the context of the story was set in a dyeing workshop (also in the sequel). Then there is no suspense about the close relationship between Miao Cuihua's family and the dyeing, weaving and cloth industries. At the same time, in the "Wan Nian Qing" story that appeared in the late Qing Dynasty, the plot related to Fang Shiyu was also based on the life of the Guangzhou loom worker.
So does this story about ethnic groups have anything to do with the so-called "germination of capitalism"? Although bloody, it is undeniable. Now let’s examine Miao Cuihua’s main costumes, which can be summed up in only four words: short dress and long skirt. Of course the clothes are big sleeves and the skirt is pleated. Through ethnographic research, it can be found that this is a long-term description of the traditional female costumes of Lingnan residents by observers for centuries-of course, this description was applied to people other than those who advertised "sinicization" in a relatively recent era. .
At the same time, with the development of mountainous regions and the popularization of "planting green" activities in the mountainous regions, certain mountainous people became professional indigo growers in the division of labor in the regional market—later divided into the mountainous regions of Lan Dianyao and certain She people. The crowd is the inheritor of this kind of cause. With the deepening of cultural assimilation, while completing the transformation of identity, certain professional skills and related industry monopolies have been stubbornly retained along with certain cultural characteristics of the population.
Therefore, Miao Cuihua's professional characteristics, family background, working environment, and the "short dress and long skirt" on her body are not difficult to explain as a continuous and unified representation. However, here I have no intention to further sort out the subtle ethnic metaphors in the play.
Since the 19th century, the rapid rise of Guangzhou and Lingnan’s economic status has made the gear of cultural change almost unable to keep up with the momentum of economic expansion. The rise of handicrafts, the formation of a material production and division of labor system, has accelerated the change of ethnic relations, all of which have their own traces. Stayed in the "cultural layer" of the times. The southeast mountainous region and river delta area that Hongmen produced seems to be flourishing due to an economic context dominated by a certain dyeing and weaving industry. This also seems to explain why the scenes of indigo industry generally appear in Hong Kong martial arts movies based on the genealogy of Hongmen mythology.
It is believed that the children of Fang Shiyu and Lei Tingting no longer "short dresses and long skirts", but the cultural context will leave its influence in a more secretive form.
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