Li

族About this people

The Li people are the indigenous inhabitants of Hainan Island, China's southernmost province and one of its tropical islands. They are concentrated in the central mountain region of Hainan and in the Hainan Li and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (now Baisha, Changjian, Ledong, and related counties). The Li language belongs to the Hlai sub-group of the Kra-Dai (or Kra) branch of the Tai-Kadai family.

The Li are historically significant in Chinese textile history: Huang Daopo, a woman who fled from Shanghai to Hainan around 1245 and lived among the Li for decades, studied Li cotton spinning and weaving techniques and brought them back to Jiangnan, where they revolutionised the Chinese cotton textile industry. Li textiles — particularly the double-faced brocade woven on a back-strap loom in geometric patterns — were renowned in the Song and Yuan dynasties for their technical quality. The Li weaving tradition is now maintained primarily by older women and is recognised as intangible cultural heritage.

Li women historically wore facial tattoos and had distinctive hairstyles and clothing marking sub-group identity; this practice survives among very elderly women. Traditional Li architecture used boat-shaped thatched houses on ground level (distinct from the stilted houses of other tropical minorities). Li communities maintain a shamanic tradition of dong (shaman) practice addressing illness and spirit relations, alongside an animistic relationship with mountains, trees, and rivers. The Li traditional musical instrument is the bow harp (bowed lute), and communal singing festivals are held in spring.