Weddings in China – On the Edge of Chinese and Western.

Nowadays, due to the constant progress of China’s economy and the gradual convergence of the world, a lot of things have been influenced by the West. The same goes for weddings,  partially influenced by the aesthetic impact of the Western white wedding dress. In accounting  for the impact of Western culture, the elementsof traditional weddings are gradually decreasing. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, the wedding ceremony has clearly accepted the Western style from the form, to the content. However, red is still the theme and generally takes the form of a Chinese-Western marriage. The bride usually wears a cheongsam or a long skirt. The bridegroom dressed in a suit and mandarin jacket. In the early years of the Republic of China, because there were no domestic manufacturers of wedding dresses, some government officials or big businessmen/big capitalists bought foreign brides for weddings to prepare their children’s weddings in order to keep up with fashion. This trend originated from the Christian weddings of Chiang Kai-shek and Song Meiling who were important people at that time. Chiang Kai-shek wore a black tuxedo, white shirt, striped trousers, silver tie and snow-white gloves; Song Meiling wore a white wedding dress and dragged a silver thread embroidered long white veil behind her, which made countless young women in China awe in admiration. Since then, wedding dresses have become widely popular in society. Previously, only a family with a progressive mind and strong economic strength can take a wedding dress when they go to a Western-style wedding. In Chinese weddings, we often see patterns of dragons and phoenixes. This is because in China, dragons and phoenixes are symbols of good luck, representing a noble, gorgeous, auspicious and harmonious relationship between husband and wife. This tradition comes from ancient Chinese myths and legends. It is said that when the time came to govern the world, the music bureaucrats became the song of the “Nine Moves” and the golden dragons and phoenixes appeared at the same time. The book “The Book of Songs and Wen Wang Shi” also contains the records of the Yong Clan Wang Jifeng Feng Clan, and believes that this is a long and poignant, “Heaven.” Therefore modern Chinese weddings are a combination of Chinese traditions and elements influenced by the West. Civil marriage ceremonies are merely a case of visiting the local government to register the marriage and there are not many other procedures. However, the wedding ceremony will be held in a very grandiose manner. The wedding party is an important part of the Chinese wedding ceremony. Newcomers will invite relatives and friends to witness their happy moments. At the same time, people who come to the wedding will send cash gifts for the wedding ceremony. On the morning of the wedding day, the man must bring a welcoming team composed of friends to the woman’s family. Bringing the bride is definitely a big climax for the entire wedding. First of all, you need to get started, if the bridegroom wants to get the bridal bond started smoothly, it is not no easy task. It is not only the intelligence and the physical strength that are required to pass the tests of the bride’s friends. If there is a demand, they must sing love songs or tell a love story. Finally, they must send red packets. It is possible to impress the group of friends of the bride before seeing the bride, this is the so-called open-door bonus. Another important part of modern Chinese weddings that must be mentioned is: wedding photos. Unlike the Western record of memorable shots at the wedding, Chinese weddings have taken wedding photo shoots by professional wedding photography studios in recent years. Most of the pictorials will be outdoors and they may also go to some cities with better scenery, such as Sanya, Qingdao, Yunnan, and even some countries in Southeast Asia. After the wedding photographs have been taken in countries such as the United States, they are magnified, framed in a picture frame, and hung in the person’s room on the wall above the headboard. This is also the current habit of Chinese families: There will be a wedding photo belonging to two people on the wall in their room commemorating the day. So what is your ideal wedding?