Traditional Chinese Qipao formal outfits.

A Modern Chinese Wedding. Singapore.

This lovely, successful young Chinese couple are friends of ours in Singapore. As is popular there among the young Chinese citizens, they chose to experience the double ceremony, to be recognized in their customary Chinese marriage ritual plus the legal Western marriage. This is to signify their reality, life within a dual cultural existence.

There’s no mandate for the order of the ceremonies however most young couples choose to experience the traditional Chinese Wedding ceremony first out of respect for their families. According to custom, an auspicious date will have been chosen. The Chinese are a very superstitious culture and adherence to ancient practices around ceremonial events is followed, even today. 

The opulence that accompanies a traditional Chinese wedding far outshines most Western weddings. A wedding in the Chinese culture is a significant social event where guestlists often include multiple groups of business associates and colleagues of the couple’s parents’. This means several hundred guests and large venues are required to stage many circular tables for a formal meal. The celebration is based around an elaborate, traditional banquet of many courses, unabashedly designed to impress the guests in honour of the union of these two families. The Chinese wedding banquet is more about the two families than about the specific couple being married.

Traditional Anglo-European formal wedding outfits.

There are no Bridesmaids or Groomsmen usually, just the couple. Nor is there a Bridal bouquet. Large celebratory bouquets of bright red and pink flowers are delivered to the venue on the morning of the banquet for display at the entrance to the venue. There are sometimes flowers on the banquet tables too.

Also, within the wedding party, there are particular colours traditionally worn by certain people. This allows the guests to know the familial relationship that each member of the wedding party enjoys with the Bride and Groom – and their families. Nobody wears black – it is the colour of death, hence of misfortune. And nobody other than the Bride would dare wear white either!

In the traditional Chinese ceremonial photo, the outfits worn are custom-tailored from ornate silk brocade. This splendid Qipao design (pronouned “chipow”) Michelle is wearing is based on the 2 piece ‘cheongshan’ outfit, a design to display a woman’s modesty, softness and beauty. Hong’s matching male outfit is referred to as the ‘changshan’ in Mandarin. Don’t they both look splendid?

Note the comparative physical arrangement in these two photos – in the Chinese custom, the Groom is seated, assured of his role as ‘head of the household’; in the Western custom the Groom signifies his role as ‘protector and provider’ by standing behind his seated Bride. I find these poses very telling of the different worlds these young couples must manage themselves through.

Interestingly, the wedding photos are often not taken on the actual day of the Wedding banquet. Due to the important role of Wedding photographs to both families, these are often taken in a professional photographic studio on a specific day and may involve several outfit changes. It’s not unusual for the Wedding photos to be scheduled prior to the Wedding banquet, even a month before.