Recently, after a couple from other places came to Guangxi to experience the wedding of the black-clothed Zhuang, they questioned: Do Zhuang people use costumes to get married?
As a Guangxi person, I think that the national costumes we often see can definitely be used to make costumes, but we can't simply call the national costumes costumes? In other words, you can use it for acting, but you can't call it a costume, isn't that a bit of a contradiction? This is not a contradiction, let me give you an example to understand.
For example, we often see some grooms dressed like this: a shirt with a bow tie, and a waistcoat. Probably not, at least I wouldn't think about it if I broke my head.
But in the drama "Thunderstorm", there is an actor who wears a similar outfit on the stage, and at this time, this outfit is actually used as a costume, but after getting off the stage, no one should see this outfit as a costume.
The same is true of Guangxi's national costume, of course you can wear it to act, but you can't just use it as a costume, because it is not specially designed for acting, it has other uses.
So when will you wear this kind of clothing? In fact, its wearing occasion is also a bit similar to the vest shirt with bow tie mentioned above, that is, it will be worn on more solemn occasions, such as wedding scenes, important festival sites, and some major conference sites, and so on.
To put it bluntly, this kind of national costume that looks more gorgeous, it is essentially a dress, just like a vest shirt with a bow tie, it is also a dress.
As I said just now, the more gorgeous national costumes are called dresses, so are there any civilian clothes that ordinary people wear to work every day? Yes, but it is relatively simple, and it is generally worn by older people, and some young people who love tradition will also wear it, but fewer and fewer people wear it.
So what do the costumes of Guangxi's ethnic minorities look like? Let me show you a set of stills from the spectacular drama "Cloud Cliff".
These people are wearing proper costumes, which are not different from the national costumes we see every day. I have never seen any of the clothes worn by these people on stage in reality, but the first impression is indeed very good-looking.