Part II Mazu clothes as artifacts
2.2 Analysis on the features of Mazu clothes
“Mazu clothes have become a unique clothes culture after inheritance and evolution for more than one thousand years. So far, there is still a popular local folk song like that ‘sailboat hairstyle, sea shirt, red and black trousers to keep safe’. This is a vivid portrayal of Mazu clothes customs. This sentence covers the characteristics and connotation of Mazu's hairstyle and clothes.” (X Sujia, 2018: pp 40)
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Figure 15 Mazu clothes
Source: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%B9%84%E6%B4%B2%E5%A5%B3, 2019
2.2.1 The hairstyle and hair accessory of Mazu clothes
“‘Mazu bun’ is a hair bun that resembles a sail, it means that Mazu's heart belongs to the sea, Mazu is determined to not marry forever. The characteristic of Mazu bun's combing is that coiling up the hair, and combing a sail-shaped hair bun at the back of the head, which symbolizes sailing smoothly. This is commonly known as the
‘sailboat hairstyle’. Mazu clothes is a blue jacket with a semi-collar collar, using sea blue as the main color. Mazu trousers are commonly known as ‘red and black three- pieces trouser’, which are composed of two pieces of red and black colors.” (S Xuemei, 2016: pp 126)
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Figure 16 Mazu bun
Source: https://image.baidu.com/search/detail?ct=503316480&z, 2019
Mazu clothes are the external expression of Mazu clothes culture. Through the analysis and interpretation of Mazu clothes, it is helpful to refine people's understanding of life. Mazu clothes permeate people's identity of Mazu belief in traditional artworks. People often wear Mazu clothes in ordinary life. It feels like Mazu is by side. It can always urge people to firmly believe in Mazu, and use their behaviors and norms to practice Mazu spirit. It will influence the people around them, thus forming a good social culture, inheriting and developing Mazu culture.
Since ancient times, the living habit of people on Meizhou Island is that men go to fishing at the sea and women stay at home. Therefore, in order to hope that Mazu can bless their relatives who go to the sea will return safely, women waiting at home combed the ‘Mazu bun’, praying to be protected by Mazu, blessing their relatives will back home safely and smoothly.
“The legend of ‘Setting ambition with a hair bun’ shows that Mazu bun was designed by Mazu when she was alive. When she was 18 years old, her parents prepared her marriage, but Mazu was very determined to save the fishermen, and she vowed never to marry. She locked herself in her room for three days and nights, then set the ‘Mazu bun’ and came out, she told to her parents, this bun was the sail and this line is the cable. She had already promised the sea. In this life, she just wanted to serve
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her parents and rescue the fishermen. And she was already satisfied. Later generations admired and imitated her, they commemorated Mazu with this hairstyle and expressed their devotion to Mazu. From this, we can also see the rich historical and symbolic meaning contained in the ‘Mazu bun’.” (Y Xiaoli, C Dongsheng, 2010: pp 80)
The combing method of ‘Mazu bun’ is very complicated and exquisite.
First, divide the hair into three parts, left, middle and right, then comb the middle part on top of the head, fix it with a long red cord, and twist it into a round hair. And then pass a silver hairpin horizontally to fix the hairpin. The next step is to comb the hair on the temples on the left and right, loosely comb out the arched shape, and then fix it with two wavy hair clips, after that, tie the remaining hair to the back of the head, and use 5- 10 small hair clips to fix them together, comb them into a sail-like bun, and then insert a large sewing needle or silver needle on the top of the head. There is a red thread hanging on the needle. Finally, some red flowers are decorated on the hair to make the hairstyle more beautiful.
The overall shape of ‘Mazu bun’ is a flat hair bun, which like a sail and stand from the top of the head to the back of the head. The whole hairstyle is combed from real hair and clamped with clips. The sail-like hair bun has a wave-shaped hairpin on the left and right side, representing the oars on the boat. A round hairpin on the top of the head represents the rudder of the boat. The red-headed rope coiled in the hairpin represents the rope on the ship. A silver hairpin crosses the hairpin horizontally, representing the anchor on the ship. The hairpin and hairline represent the parts on the ship. All the essentials are combined to represent the entire ship, meaning smooth sailing. It can be seen that a small ‘Mazu bun’ contains the wisdom of working people, it is the artistic sublimation of people's lives, and it also carries rich emotions of thousands of women of Meizhou Island.
2.2.2 The clothing style of Mazu clothes
Mazu clothes belong to the local folk costumes of Han nationality90. They are concise, simple, with exquisite headdresses and cumbersome craftsmanship, and they have deep and extraordinary connotations.
90 The Han nationality is the main ethnic group in China, named after China's Han Dynasty. The Han nationality is a nation with a long history that has never been
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The clothing style is the most important feature of clothing. “The clothing style of Mazu clothes are basically the same as the traditional costumes of Han nationality, it is divided into jacket and trousers. The jacket is a slanted jacket, without embroidery and piping, it is very simple. The jacket is a hip-length, round stand-up collar, sleeve length is one-tenth shorter than ordinary clothes, the cuffs are slightly loose, but it is easy to work. The structure mainly follows the traditional features of a stand-up collar and disc button. Mazu trousers are wide-leg trousers, with a wide waist, and the trouser legs up to the ankles. There are no plackets, pockets, and no distinction between front and back parts. In order to save fabric materials, Mazu trousers are usually sewn with white cloth of general quality. It has a wide waist. When wearing it requires that the sides of the waist be folded inward, and the waist should be tightened with the help of white cloth strips. The design of wide-leg trousers is because people will work at the beach for a long time, and the trouser legs often get wet by seawater.
The wide trouser legs are designed to facilitate the drying of wet trouser legs with the help of sea breeze.” (X Sujia, 2018: pp 40)
2.2.3 The colors of Mazu clothes
Traditional Mazu clothes are dyed with handmade plant indigo blue, the overall color of clothes is mainly indigo blue. The people of Meizhou Island have always lived by fishing in the sea, it is derived from the worship of the sea, that is the color of the natural environment in which they live, that is the color of sky and sea. In addition, the people of Meizhou Island are industrious and simple, this is consistent with the calm, rational, broad, and loyal image which is represented by blue. It can be said that the color of clothes is the most direct expression of Meizhou women's personality and clothes preferences.
“In addition to using a large area of indigo blue, Mazu clothes also choose red as auxiliary color. As the carrier of Chinese culture, red color contains rich and profound cultural significance, it is a symbol of auspiciousness, well-being and joy.
According to legend, Mazu likes to wear red clothes to protect and rescue people at sea.
interrupted, it is also the most populous nation in the world. As of 2009, the population of Han nationality is about 1.3 billion, accounting for about 19% of the world's total population. Han nationality distributed all over the world.
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Red can make it easier for navigators to distinguish the direction of navigation. The splicing application of red and blue in Mazu trousers not only breaks the visual boringness of large areas of blue but also avoids the abruptness and inconsistency of large areas of red. In addition, the lower part of Mazu trousers are often soaked in seawater for a long time, it is easy to get dirty, fade and change color. Therefore, the choice of blue for the trouser legs is more ingenious and more suitable than red. This is a practical aesthetic which is produced in labor.” (S Xuemei, 2016: pp 127)
2.2.4 The clothing fabrics of Mazu clothes
Fabric is an important factor that directly affects the color and styling effect of clothing. Different fabrics interpret different clothing styles and characteristics.
Mazu clothes are clothes worn in daily labor. So, the comfort of clothing must be considered, and soft fabrics should be used. Mazu clothes are made of traditional pure cotton fabric, which has good air permeability, moisture absorption and comfort.
Although it is easy to fold and shrink, and it is not beautiful in appearance, but the soft fabric adopts a linear and simple shape can reflect a beautiful curve, this will improve its beauty. The folding effect produced by fabric during work can reflect the sense of the flow of fabric. The color-blocking over-the-shoulder and corner's patchwork in Mazu's jacket were originally used to sew patches on damaged parts, and then gradually evolved into a decorative method of clothing, which looked simple and unique. The stitching of the red and black trouser legs of Mazu's trousers is also to facilitate the replacement of fabric when the fabric is worn out, so as to save the fabric materials.
This has a direct relationship with the economic situation of ordinary people at that time.