Kunming Hosts China's First Ethnic Costume Expo

National Fair on the Ethnic Costume and Adornment held in Kunming

An exposition showing more than 3, 000 unique and valuable costumes worn by various ethnic minority groups in China opened on July 2 in this capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Among the items on display, there is a patched coat of fish skins, which is typical of the traditional costume of the Hezhe people, who live in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, and a Tibetan costume worth more than 800,000 yuan (about 97,000 U.S. dollars), which is some 300 or 400 years old.

The Exposition of Ethnic Clothing and Decorations, co-hosted by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission and the Yunnan provincial government, is the first of its kind ever held in China, which is home to 56 nationalities.

Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo attended the opening ceremony.

More than 15,000 costumes with distinctive national features, as well as some ancient ones, were collected for the exposition from 27 provinces, including 58 items of clothing of the Gaoshan people of Taiwan.

Ten costumes decorated with gold, silver and jewels, which are worth 20 million yuan (about 2.4 million dollars) in total, were escorted by armed policemen to Yunnan from neighboring Sichuan Province.

Concurrently, about 400 exhibition booths at a garment fair have been occupied by dress production and marketing enterprises from across the country.

A fashion design contest focusing on national features and a competition of models displaying ethnic garments will be held during the exposition, involving 590 fashion designers and 587 models from all over the country.

Li Jinyou, vice-minister of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, said he hoped that clothing with ethnic features will be accepted as daily articles of clothing by more Chinese people through such activities.