你们好!
As a homework assignment during the Spring Festival, I asked my students to send me (at least) 1 e-mail, expressing to me (in English) what they are doing at home, what delicious foods they are eating, what fun activities/traditions they are performing, and most importantly, who they are spending the holiday with. I did this because I know many of my students will go home and not speak a word of English for 2 months and they will need all the practice they can get, but also because I miss them. They are one of the sole reason why I live and teach in a place I, for the most part, don't agree with. And I don't mean my stomach doesn't agree with its food, my patience doesn't agree with the language barrier, or my health/hygiene doesn't agree with all the spit on the ground and the air pollution while I run - these are tolerable and irrelevant reasons for not wanting to live in a place you currently call home. The real reason is much more complicated, of course. And at the same time, very simple. Cliffhanger...
Getting back to my student e-mail assignment, I was excited to see a student sent me a video of a Chinese countryside wedding. I have always wanted to see a real Chinese wedding - and by "real" I mean "traditional"; wedding planning shops are all over Beibei and they advertise wedding packages that look no different than Western-style weddings. This video, though in Chinese, is as real as I may ever see it. Have a look:
The student seemed very excited to send this to me. She said in her e-mail that she climbed on the roof a nearby house to make the video - a feat I commend her for! Notice the red cloth over the woman's face being removed by her husband (How would a feminist critic interpret this wedding?) and the bowing towards the end of the video - all traditions discussed during one of my cross-cultural lessons. The man talking is the host, or the "MC," who is pretty much the wedding ceremony's narrator and facilitator. I love Truth, as many of my friends and readers know, and I think there is a lot of Truth in this video.
More soon...
I love and miss you all,
Phil
蓝麦飞
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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1 comments:
Phil,
Have you read Amy Tan's _The Joy Luck Club_? In one of the vignettes a traditional Chinese wedding (I think such as this one since I remember the red cloth part) is described, and, because it is set in the first half of the 20th century, there are still matchmakers presiding over the ceremony (with a candle burning at both ends throughout to symbolize the love of the two households joining). So the story goes, but I would be interested to learn more! What a fun assignment!
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