Zhang Ai's Wedding
This is the extended family clan. I am technically not in this picture--this is a composite, and I was behind the camera. There was a very similar one with me in it, though, and I photoshopped myself into this one at the request of the family. Bwah. Also, doesn't that outfit just make all you pretty girls want to hug me? KEKEKE *cough*
More pictures in the gallery of the wedding.
So early in the morning, we went to the bride's home, where the female relatives were gathering. All of us cousins were there, taking the place of brothers, I think. (due to the lack of actual brothers thanks to China's one child policy). Zhang Ai was getting her makeup and hair done, and all that, and there was lots of the usual chatter and meeting of various relations.
She wore a white wedding dress, Western Style, but also embroidered red silk Chinese-style heels. Keep in mind that in China, red is considered the color of happiness, also associated with fertility.
The setting off of firecrackers announced the arrival of the groom--come to pick up his bride, and take her to his family's house. Thus denoting the traditional transfer of the female from one family to another. Members of the bride's family bar him from entry, and must be ritually bribed off with gifts. In this case, the little red envelopes with money inside (only 10 yuan, alas. Cheapskate). And, of course, while he's doing so, he's hollering at the top of his lungs for his bride, or his parents-in-law to help him. Once he's actually in the house, however, he has to do further abasement--pounds on the bride's room's door to demand entry. Or, in this case, plead entry. A sample of the dialogue:
"Wife, let me in!"
"Who is it?"
"It's me!"
"What's your name?"
"Zhang Cun!"
"How old are you?"
"29."
Friend: "Don't say 29, say 19, you idiot."
"Who are you going to listen to?"
"You, of course, my bride."
"Who's going to do the dishes?"
"Me, I'll do the dishes."
"If I do something wrong, what will you do?"
"Even if you do something wrong, it's still not wrong, it's my fault."
"How much money did you bring for me?"
"Lots, open the door and I'll give it to you."
"Slip the envelope under the door."
"I can't, it's too thick, it won't fit under the door."
and so on and so forth. Highly entertaining dialogue, with the rest of us laughing uproariously. Then came the ritual procession to the groom's house--in this case, a limousine for the bride and the most important guests, and audi black sedans for the rest of us. Due to time contraints, they only just stopped at the doorway to the groom's house, picked up his parents, and then we proceeded to the wedding feast and ceremony.
The wedding took place in a restaurant. In the absence of any religious beliefs, the ceremony and the orchestration were done by a professional MC, who talked lots and in general managed to screw up muchly. That's okay, the bride and the groom didn't particularly care. The couple is given a glass of red wine each to drink. I'm not sure why, Chinese people in general really don't like the taste of wine. I think it's probably a tradition, or possibly some relation to the color being auspicious.
They exchange vows, and rings. There's ritual bows, and cups of tea served to the parents in law. Each serves to their respective in-laws. The parents give a speech, there's more bowing, and then the feast commences. The bride goes to chance into slightly more comfortable clothing--a red qi pao. A little more traditional. And then the two of them had to go around to each and every guest, and toast them--either light a cigarette for them, serve them candy, or toast with whiskey. Also, the guest can give them a...hmm. Let's call it a game to play, for good luck, which may or may not be traditional.
Some of the games involved: A cucumber turned into a spiky porcupine with toothpicks. The bride holds it in her mouth, and the groom picks out the toothpicks with his teeth, and eats the cucumber. Or, the bride is made to roll a raw egg up one leg of the groom's pants, and then down the other. Or, two pieces of fruit suspended on a string, draped around the bride's neck to be positioned directly over her breasts. The groom is blindfolded, his hands held behind his back, and is forced to bob for the fruit.
After the feast, we all piled in to drive over to their new apartment, to check it out. Quite nice, especially the sound system, and my cousin has quite an impressive collection of movies. Her husband is a soldier; the military base is located outside of the city. It's rather far, but the view is definitely great, and the air quality is much better.
It was an interesting mix of Western and Chinese traditions. Or, rather, it was a Chinese wedding with a few Western touches. For instance, the all important "The groom cannot see the bride before the wedding" was quite obviously subordinated to the more traditional transfer from the bride's house to the groom's house. Other parts they seem not to have fully understood: For instance, the tradition of carrying the bride across the threshold became simply carrying the bride around, willy nilly. Another was the pyramid tower of glasses: In the West, one typically opens a few bottles of champagne and pours it into the top glass, and it overflows to fill the bottom ones. Then you hand out the glasses. In this case, some reddish liquid (I'm not even sure it was alcoholic) was decanted into the tower, which even had an elaborate apparatus to make sure none spilled. And then nobody drank any. They opened two bottles of the stuff, poured it in, and in the end, just dumped it all out.
All in all, it was an interesting experience, being at a Chinese wedding. And this is probably my only chance to participate as a member of the female side, as well, since all my other cousins are male. Oh well. Glad to have made it to this one.