Ethnic--Tujia

Hubei is a province where many ethnic groups live in compact communities. It now has 50 ethnic groups, including the Han, Tujia, Miao, Hui, Dong, Manchu, Zhuang and Mongolian. According to the fifth national census, the ethnic minority groups, with nearly 2.58 million people, comprise 4.34 percent of the province's total population. Minority ethnic groups with over 10,000 people include the Tujia, Miao, Hui, Dong and Manchu. With 1.8 million people, Tujia is the largest ethnic minority group in Hubei, comprising 80 percent of the total ethnic minority population in the province. The second largest, the Miao, constitutes 10.3 percent. The areas where ethnic minority groups live in compact communities cover more than 30,000 square kilometers, forming one-sixth of the province's total area. Ethnic minority groups are mainly distributed in southwestern Hubei.

(China Through A Lens. Ethnic.. 6 Jan. 2011 http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/66665.htm.)


The Tujia nationality

Population in Hubei: 200,000 people in Hubei

Cultural etiquette: Tujia people engage in agriculture. Women like handicraft. Embroidery art in Tujia is very famour, and it is traditional handicraft. Tujia people like singing and dancing. Tujia's music is one of the most traditional and original music in China.

Custom: Tujia people was supersition befor, they sacrificed a pig's head in the first day of a new year. They also believed the kitchen god, in every special day they would insert a chopstick to pray a harvest in a new year. Tujia people believe White Tiger god, because the region where they live has some tigers. This is why they think the god will protect them forever.

Traditional culture: All the Tujia girls should cry in their wedding day. They should cry three to five days in general but some of them can cry one weeks. It looks like a standard to value how virtuousness a girl has.
In historical result about they cried for their marrige that Tujia girls were not satisfied with the marriage system. They didn't own true love and happiness, and they were just tools to give birth to babies.

(China Culture. Tujia Ethnic Minority.. 6 Jan. 2011 http://www.chinaculture.org/library/2008-02/05/content_24094.htm.)

                                                          Two Tujia men

                                                            A Tujia girl

                                                      Tujia girl's wedding