sam and zhou you, 百年好合

It has been a few days since the wedding, but it's been a flurry of activity all week, so this is my first chance to post about it. However, it's a good thing I had to wait so long to write about it, because I now have many, many more photos to share. I was given a bunch of photos from the wedding last night, most of which turned out much better than the photos I tried to take. I have more than a hundred pictures, I think, but I'll just post a few of my favorites here.

If I were to describe a Chinese wedding (or at least this Chinese-American wedding) in one word for my Western readers, that word would be "loud." I have many other impressions, too. The ceremony was very nice, Zhou You was beautiful, Sam was handsome, the food was delicious, much fun was had by all--but comparing it to most weddings in the States, the clearest distinction I can make is that it was LOUD.

The ceremonies began with hundreds of firecrackers going off as the bride arrived with her attendant in a red convertible. That was crazy--a little bit like a war zone, with flying bits, explosions, and smoke everywhere. Ben and I actually had to run away once the firecrackers started going off, because little burning bits were hitting us in the legs! After the smoke cleared, confetti-poppers (I'm not really sure what they're called, so that's the term I'm sticking with) were set off as the bride got out of the car. That was actually Ben's and my job for the evening--to set off two of those poppers. It was kind of a lot of pressure, actually, because people kept telling us things like: "Make sure you stand here, not here, and with your back to the wind," and "Do it quickly," and "Are you sure you can do this?" But we managed it in the end.

Once we got inside, the ceremony was a kind of amalgamation of Chinese elements and American elements. For example, Sam and Zhou You exchanged vows and rings. But they also included a tea service in the ceremony, in which the bride and groom serve their new parents-in-law tea, calling them "mother" and "father" for the first time. The majority of the ceremony after that was made up of people giving speeches, vouching for the integrity and character of the bride and the groom, and sometimes presenting gifts as they did this. Sam's friend Charlie served as an interpreter for the ceremony, interpreting the Chinese speeches into English, and the English speeches into Chinese. This was really a lovely part of the ceremony, and it was very interesting to hear what each person had to say about these two.

However, even this part of the ceremony was loud. It all took place in a banquet hall, and throughout the whole thing, there was pop music playing, not exactly full-blast, but much more loudly than you might expect at an American wedding. All the guests sat around round tables, and many of them were drinking, smoking, and chatting throughout the ceremony. In fact, at times it was quite difficult to hear what was being said by those giving speeches, at least from where we were sitting. It was also kind of difficult to see. And so a lot of people decided to stand rather than sit. But then they were standing right in front of where you were sitting, so you had to stand, too, or else join the guys smoking and chatting at the table next to yours. In the end, we stood some, sat some, stood some more, chatted a bit, listened here and there. It was a very casual, but festive atmosphere.

After the ceremony, the banquet began, and boy, was it a ton of food. The servers just kept bringing out more and more dishes--more than anyone could possibly eat! And all the tables were supplied with endless rounds of beer, red wine, and baijiu, which is sometimes translated as "white wine," but is actually a kind of clear alcohol made from sorghum. As you can imagine, things became all the more festive as the bottles emptied.

As everyone began eating, Sam and Zhou You changed clothes. Then, throughout the banquet, they went from table to table, thanking all their guests for coming, and toasting them all. That's one thing that seems to be the same about American and Chinese weddings (at least in my experience): the bride and groom hardly get to sit down and eat.

Here are just a few more photos. In the top left photo are Zhou You's parents, Zhou You, Sam, and my Mom. Top right is Zhou You's dad presenting a poem to the couple during the ceremony. Bottom left is Zhou You and Sam with her maternal grandmother (left) and paternal grandmother (right). The bottom right photo is the couple, their parents, and me and Ben.