Yi
China’s ethnic minority. Distributed in the four provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi. The population is approximately 7.76 million (2000). The Yi language is spoken and belongs to the Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family. There is an original ideogram. In 1975, Sichuan's "Pilot Plan for Standardizing the Yi Language" was formulated, 819 standardized Yi characters were identified, and their use began in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan. The Yi people are a nation formed by the ancient Qiang people who went south and merged with the indigenous tribes in the southwest during the long-term development process. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the economy in the Yi area was a feudal landlord economy based on private ownership of land. Mainly engaged in agriculture, planting corn, rice and other wheat and beans. There are family side jobs such as raising poultry and bees, as well as hunting, fishing, making straw sandals, and digging medicinal materials. There are many Yi classics, among which the long narrative poem "Ashima" is the most famous. The Yi people have unique creations and contributions in astronomy, calendar, meteorology, medicine and other aspects. Marriage is monogamous. It is common in history for father and son to have the same name. People are often cremated after death. Among the traditional festivals, the Torch Festival is the most grand. There are many forms of clothing. The most common ones are for men to wear a black narrow-sleeved right-slanted top and pleated wide trousers. They leave a small piece of two or three inches of hair on top of their head and wrap their heads with several feet of blue cloth. Men find beauty without beards. Women wear fringed or embroidered big-breasted blouses and pleated long skirts. When going out, both men and women wear "sarwa", which is shaped like a cloak. Most people believe in polytheism and bimo, while some people believe in Christianity and Catholicism.
Customs
Folks have a long history of "beating sheep" and "beating cows" to welcome guests.
Marriage Customs
After young men and women get engaged, they must prepare for the wedding banquet.
Food Customs
Most Yi people are accustomed to eating three meals a day, with multigrain noodles and rice as the staple food. Meat is mainly pig, sheep and beef. The daily drinks of the Yi people include wine and tea, and they entertain guests with wine.
Typical foods commonly eaten by the Yi people include: buckwheat cake, the staple food of the Yi people; pickled pork with batter, a Yi farmer's dish; boiled suckling pig, a traditional delicacy of the Yi people in Yunnan, which is boiled with suckling pig and eaten with dip; Crispy rice noodles, a famous snack of the Yi people in Yunnan, made from pea noodles.
Festivals
The Yi people used to worship animism and ancestors. There are many traditional folk festivals, the main ones include October Year, Torch Festival, etc.