Research On The Changes Of Hui Women’s Costume In Xi’an Huifang After1949

Xi’an Huifang is one of the best representatives of the region inhabited by theHui people. It is also the place where ancestors of the Muslim ethnic group lived.Around the Ming and Qing Dynasty, living and working near to temples became thepattern of inhabitants’ community. The Hui people usually live in small communitieswith the Han people. Therefore, it is easy for them to integrate with and adapt tosociety. With the development of China, status of women has been upped and theresearch on women has attracted a lot of interest from the academic society. Researchon female costume of the ethnic group is of both academic value and practicalsignificance.The paper summarizes the evolvement of female costume in Xi’an Huifang sincethe late Qing dynasty, and elaborates on its changes after the establishment ofPeople’s Republic of China. The main research method is field. Women of differentwalks of life and different social levels have different social responsibilities, so thereare differences in their clothing. Clothes and accessories play an important role indifferentiating the Hui women. Through the field research and literature review,characteristics of the female costume in Xi’an Huifang are revealed. Costume ofwomen of different age has distinct features. With rising of the Hui people’sawareness to protect their culture, development of the region’s economy, more andmore importance attached to it by the government institutions, and growingcommunication among Muslim communities, the costume displays a combination ofthe traditional and the contemporary, and religious beliefs and fashion. Under theprerequisites of being abided by the Muslim religion and exhibiting the unique cultureof the Hui ethnic group, expectation of the Hui women is to have self-expressing,affordable and widely loved national costume.Costume not only has practical use, but also is a carrier of social culture and apiece of art work. Applying theoretical research results into study on the design of theHui people’s clothes and accessories offers a way for refining the costume of the Hui women. The paper provides a perspective on the realization and appreciation of thefemale costume of the Hui people.