Chinese Wedding!
No…. not MINE! A former colleague of mine, Kelly, invited me to her wedding last month. Needless to say, I was thrilled at the opportunity to attend my first Chinese wedding!
I first met Kelly when I moved to Hangzhou in January 2005 to teach at a English language school. We worked together there for a year and a half and have since remained good friends.
In China, the ‘wedding’ actually consists of two parts: the ‘official ceremony’ which requires the couple to present themselves to the proper government office and register to be married. Later, they will plan their ‘wedding party‘ – this can take place within days, or months of the office wedding.
The Wedding Party is essentially the same as our ‘wedding reception’. Kelly and her Dad made the official entrance to the ballroom where she was met by her ‘husband’ who stood in a heart-shaped archway. Funny enough, our familiar ‘wedding march’ was played as they walked down the red carpet toward the stage at the front of the ballroom! A number of speeches and toasts took place (in Chinese, so I didn’t understand a word). Then they sat down and the feast began. I’ve never seen so much food! Dishes kept arriving at our table until there was no room left, and yet they still came – after that the plates were simply set` haphazardly atop one another. There was some amazing Chinese food, including some very expensive delicacies such as shrimp and soft-shelled turtle, snake. One of my table companions is vegetarian and wondered whether there would be many vegetable dishes. Well, he worried no longer because we had at least 10 different vegetable and tofu dishes. China has the largest variety of vegetables and types of tofu that I have ever seen. You can never get tired of the food in China!
As dinner wound to a close, the Bridal Party started making the rounds of all the tables, toasting each person as they went. Regrettably, I discovered that Kelly was sipping only fruit juice! She changed her clothes two times during the evening, winding up in a party dress and short black wig. I was surprised that she did not appear in the traditional Chinese “Chipau” (long narrow fitted sleeveless dress with a mandarin collar).
At they approached the last of the tables, everyone started leaaving. BEFORE the bride and groom? We couldn’t believe it! Kelly came over to our table and announced “the party is over, folks”. We were stunned – it was only 8:30pm (the wedding party started at 5:30pm). There was no dancing, no removal of a garter belt, no tossing of the bouquet. And… no cake! We laowais (foreigners) reluctantly got up, grabbed our coats and headed for the door. We did hear later that the wedding party did continue to party the night away, and went to great efforts to ensure the bride and groom did not get too sleep easily on their first night. That makes me happy! Oh, by the way, you don’t give them presents, just CASH in red envelopes – nice!
Check out the link on the right to my PHOTOS – I got some great shots!
Tags: Travel
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