For my proposal, I was concentrating on the Chinese culture and how living in New York influences Chinese holidays and customs. The event that I focused on was the celebration of Chinese weddings in America. I interviewed a good friend of mine, who told me about the traditional weddings that they had in China. In China, the color white is considered bad luck and is usually worn at funerals. The traditional Chinese wedding in China consisted of a red dress with elaborate designs. The color represents joy and happiness and is considered good luck for the couple. In America, my friend’s family and a lot of their relatives usually have three outfit changes for the woman- an outfit for the tea ceremony, a white wedding dress (for a traditional Western ceremony) and the traditional cocktail dress, called a QiPao, for the reception. This did not happen in China. Another difference is that in America, the new generations and even Chinese Americans who immigrated here use DJs and MCs at their weddings, whereas in China, there would be people hired to sound the gongs and other traditional Chinese instruments. My friend also mentioned that the Chinese weddings are being more Americanized with food from different cultures, such as steak, while still serving lobster, shark-finned soup, chicken, fish, lo-mein, fried rice, and red bean soup. Before the wedding in China, the bride will go to her in-laws house first, be gifted a lot of jewelry, then go to her parents’ house and be given jewelry by them as well. Only after these gifts are exchanged does the wedding reception begin. In traditional Chinese weddings, there are no wedding vows. There is simply a reception. When people attending the wedding bang their chopsticks on their plates, it means that the newly wedded couple has to kiss.
There are many Chinese wedding traditions that carry on from China into the Western world. Many Chinese American weddings incorporate table toasts, in which the bride and groom go around to every table and make individual toasts. However, as more generations are being American- born Chinese, those traditions start to slowly fade away. This is also seen in many interracial Chinese weddings, which have been increasing at a very quick rate in America.
