A Chinese New Year Wedding
Back to my Ancesteral Roots – Humbling Ties
So after my little trip to HK the day before I ventured out to a little place called Zhao Qing about 3 hours west of Shenzhen still inside GuangDong province. You can see a map here for clarification. I started off with a stop at a little restaurant which sported such features as “walls” and “running water” beside a small pond where they got their flagship dish a good sized freshwater fish. You can see some of these poor bastards flapping around in this quick video I took. All and all a pretty decent meal – who can complain with 16lbs of fish on the table 
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After the meal I ventured over for a quick tour of my ancestoral village where I took the liberty of filming a tour through the allyways to one of my uncles dwellings. It was indeed a humbling experience to see how those that came before me lived – though I’m sure it was more appealing in years past it can’t have been too much better, their wasn’t much potential to build on. That aside the people I met were festive and warm all around – I suppose thats because I’m related to them and I’ve seen them o… once before in my life probably a few months off my mommas milk.
The highlight of my trip came the next day when the Wedding took place. The traditional Chinese wedding customs are not without their charms – I found them endlessly entertaining. The fun part basically works like this: The bride is placed in the home (in this case a traditional old brick home in the village) and all the women related to her rush into the house and lock the door behind them. The groom and his posse then come to the entryway demanding to have the woman – the women inside fend them off with words and other means (in our case silly string and fire crackers). I managed to get myself in the house with all the chicks – thought I’d give them something to look at while they went about their duty. *high five… anyone* What! what do you mean they’re all related to me… buzzkill… -_-
Anyway after much arguing and the groom passing plenty of money through windows or whathaveyou to the women they let the groom and his men in to claim the wife. Thereafter there is some sort of walk together after which the entire entorage makes their way to the wife’s family’s house to have a meal. You can view a quick vid of the women arguing with the men from the rooftop (the one on the left in pink is my cousin Yuki – she keeps asking for 999 money, a lucky amount which is typically asked for at these sorts of things), or watch the women hold the door closed, or the final break in to the house here.
Anyway after much arguing and the groom passing plenty of money through windows or whathaveyou to the women they let the groom and his men in to claim the wife. Thereafter there is some sort of walk together after which the entire entorage makes their way to the wife’s family’s house to have a meal. You can view a quick vid of the women arguing with the men from the rooftop (the one on the left in pink is my cousin Yuki – she keeps asking for 999 money, a lucky amount which is typically asked for at these sorts of things), or watch the women hold the door closed, or the final break in to the house here.
It was good to see some of my cousins again and make new ties to old family that I’ve never met. From time to time I think its important to try and honor those that came before you and keep some tie to those that share your blood – though I must say that task has varying degrees of difficulty dependant upon which cultural/ethinic group you descend from. Until next time……. *cue theme music
Tags: China, Chinese Culture
