Bai Minority Group Baby-Carriers from Yunnan Province, China

The Bai live in what is now Yunnan Province of southwestern China. The women have kept much of their traditional dress.

If the first born baby is a girl, she is carried in an embroidered baby-carrier called a guobei, which is unique to the Bai nationality.

Figure 1: Bai embroidered baby-carrier

Figure 2: Bai embroidered figure

The guobei is embroidered with peony flowers in the center and plum blossom and chrysanthemum on both sides, all surrounded by dancing butterflies and a phoenix above and lotus with green leaves, magpies, animals, and flowers at the bottom (from Daughters of Mount Changshan and Erhai Lake, The Bais, by Yang Guocai).

More photographs and information on Bai baby-carriers

Browse China: Bai baby-carriers | Bai hats | Bai woodblock prints

Photographs, text and maps copyright © Carolyn Leigh, 1996-2010. All rights reserved.
http://www.art-pacific.com/artifacts/china/baicarrc.htm
Contact Us
Artifacts on this site are collected in the field by my husband, Ron Perry. I take the photographs, do the html, text and maps. More background in Who We Are. Art-Pacific has been on the WWW since 1996. We hope you enjoy our New Guinea tribal art and Indonesian folk art as much as we do. Carolyn Leigh, P.O. Box 85284, Tucson, AZ 85754-5284 USA, Art-Pacific at http://www.art-pacific.com/