File:還儺願儀式八郎面具.jpg

English: It is a common phenomenon within ethnic groups throughout Southwest China that the women continue to wear their traditional dress, whereas the men are clad in more modern clothing. "ethnic traditions" can thus simultaneously unite a community and be viewed as representing backwardness. From at least the Qing dynasty onwards, local men in the more Sinicized areas of the Southwest have often dressed similarly to their Han counterparts. In this way, the men who have often had more contact with the outside world wear Han clothing to avoid being identified as backward "barbarians" by outsiders. Dress, particularly the boundary between tradition and modernity, invariably reflects power relations between genders.