Zhangjiajie Manual Ribbon of Miao Nationality
 2016-12-20 16:37:26   Zhangjiajie Tourism Information Website  

As legend goes, those people that lived in the Miao ridge area usually suffered from the harm brought by vipers in the past. One smart girl once saw that vipers get away quickly when they encountered similar species. According to this scene, this girl then knitted a ribbon whose width was about 1 cun( a unit of length, =1/3 decimetre), following vipers body’s decorative pattern. After that, she kept winding the ribbon about herself, she would take it off and show it in front of vipers whenever she came across them. As expected, vipers left soon.

So, this method spread out at once since its proved effectiveness. Thanks to manual ribbons, a large amount of Miao people were free from hurt. Since then, this kind of Miao manual ribbon was handed down to generations. As time goes by, it developed to more and more applications nowadays, for example, sometimes manual ribbons are regarded as tokens between youth in love, gifts given to friends and families, or decorations of furniture and so on. Meanwhile, graphics on different manual ribbons are also enriched, some are used to manifest love and auspiciousness, and some are used to represent colorful flowers.

Translated by Becky