【i】Storyville: The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World-A Good Match

Lots of people asked me about Chinese wedding before, but I simply can't answer this question in a very simple way...
There are some difficulties for me to answer this question.
The first one and the most important one is people from different places do wedding in different ways!
You can blow up your budget for a very extravagant ceremony or you can invite some families, relatives and close friends for a feast only.
It really depends on what you want to do in this important day of your life.

Luckily BBC iPlayer just had a clip talking about Chinese wedding.
Storyville:The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World-A Good Match
This clip will stay online for another 2 days, and if you down load it, you can keep it for up to 30 days.
In this clip, you can find out Chinese way wedding including stealing bride, giving red envelopes, showing respect to ancestors, big wedding feast etc...
I personally found one thing very interesting.
When talking about marriage, the bride to be talked to the camera about his proposal.
He simply said, I am ready to marry you now...
Er... yes, I would say men are still superior to women in certain ways in China...
So talking about marriage, man will be the one who take action.
It's getting better in big cities like Shanghai or Beijin, but people are still very traditional in big things like wedding.

The wedding feast is very interesting.
People go for food, entertainments, and also face.
As some of you know face is very important for Chinese people.
See how much people put in red envelope for the couple, 700 GBP!
You must be rich and care about face a lot so you would give so much in red envelope lo!

I have a good news to share with you all.
My sister is getting marriage next year!
She will let me know what date the ceremony will be after Chinese New Year as she and my parents will need to check the lunar calendar first.
It does shows on lunar calendar what dates are good for wedding and what dates are good for moving, funeral and so on.
Her wedding won't be like what you see in the clip.
She and her fiance will have 2 wedding feasts.
One for the engagement, one for the wedding ceremony.
The engagement feast will only have close relatives and families only.
Other people like friends, colleagues, and some relatives you even don't remember will show up on the main wedding feast.

As I mentioned already, people from different places have different wedding customs.
My friend's wedding had 2 feasts as well.
But one for bride's family, relatives and friends, and one for groom's.

Nowadays, couple don't really want to go for traditional way as it's more complicated.
But parents or even grand parents would still prefer the tradition.
In Taiwan, we even have groom get on horse and use sedan chair to carry his bride back home!

On just before I finish this article, do you know in China, we take wedding photos before the wedding?
Yes, we have the photos done in professional studio, and have a very pretty album ready to show every gusts in the wedding day!
You can choose 4 to 5 different wedding dress and style for your wedding album.
And, we don't purchase our own wedding dress neither!
You can have everything done by the wedding agent.
Pick up a dress you prefer, book it for the wedding, and also book the make up and hair as well.
On the wedding day, bride will need to start doing make up, hair and everything since 4 o'clock in the morning!
Crazy, isn't it?
For being the most beautiful bride in the world, it is worthy!

We will talk about this topic more in the future as it is a Big subject!
Also, I might have the opportunity to show you the Taiwanese way wedding sometime next year!

Enjoy the programme.

Cindy

【f】Dragon Boat Festival-端午节粽子飘香

Hi everyone,

Weather is getting warmer, are you ready for hot summer?
Yes, summer is coming.
Chinese people believe that after Dragon Boat Festival, it is the real summer time!

Dragon Boat Festival, in Chinese Mandarin called Duan Wu Jie, falls on the fifth day of the fifth month in lunar calendar.
It falls on Sunday, 8^th June, this year.

Dragon Boat Festival is one of the most important festivals in China.
It has been celebrated sine 278 BC for the death of poet Qu Yuan.

Qu Yuan was a patriot but was refused by his emperor.
He killed himself by jumping in to Miluo River after his country ended up falling into enemy’s hand on the fifth day of the fifth month.
Local people, who admired him, threw food wrapped by leaves into the river to feed fish so they wouldn’t eat Qu’s body. And local people also paddled boats to search his body and scared fish away.

That is the origins of Zongzi and Dragon Boat Racing.

Zongzi is the traditional food Chinese people eat in Dragon Boat Festival.
It is normally made of glutinous rice, and it can be either sweet or savoury.
The fillings in Zongzi vary a lot.
People from different places will have different recipes but Zongzi is always wrapped by leaves and in pyramid shape.
Generally speaking, people from north prefer sweet rice dumplings and people from south prefer savoury ones.

Dragon Boat Racing is also an important activity to do in Duan Wu Jie.

People believe that it is a good luck and also easier to stand eggs straight at noon in Dragon Boat Festival.

Some people put five-colour-threads on their wrists on this day and take them off on the first rainy day after the festival.
It is believe that five-colour-threads will keep evil spirits away.

People also put aicao, artemisia, in front of their door to keep evil spirits away, and carry small sachet of herbs, xiang bao, to keep insects away.

The special wine called Xiong Huang is drunk on the festival day to keep away insects and snakes as well.

It is said the Xiong Huang wine is not safe to drink these days so people wipe the wine on their faces instead of drinking it.

Want to know more about the festival?

There are some more links to find out more:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2004-06/21/content_1536677_2.htm

http://englishclub.99-00.yy2.edu.hk/li_fes_4.html

http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/festival/dragonboat/dragon.html

http://shanghaiist.com/2006/05/30/happy_duan_wu_j.php

You are all welcome to share your individual experience of Dragon Boat Festival with me.
I was going to make some rice dumplings with friends but some accidents happened to my boyfriend and my friend's husband...
I am afraid that we have to delay our plans.
I will let you know if I make some and show you the photos of my home made dumplings.


Wish everyone a very nice Duan Wu Jie!


Cindy