Groom's Favourite Uncle Getting Into Character
After being away from Xi’an for a week over Christmas, we returned to Xi’an for a week before happily setting off again – it is always good to take a break or two from city life. This time it was down to my wife’s village for a pre-Spring Festival visit. It was an especially important trip to make, as I am not going to be around for the New Year celebrations themselves – the one time of year that the extended Chinese family do get a chance to be together. I will be off visiting my own family back in Great Britain.
We also needed to head back to the village as one of Ling’s relatives was getting married. No matter whether or not there is love between marrying Chinese villagers – and there is often a distinct lack of it – I always enjoy being part of Chinese village marriages, if for no other reason than that they are full of local people, local customs and local food: aspects of Chinese life that I do not experience every day.
Tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks are rented, while the home’s courtyard fills with family, neighbours and friends. The ritual of beating down the bride’s bedroom door – almost literally – is followed before she is carried off to her future by her soon-to-be husband. At this point the bride is leaving her family to become part of the groom’s home, although, not before the couple host a banquet in the front yard, a custom that requires the individual toasting of nearly every single guest. After this, and depending on the distance between the homes, a fleet of black cars conveys the couple and accompanying entourage to a location close to the groom’s family home, where a sedan chair will be waiting.
Uncle About To Carry Bride
The in-laws, dressed in traditional costume, parade around the garishly decorated chair, while a drum beat sounds their new daughter’s arrival. The bride is often quite unceremoniously hoisted from the car and placed within the sedan chair, where family members carry her home, rocking the chair wildly as they go. En route, a few surreptitiously positioned members of the groom’s family will stage a mock defence to keep the bride away: a custom that can lead to tempers boiling over. On arrival at the new home, a quite procedural kind of wedding ceremony follows, although, this depends on the love that actually exists between the couple. Then the real eating begins. At this particular wedding, with Spring Festival just around the corner, it meant even more food than normal, and particularly more meat.
At this time of year both the preparation and eating of food is high on everyone’s agenda. Staple foods include pigs’ intestines, pigs’ ears and pigs’ trotters. In our own celebrations back at home, or here in Xi’an, most of us will be stocking up from our local supermarkets. Not so in the village. Pigs are slaughtered and winter vegetables are harvested in great quantities from the fields. Tofu and noodles are freshly made at home in huge fire-lit woks, while bowls are filled to the brim with steaming rice soups and heaving chunks of potato.
Uncle After A Few Too Many Celebratory Baijius - a white spirit distilled from maize
The food in Chinese villages is now plentiful, but memories of tragic shortages remain fresh. So, this culling of the local livestock carries almost sacrificial significance. For those unaware, many parents (not just the men), as well as many teenage and twenty-something children spend long periods of their lives working away from home. They are earning money building the big cities of modern China or making the products that we all use and consume. Most of the money from this work is sent back to the village to re-build the family home and put children/siblings through school, college and hopefully university. I think I can safely say there is very little deviation from this basic model of life for hundreds of millions of workers right across China.
This is an extremely practical life, especially if we once again consider married life in the village. These are marriages that are often not based on any kind of romantic love but, in essence, are simply based on the best deal that can be arranged: which husband or wife can be found for a son or daughter who can offer the best financial security. This quite often means a discussion about how much money the groom’s family will pass on to the bride and what ability the groom’s family has to supply a home for the newlyweds. However, no matter how sad the machinations of married life in the village often are, and there are a lot more stories untold here. It is always good to be part of a Chinese community gathering, especially when the smell of Spring Festival is in the air.
Uncle With A Funny Looking Foreigner
西安