DAVID is a British man who came to work as a teacher in Beijing.There he met a girl called Miss Wang, and romance soon blos-somed between the two. They decided to get married, so they firstwent through the marriage registration procedures required by Chi-nese law. That was the easy part. When it came to the ceremonyitself, the young Briton found that he had much to learn about the Chinese way,as each detail of a traditional Chinese wedding symbolizes some cultural or philo-sophical element. Red DayTo the Chinese, red is the color of happiness, success, good fortune and prosper-ity. This tradition is thought to date back to prehistoric times, when early humansworshipped the sun. Red, therefore, is the dominant color at a traditional Chinesewedding - the hall is covered with red papercuts of the Chinese character for "dou-ble happiness," the bride wears a scarlet wedding dress and the bridegroom pins ared flower to his lapel. This not only adds a sense of merriment to the occasion - italso indicates the couple's desire for a happy, prosperous marriage.Harmony between Heaven, Earth and HumankindAccording to folklore expert Gao Wei, the wedding ceremony illustrates a keyChinese philosophical principle - that of "harmony between heaven, earth andmankind." Chinese weddings are therefore busy events - involving not just the newcouple, but their friends, families and sometimes the whole community. The occa-sion is viewed as a great opportunity for relatives, friends and neighbors to expresstheir good wishes to the couple, often in the form of a cash-packed red envelope.The participation of so many relatives also helps to consolidate ties between thetwo families as they are bonded in wedlock. It also honors the seniority of parents.When all of the "I dos" have been uttered, the newlyweds go to the courtyardto burn tribute papers for the heavens. As the ashes swirl upwards, firecrackers areignited, their noise backed by beating drums and gongs, as if the heavens were an-nouncing approval.This custom stretches back to the days when the dominant society in China wasagricultural. Families would take any opportunity to praise the gods of nature in thehope that their harvests would be bountiful.The heavenly connection is also made through the musical instruments played atChinese weddings. The din of drums, gongs, suona horns (a woodwind instrument)and the sheng (reed pipe wind instrument) is intended to reach the gods above theclouds. The stentorian drum and gong beats are a call to the people to live in peacewith others as well as with nature.The couple in traditional wedding costumes.XinhuaMarriage RegistrationProcedureAccording to the RegulationsGoverning Marriage Registration, amarriage between a Chinese and aforeigner should be registered withthe civil affairs department of theprovince, autonomous region ormunicipality directly under the cen-tral government, or the departmentdesignated by that civil affairs de-partment. When a Chinese marriesa foreigner in the Chinese mainland,the couple should register in theChinese party's place of permanentresidence.The registration procedure re-quires the Chinese party, for in-stance Miss Wang, to present herresidence certificate and ID card.The foreigner, in this case David, isrequired to show his passport or oth-er ID; residence permit issued by theChinese Public Security Bureau, oran identity certificate issued by theforeign affairs department, or a tem-porary Chinese visa; and a maritalstatus certificate issued by the Brit-ish notarization department and rati-fied by the Foreign Affairs Ministry ofthe U.K. and the Chinese embassy/consulate there, or a marital statuscertificate obtained from a Britishembassy/consulate in China.A Traditional Chinese Wedding
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