Common
Knowledge of Chinese Culture
Marriage
Traditionally, marriage is the one end and
aim set forth for a girl;this is the goal to which she is taught to look forward,or to
which her parents look forward for her, for it matters little about the girl herself. She
is almost a nonentity in matter: her wishes are not consulted; she has often never seen
her future husband at all. A man does not marry so much for his own benefit as for that of
the family: to continue the family name; to provide descendants to keep up the ancestral
worship;and to give a daughter-in-law to his mother to wait on her and be, in general, a
daughter to her.
A go-between is one of the most important
matter. All having been satisfactorily arranged, the money agreed upon in the contract
having been paid to the girl;s father, the final ceremonial which hands her over to her
husband is performed. She is dressed in her best, and, when the procession comes for her,
is placed in the grand, red, marriage sedan-chair, in which she never rides again. Her
trousseau is sent to her future home before her marriage, and is made the occasion for a
procession, the bearers of the various objects being clad in red jackets, and parading
through the streets. Should the bride-elect die before her marriage, the future husband
married his dead bride; but as the Chinese customs with regard to men are different from
those with regard to women, he is free to marry again.
The first important ceremony is the bride
going in the red sedan-chair to the bridegroom's house. Another important thing is for the
bridegroom to receive his bride, he coming to the chair to do so. Then they worship the
ancestors of the bridegroom in all their generations of that surname. It is Chinese
etiquette for the guests invited to a marriage to call to congratulate the father of the
bridegroom on the morning of the marriage. A big banquet follows to all invited and people
often joke with the new couple until late night when the new couple are left alone in
their room.
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