Symbolic Meanings and Cultural Inheritance of the Costumes of Red Yao Women

As an important cultural symbol inheriting the traditional ethnic culture, costumes are the manifestation of ethnic consciousness and identities as well the materialized expressions of historic memory and the reflection of their aesthetic ideas. Based on the data from fieldwork and local literature, the present study is to reveal the unique folklore and the various cultural symbolic meanings of the costumes of Red Yao women in Longsheng, a county located in northern Guangxi. In the end, an analysis is made on the relationship between the heritage of habilatory traditions and ethnic consciousness.