The Li Ethnic Minority

Hainan, China's second largest island after Taiwan, is the home of the Li ethnic group with a population of about 1,247,814. Most of them live in and around Tongze, capital of the Hainan Li-Miao Autonomous Prefecture, and Baoting, Ledong, Dongfang and other counties under its jurisdiction; others live among people of the Han and Hui ethnic groups in other parts of the island.

 
Li women wear buttonless blouses and tight-fitting long skirts. Women in some places wear pullovers. They do their hair in a coil at the back and pin it with bone hairpins and wear embroidered kerchiefs. They like silver jewelry, and some still tattoo their faces. Men wear collarless jackets, and those in Dongfang County wear much the same kind of jackets as women.

boat-shaped thatched bamboo house
The Li people like roast meat and pickled sour meat mixed with rice meal and wild herbs. Arica is a favorite with women, who chew it with shell ashes wrapped in green leaves; the juice dyes their lips red. The Lis are also heavy smokers and drinkers.
Several families related by blood live together, pooling their labor and sharing the harvest. They dwell in boat-shaped thatched bamboo houses with woven bamboo or rattan floors half a meter above the ground. These houses have mud plastered walls.
The Li people are monogamous, and close relatives are not allowed to marry each other. Before liberation in 1949, marriages were arranged by parents when their children were still young and bride prices were as high as several hundred silver dollars or several head of cattle. Those who could not afford the bride price were indentured to the bride's family for several years. Shortly after the wedding, the bride went back to live with her own parents until she knew she had become pregnant. These old customs have gradually gone out of practice since liberation.

Death was announced by the firing of guns, and the body was put into a coffin hewed out of a single log and was buried in the village cemetery. Before 1949, animism and ancestor worship were common among the Lis who also believed in witchcraft. All this has been abolished since the island was liberated in 1950.

The Lis are known for their skill in weaving kapok. They are also famed for their knowledge of herbal medicine. Their remedies for snakebites and rabies have proved very effective.

They keep a primitive calendar and calculate according to a 12-day cycle, with each day named after an animal, similar to the 12 earthly branches used by the Han people.