Manlong Qiaocaijie Festival

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Came back again to Manlong village after one month for their Qiaocaijie festival. the local Yi people said it is their new year, but the festive atmosphere compared with the one in Xinzhai...here...seem like a small family day function! the local told us to get ther by 8am, but thing only happened until after 3pm, more than 7 hours wait or...wasted! I could have sleep a little bit more this morning!!! yeah...with modernisation, many festival had lost it importance, people didn't grow buckwheat(qiaocai)anymore, so...how would be expected them to celebrate qiaocaijie???!!! anyways...guests from nearby village did came to made house call during the day, just like our Han's chinese new year. I came armed with some pictures of some women which I took from last month...a ticket for lunch in their houses....hahahaaa...!! They all said the festival would start after lunch, but...after I had had lunch in 2 families there still was quiet in the dancing ground out next to the local school. only the the lusheng music from the DVD player filled the open air. guessed people used to had a big and long lunch here! by 3pm people began to came out to the playground and some local vendor appeared to made some quick cash, a quick scan...only 2 or 3 woman wear full costume with the long sleeve jacket patched with triangular pattern. what a disappointed scene! 7 hours wait and rewarded by despair. and they didn't even performed their special Lusheng dance, instead they made xianzi dance(kind of slow step-dance)with a single man playing the string. "I am too old to manage the lusheng" one woman said, sad...seem like this practice would disappear from this village, beside...seem like no one seem to care! still...people having their fun, sisterhood hand in hand dance in circle, mother teaching their daughter the step(where is the boys???), but I noticed not the whole village showup, at least I hadn't seen those got my photo in the festival ground, yeah....the tradition is dying!!!

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