An Account of Contemporary Wedding Observances in Taiwan

A Note to My Readers     >>>>>

Ever since I endeavored to commit my energies to K-12 education, I have been synchronously committed to the world of scholarship and my conviction that teachers at the K-12 level should be alive in the world of scholarship.  I trained on through to the Ph. D. in history (University of Minnesota, 1993), focused on Chinese and East Asian history with an ultimate specialization in the history of the unique national entity of Taiwan.

I have lived in Taiwan three times and returned for prolonged visits many times (including a December 2016 trip to this amazingly successful island nation (in de facto terms, if not in recognition by that corrupt empire, already abusive to the Tibetan and Uighur people, known as the People's Republic of China on the mainland).

My books on Taiwan include Culture and Customs of Taiwan (with Barbara Reed, Greenwood Press, 1998), A Short History of Taiwan:  The Case for Independence (Praeger, 2003), and Tales from the Taiwanese (Libraries Unlimited, 2004). 

The following article is one stimulated by discussions with great new friends mine, with whom I am working on the Taiwanese exhibit for the coming Festival of Nations in St. Paul.  The article gives an update on contemporary wedding practices in Taiwan and serves as logical extension of the section that I wrote on Taiwanese wedding practices for Culture and Customs of Taiwan, which focused on the more traditional wedding ritual.  This article offers a more detailed look at the wedding celebration now observed by people in this exciting, vital, vibrant island polity---  the text of which I would include in any new edition of Culture and Customs of Taiwan or other relevant writings.

Please now read and enjoy this rendering of contemporary wedding practices in Taiwan  >>>>>

An Account of Contemporary Wedding Observances in Taiwan

 

Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.,

Historian of Taiwan

 

Contemporary Taiwanese weddings vary according to the woman and man who are joining together in marital union.  Many young people in Taiwan today have a very independent outlook on life and approach marriage much as they do other aspects of their lives, with a preference for making their own statement about their commitment to their prospective partner for life.  Such independent spirits design their own ceremonies, write their own vows, and carry out their marital ceremony or equivalent with their unique celebration.  I know of at least one young woman and man who left Taiwan for the United States and upon arrival simply went before a justice of the peace;  with their families back in Taiwan and unaware that their offspring had effectively eloped, the couple included just a few friends in the courthouse gathering.

 

Many opt for the more conventional observance that features a fascinating combination of the traditional and the contemporary.  The marital match is generally made these days on the basis of romantic love, with a courteous request for consent from the families of the betrothed.  The bride nowadays typically wears not the traditional red gown of Han Chinese tradition, but rather a white western-style gown;  in doing so, the traditional Taiwanese association of white with death and attire worn during funeral rituals is discarded.  The groom wears a western style gray or dark suit.

In the typical contemporary Taiwanese wedding ceremony, in another display of western influence, the bride has bridesmaids and a maid of honor;  the groom has groomsmen and a best man.  On the wedding day, the groom often picks up his future wife at her house with his groomsmen rather than family members per tradition, although his groomsmen very well might include members of his family.  When the groom arrives at his bride’s house, he may stand outside his prospective wife’s room and shout, “I love you!” and then propose.  If this practice is followed, having insisted on this formal but typically playful and laugh-filled proposal, the bride emerges to the delight of both her assemblage of friends and those of the groom, in acceptance of the proposal.

 

Rather than the traditional sedan chair, the entourage of the groom picks the bride up at her home in the fanciest cars they can afford;  rented black BMWs and Mercedes offer an opportunity  to make the preferred statement about the wedding in general:  that the groom’s family has the money to lavish on such occasions.  Red (by tradition the color of good fortune) ribbons adorn the cars that transport bride and groom from the young woman’s house to that of his family.

 

Contemporary Taiwanese marital unions retain aspects of the traditional brideprice (gifts of the groom’s family to that of the bride’s family) and dowry (articles of material value brought by the young wife into the union).  On the day of the wedding, the bride’s family members carry the bride's clothes, pillows, and bed linen to her new house.

 

As the bride arrives at the home of the groom’s family, a circular rice screen made of bamboo (or an umbrella, should she be pregnant) protects her from ghosts, the belief in which was common in traditional Taiwan;  today, the protective shield may be retained either as a matter of true belief in wandering spirits or for symbolic value.   Family members and friends light firecrackers in front of the groom's house before the bride’s clothes and bedsheets are brought into the house, and before the couple proceeds with the ritual attending entry.  In some observances, as an act of ritual cleansing, the bride endeavors to walk over a metal bucket with fire and hot coals just before entering her new house,.

 

Upon entering the home of the young man’s family, out of respect for the gods and ancestors bride and groom typically offer prayers and burn incense before an altar in the living room or a special room dedicated to such observances.  Such items as new bed sheets, quilts, and pillows that constitute part of the dowry are placed next to a religious altar at the groom's house.

 

Bride and groom then stand before the mother and father of the groom in observance of the traditional tea ceremony;  having offered them tea, the bride and groom receive words of favorable fortune from each parent of the groom.  Bride and groom proceed after the tea ceremony to their bedroom and endure the teasing from their friends that by tradition occurs during this phase.

 

The groomsmen have often accompanied the groom from early morning and continue their presence until late at night, after everybody has left the wedding reception.  Boys and men may walk and jump on the bed of the new wife and husband, a ritual that some think will induce the gods to grant that the first child be a boy.  But nowadays this practice is often eliminated in a society wherein considerable feminist spirit abides among both young females and young males.

 

Taiwanese families conventionally offer fabulous wedding feasts with hundreds of people in attendance.  The banquet is held as the last phase of the wedding day observance.  Substantial portions of multiple courses and goodies such as tang yuan (glutinous rice balls, spherical symbols of perfection) are eaten by those in attendance.  Sweet tang yuan soup is thought to bring the sweetness of a happy future to the newlyweds.

 

Photographs are important in the days prior to the wedding and on the day itself.  Generous expenditure on wedding pictures demonstrates the financial wherewithal of the groom’s family, at whose house many of the photo sessions are typically staged.  Many young couples will spend an entire day or weekend having photographs taken, and may even travel to scenic global sites with a photographer and assistants in tow.

The popularity of Facebook and other social media in Taiwanese society has increased the importance of taking professional looking photos before and during the wedding day.  On the day of the wedding, extended families of bride and groom typically gather for a formal photo.

Although the wedding ritual by convention includes the phases described above, whereby the bride is brought to the home of the groom’s family and symbolically welcomed into her new abode, many young couples quickly establish their own independent residence and then preside over nuclear families as children are born.

                                                                                                                                                                                 

Here I emphasize again the feminist spirit that abides among both young women and young men in Taiwan, a spirit that may in any given case of marital celebration yield many innovations on the rituals described above.