Modeling, Ecology Symbol - Women's Clothing, Culture Of Hainan Li Implication Perspective

Costume, often seen as the second skin of the human being, is the symbol of a nation and national culture. Like other art craft, it is originated from the need of function. First is the practical function, to keep warm and cover the body. Second is the function of symbolic meaning and cultural significance. At the same time, costume is also required to have aesthetic significance, capable of satisfying the aesthetic pursuit. Different nations have developed different costume styles and cultures under different living conditions.The Li ethnic is the only people living in Hainan Island in ancient china. They have a long history and have created splendid material and spiritual cultures, especially in costume, which is closely related to life. The culture of Li costume is a vivid representation of the wisdom of our antecessors, which demonstrates the profoundness of Chinese traditional culture and has an important role in the Chinese culture.In my opinion, costume is not only clothing but also a live history. The traditional costume of Li women represents not only their yearning and love for happy life, but also their history of development, art of design and ecologic symbol. It is harmonious both with their life and work, the natural environment of Hainan Island, and their ethnic spirit and character. The value of studying the costume culture of Li women lies in that it can preserve and carry on their ethnic and folk culture, especially the characteristic spiritual culture that is borne with the costume.In the Li costume, color, design, or even a jewel can tell us a moving story or a historical or heroic legend. People put on the costume to pray to god, to show their respect for heaven, and to worship the holy ones in their mind. Their best wishes and pursuit for happy life have been materialized in the beautiful costume that can be touched and felt persistently.This essay does not seek to be original on purpose, but rather tries to grasp the living philosophy and ecologic symbol of the Li people behind their colorful and exquisite costume. It explores the cultural significance of costume inherent to the life of Li people and factors leading to the social changes in the Li area so as to find out the significance of their excellent traditional cultural gene to the sustainable development at present and in the future.Generally, the costume of Li women includes clothes (jackets and skirts), footgear, headgear (kerchief) and adornments (headwear, collapsible, plastron and jewelry). Each is a very large and complicated system. There are five dialect zones and each has its own characteristics and expressions. Therefore, we can not thoroughly discuss each aspect in this essay.Considering this, the writer chooses the most important and representative aspects—coat, skirt and kerchief as the topic, wishing to find out the interrelationship of costume with design, art, ecology and symbol in the beautiful costume of Li women, to explore the practical social significance and take the key of them to serve the economic and culture development of the Li people.