Chinese Weddings

This past week I attended a Chinese wedding. One of the younger female teachers at our school who is one of Lindsey's good friends decided to take the plunge. A plunge that is certainly different from the way that most Americans look at and perceive marriage. For the past few months we've known that she was going to be married soon, but no one knew when. Then, this past Monday, Lindsey told me that Qin Qin was going to have her wedding on Friday. On Wednesday morning, the wedding was off. On Wednesday evening, it was back on. Let's just say, I didn't get an invitation in the mail. So, when Friday rolled around me and Lindsey got ready for the wedding party. I decided that the occasion was worthy of a fresh pair of pants, a clean, yet wrinkled dress shirt, and a pair of shoes (which I haven't worn in two months, opting instead for my $2 flip-flops). Lindsey wore a skirt she bought in Laos and a wrinkled white blouse.

If you have already assumed as much, wedding is not really a big to-do in China. Typically there is no wedding ceremony because the Church doesn't have as big a foothold in China as apathy. But, it is becoming more popular to have wedding photos taken in a traditional western wedding dress and tuxedo. For the photos, you go to a one-stop-shop where you rent the dress and tuxedo, get your hair and make-up done, and then you go traipsing around town to the standard beautiful places to take the photos. In all the wedding photos I've seen, none of the women look like themselves. They are all so made up with powder and make-up that their skin is translucent. The wedding itself is simply signing your papers at the local government office and then you have a Chinese banquet style party with your guests, basically the same banquet you would have anytime you go out to eat with a large group of people.

So, Lindsey, Hong Mei, and myself showed up to the wedding a little late and sat down at an already packed table. The table consisted mostly of English teachers from our school and their children. I was sitting next to a rather peculiar boy who ended up handing me fist fulls of sunflower seeds and chocolates, he also gave me about 8 cigarettes throughout the night, he was probably 12. Qin Qin and her new husband came over to toast our table with glasses of wine. They were both incredibly happy throughout the whole night and it was really cute to see.

Well, I wanted to finish this before I headed off for Chengdu today, but it looks like the 15-hour train ride has approached quicker then i thought it would. So, it's off to Chengdu to get my mid-service Peace Corp physical and eat a whole lot of western food and maybe some beer that actually tastes good and doesn't contain any poison (formaldehyde).