LONGJIA, China: Girls with large headpieces made from the hair of their ancestors and wearing intricately patterned dresses danced in isolated villages in southwest China to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Against a stunning mountain backdrop, dozens of girls and women of the Long Horn Miao ethnicity performed for the annual flower festival or ‘Tiaohuajie’, held in Guizhou province on Thursday.
Onlookers watched — smartphones in hand — as the women swirled across a meadow, wearing dresses and jackets embroidered with pink roses and geometric patterns.
But it was the towering black headdresses of the dancers that really stood out — made from wool, string and the hair of their ancestors, and wrapped around animal horns with white fabric.
“It’s really special to be at the center of attention like this. I feel quite proud,” said Yang Yunzheng, 16.
“We organize this festival once a year when we wear these headpieces. That doesn’t change with modernization.”
The Miao ethnic minority is made up of some nine million people, mostly found in China’s southwest. Of those, around 5,000 “Long Horn Miao” live in just a dozen isolated villages in Guizhou.
Their headpieces are passed down through generations and worn on a number of occasions to honor their ancestors and preserve their traditions.
The festival is held on the 10th day of the Lunar New Year.
Girls sport their ancestors’ hair for Lunar New year in China
Girls sport their ancestors’ hair for Lunar New year in China
- The headpieces are inherited and used in a number of occasions
- They are made from wool, string and the of ancestors, all wrapped around animals horns using white fabric
Musk’s X to open source new algorithm in seven days
Elon Musk said on Saturday that social media platform X will open its new algorithm, including all code for organic and advertising post recommendations, to the public in seven days.
“This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed,” he said in his X post.
Earlier this week, the European Commission decided to extend a retention order sent to X last year, which related to algorithms and dissemination of illegal content, prolonging it to the end of 2026, spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters on Thursday.
In July 2025, Paris prosecutors investigated the social media platform for suspected algorithmic bias and fraudulent data extraction, which Musk’s X called a “politically-motivated criminal investigation” that threatens its users’ free speech.
