Overseas returnee's costumes of ethnic groups

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1Zhong Yetang,a post-95s girl from East China's Zhejiang Province,has made elegant costumes of the country's 56 ethnic groups and displayed them in a video she made herself to show the charm of Chinese clothing culture to more people.

2It took Zhong two years to design and create the stunning attire(極美的服裝)of China's ethnic groups after she returned from the US,where she got her Bachelor's degree at the University of California,Berkeley and her Master's degree at the Johns Hopkins University.

3To make the ethnic costumes more authentic,Zhong not only referred to historical documents on each ethnic group,but also sought advice on dress-making craftsmanship from cultural heritage inheritors(繼承者),as some traditional cloth-making methods and fabrics(織物)are China's cultural heritage items.After designing the clothes,she entrusted(委托)the job of producing them to a local garment factory.

4Zhong was most impressed by the difficulty involved in making fish skin clothes of the Hezhe people,one of the groups with the smallest population in China.“After peeling the fish skin off,Hezhe people used to dye it with different colors using a special processing method,”said Zhong.However,she eventually employedalternativefabrics to make Hezhe clothes,as fish skin is gradually being replaced by silk and cloth and there aren't many people left who know how to make clothes with fish skin.

5Zhong said that while studying abroad,she found that her foreign classmates were very interested in Chinese culture,such as the 12 Chinese zodiac signs(十二生肖),and asked her what Chinese zodiac signs corresponded with the year they were born.

6This experience motivated her to design ethnic Chinese costumes and spread traditional Chinese culture through videos.“I want to fully explore traditional Chinese culture with my limited ability to let more and more people better understand traditional Chinese culture and China,”Zhong said.

Reading Check

I.Choose the best answers according to the text.

Detail

1.Why did Zhong design costumes of China's 56 ethnic groups?

A.To get Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

B.To display the stunning attire in a video.

C.To spread Chinese clothing culture.

D.To learn from cultural heritage inheritors.

Vocabulary

2.What does the underlined word “alternative” in paragraph 4 probably mean?

A.Traditional. B.Optional. C.Different. D.Similar.

Inference

3.From where is the text probably taken?

A.A travel guide. B.A history journal.

C.A culture magazine. D.A biography.

Ⅱ.Discussion

What made Zhong successful in the design and creation of the costumes of China's ethnic groups?Give your reasons and find evidence from the text.

Language Study

I.Analyze the difficult structure in the text

Zhong was most impressed by the difficulty involved in making fish skin clothes of the Hezhe people,one of the groups with the smallest population in China.制作中國人口最少的民族之一的赫哲族的魚皮服時遇到的困難給鐘也棠留下了最深刻的印象。

【點石成金】be most impressed by是被動語態，意為 “印象最深的是”,the difficulty是先行詞，involved in making fish skin clothes of the Hezhe people為定語，修飾the difficulty。one of the...in China為同位語解釋說明Hezhe people。

Ⅱ.Memorize some text-centered chunks

56 ethnic groups 56個民族

return from從……返回

Bachelor's degree學士學位

Master's degree碩士學位

be most impressed by印象最深的是

involve in 參與；涉及

be replaced by被……所取代

correspond with符合；一致

more and more越來越多

Cutural Background

赫哲族和魚皮衣

赫哲族世代居住在中國東北烏蘇里江、黑龍江、松花江沿岸地帶，是我國唯一以捕魚、狩獵為主要謀生手段的民族，也是唯一能用“魚皮”縫制衣服的民族，史稱“魚皮部”。赫哲族有語言，無文字，是我國人口較少的民族之一。

“魚皮衣”是赫哲民族服飾中最具特色的服飾，也是識別這一民族的標志。魚皮衣并沒有用特定的魚皮，就地取材即可。魚捕撈上來后先剝魚皮，然后將其陰干，去肉脂除鱗，鞣制魚皮，最后再將其拼縫成大塊魚皮布。現在魚皮衣已成為珍藏的工藝品。