Tu traditional clothing is exceptionally colorful, known as the rainbow costume (cai yi) due to the multicolored embroidered sleeve bands worn by women. The rainbow sleeves are the most distinctive feature of Tu attire, featuring up to seven vivid color bands.
Key Features of Tu Attire
- Rainbow sleeve bands (huan xiu) in up to seven colors on women's gowns
- Heavily embroidered collar panels in geometric and floral patterns
- Women's felt hats with upturned brims decorated with floral embroidery
- Embroidered waistbands and sashes with silver ornaments
- Men's front-fastening jackets with multicolored embroidered edges
Traditional Garments
Women wear a long gown with distinctive rainbow-colored sleeve bands at the wrist - stacked bands of red, yellow, green, blue, purple, and white - and a heavily embroidered collar panel. A sleeveless embroidered vest or jacket is worn over the gown. Men wear a dark front-fastening jacket with rainbow-colored embroidered trim at the cuffs and collar, loose trousers, and a red or blue cloth belt.
Headwear and Adornments
Women wear a distinctive felt hat with an upturned brim, resembling a lampshade or an inverted bowl, decorated with colorful embroidery and beadwork. In some regions, married women wrap their hair in large black cloth headdresses. Men wear white or black head wraps.
Embroidery and Decorative Arts
Tu embroidery is exceptionally vibrant and dense, featuring floral scrolls, auspicious symbols, geometric patterns, and butterfly motifs in satin and cross-stitch. Collar panels, sleeve bands, and hat brims receive the most elaborate coverage.
The Tu rainbow sleeves, with up to seven stacked color bands at the wrist, encode the entire Tu color cosmology - red for joy, yellow for harvest, green for grassland, blue for sky, and white for purity - worn on the arm as a daily spectrum of meaning.
Color Symbolism
Rainbow multicolor is the Tu signature - red, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, and pink. Dark blue or black provides base contrast. Embroidery uses all bright colors. Silver for jewelry.
Festival Attire
During the Nadun Festival (Tu harvest festival) and Spring Festival, women wear their most elaborate rainbow-sleeved gowns with the finest embroidered collar panels and full silver jewelry sets.
Modern Influence and Preservation
Tu rainbow embroidery is recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage, and their distinctive colorful aesthetic is promoted through cultural tourism in Qinghai.
Did You Know?
The Tu rainbow sleeves have specific color meanings: red for happiness and the sun, yellow for the harvest of wheat and barley, green for green mountains and pastures, blue for the sky, and white for purity and honesty.