Thursday, November 25, 2010

5.3- Reception - Reason

The chinese traditional wedding: goods

















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The Bride’s Journey to the Groom’s House



Past

Nowadays


Wedding dress















·        Covering the brides’ face with red silk veil or red curtain is to prevent evils from seeing the face of the brides. Since the traditional Chinese believe that when evils see the face of the brides, the brides have bad luck.
·         Also, the covering can prevent other people from looking at the face of the brides.
·         Some people also explain the reason of covering by using virginity. In the past, all girls were not allowed to go outside and no one saw their appearance except their family members. In order to keep the “virginity” of the bride, the brides were covered with red curtain.


·         The attitude towards Chinese culture of teenagers in Hong Kong changes a lot thanks to the introduction of western culture and society development. Many Hong Kong teenagers do not pay attention to the Chinese culture nowadays since they think that these are unreasonable and unreliable. They do not believe covering red silk veils protect them from evils.
·         Girls nowadays are much more powerful that their status in the society and right skyrocket. They need not follow any rules to stay at home. They can go outside whenever they want. Therefore, their appearances are something open to others.
·         Furthermore, there is more freedom for couples in mate choice. They can make decision of the marriage by themselves. The partners are chosen by themselves. There is no point in wearing red silk veil in their wedding.
·         Also, brides may think that wear Phoenix Coronet and Decorated Shawl is troublesome since it is heavy. Many brides do not wear it although they wear Chinese wedding dresses.  At the same time, many couples think that the western wedding dresses are more beautiful than Chinese ones so they do not want to wear Dragon & Phoenix Bridal Dress  (褂裙) and Chinese wedding dress (長衫馬褂).
·         Although some couples wear Chinese wedding dress, they do so because of the pressure exerted from their parents or senior relatives. Therefore, they try to wear some trendy Chinese wedding dresses, such as (小鳳仙), trendy bridal dress (潮褂) or pink Dragon & Phoenix Bridal Dress  (褂裙). However, these kinds of dresses are unacceptable to many senior relatives because of the underlying meanings.


Collecting the bride

      ·         In Chinese society,    marriage is a big event in a life. People spare lots of effort to make their wedding as grand as possible.
·         Unicorn dance is a traditional culture in Chinese society and Chinese believe that unicorn is so fearful that they can drive the evil and bad luck away to protect the couples.
·         Firework is fired since the sound can drive the evil and creatures away so firing firework is indispensible in all ceremonies in China.
·         Musicians play the instrument to play wedding music to create lively atmosphere.



·         The structure of the society changes a lot compared with the past. There is much less people work in the field of unicorn dance and lantern musicians since these activities are not popular. It is expensive to hire these people to perform in a wedding.
·         Another reason is about the living area. In the past, people lived in houses where it was larger than the apartments nowadays. The bigger area allows more activities and performance to be organized. You can imagine what will happen if someone perform unicorn dance in the corridor of an apartment building.
·         Apart from the changes of the structure of the society, the legislation also contributes to the changes. Firework is banned in Hong Kong so it is illegal to fire firework in wedding. The legislation inhibits this traditional procedure in Chinese wedding.
·         Nowadays, it is common that friends and relatives of the groom go to collect the bride with the groom. When they arrive at the home of the bride, they have to play a series of games in order to get into the home. The friends and relatives are responsible for helping the groom to pass the games and make the procedure more lively since many activities are missed, namely unicorn dance, firework and musicians.

Transportation used for taking brides
·         The bridal sedan chair was decorated in red and it was highly curtained to prevent people outside from looking at inside. Also, the sedan chair was carried by four servants. The bridal sedan chair and all items used in wedding were decorated in red since red is the color which evils and creatures scare. Chinese believe that this color can protect the couples.


·         Due to the development of the society and transportation, people nowadays seldom use human-powered transports or animals-powered transports since they are not efficient. Flower cars are much more efficiency and stable.
·         People decorate flower cars with different kinds of western accessories, namely wedding dolls, flowers, colorful silk ribbon, etc.
·         Also, lots of space is needed when a sedan chair is used in the wedding.
·         The flowers cars are decorated in western style since teenagers think that western decoration is more romantic and beautiful.
·         Also, the space contributes to the use of flower cars rather than bridal sedan chairs. The corridors of apartments in Hong Kong are not wide enough to allow sedan chairs to pass through. A flower car can take more people than a sedan chair.

Stepping over a lit stove and tile to cross the threshold
·         Stepping over a lit stove aims at driving evil, creatures and ghosts away since they are afraid of fire.
·         Stepping tile has several meanings. Firstly, this procedure is believed to take the bad luck of the bride away.
·         Secondly, the intact tile means virginity. Breaking the tile means the bride is prepared to be a wife and is responsible to manage the family.
·         Lastly, breaking the tile is related to producing offspring.




·         Many Hong Kong teenagers do not pay attention to the Chinese culture nowadays since they think that these are unreasonable and unreliable.
·         They do not believe these kinds of procedure protect them from evils.




Visiting home of brides after 3 days






Past
Present
The day of the visit
  • In the past, the distance between two homes is very long and the transportation is undeveloped. The couples are taken by human and horse only. It is not feasible for them to visit the bride’s home on the wedding day.
  • Transporation developes quickly so distance between two homes become much shorter. The meaning of The Bride Returning Home after 3 Days loses since the bride can visit her parents whenever she wants and the geographical factors no longer be hurdle. Furthermoe, visiting bride’s home on the wedding day can save time and money. Nowadays, most of the wedding items, namely clothing, hair designers, cameramen, flower car are one day loan. The couple need not loan these items again if they visit bride’s home on the same day. What is more, the couples can enjoy their honeymoon on the second day after wedding day immediately.  

Time of the end of the visit
  • Couples must go back home before sunset since Chinese believed that they would be unfortunate because of some rumours. 
  • Many Hong Kong teenagers do not believe Chinese culture nowadays since they think that these are unreasonable and unreliable. Many couples stay at the bride home overnight and have dinner with the bridal parents.

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