While some cultures value a lady’s virginity, a province in China frowns at ladies who are virgins. Should virginity not be a lady’s pride? For the Gelao people of the Guizhou Province, China, it is taboo for a girl to remain a virgin before her marriage.
The people believe that when ladies get married as virgins, bad luck will befall her family and husband. The Gelao are a mountain agricultural people scattered across twenty counties in western Guizhou Province, with heavy concentrations around Zunyi and Anshun.
A smaller number is in the Zhuang areas in Yunnan and Guangxi. Between the 1982 and 1990 census, their registered population jumped from around 54,000 to 438,000, suggesting that many families challenged the state’s classification and eventually reclaimed Gelao ethnic identity.
The basis for the transfer is unclear since the literature about them is sparse. Gelao, an unclassified Sino-Tibetan language, is spoken only by a minority. Most speak Han and/or neighboring languages, particularly Yi, Miao, and Bouyei. Until the 1950s, Gelao wore a distinctive costume that included long scarves for both sexes and black-and-white striped linen skirts for women.
Now they wear Han clothing, though women’s ceremonial dress in the Zunyi area seems to be borrowed from Yizu. The Chinese used the term “Gelao” during the Ming settlement of the area. They refer to themselves as “bendiren” (Chinese), meaning “natives,” or as “shagai” (Gelao), meaning “re-settlers.”
The Chinese version of their history is that they are the descendants of people of the ancient Liao “tribes” and the Yelang Kingdom of the southwest, which was conquered by the Han dynasty some 2,000 years ago.
Ming and Qing report place them in their present areas. Because of their population, marriage was between families so that each married his cousin. Their tradition holds that when a girl is ripe for marriage and is still a virgin, ill-luck will follow her family and whoever she marries.
To signify to men who have an interest in her that she is still a virgin, she will knock off two of her teeth. After the marriage ceremony, the family of the bride will escort her with an umbrella to the groom’s house.
When she successfully gets to the house, she will pour water on her new family. This, they believe, will chase away evil spirits and bring good luck.
