Traditional Divorce and The Wedding Reception in Chinese Society
2 min readTraditional Divorce
Marriage in a Confucian Context In Confucian thought，marriage is of grave significance both to families and to society.Traditionally incest has been defined as marriage between people with the same surname.From the perspective of a Confucian fami-ly，marriage brings together families of different surnames and so continues the family line of the paternal clan.This is generally why having a boy is more preferred than a girl when giving birth.Therefore，the benefits and demerits of any marriage are important to the entire family，not just the in-dividual couples.Socially，the married couple is thought to be the basic unit of society.In Chinese history there have been many times when marriages have affected the country’s political stability and international relations.From the Han Dynasty the rulers of certain powerful foreign tribes such as the Mongolians，the Manchus，the Huns，and the Turks demanded women from the Imperial family.Many periods of Chinese history were dominated by the families of the wife or mother of the ruling Emperor.Thus mariage can be related to politics.
Wedding Reception in Chinese Society
Wedding Reception in Chinese Society In Chinese society，the wedding reception is known as xi-liu，（literally joyful wine），and is for more important than the wedding itself which tends to be a brief civil ceremony.The timing and the characteristics of the reception vary strongly from locale to locale.They are typically extremely elabo-rate and expensive，often costing several years’salary of the groom’s family.However，because cash in the form of red envelopes and iewelry（particularly gold）are given as wedding presents，and because the wedding hosts keep very careful track of the cost of the gifts（iewelry is given with areceipt which indicates the actual cost of the gift），the cost of the reception is effectively split among the wedding guests.Wedding receptions also build local community solidarity.As each couple weds，their wedding reception is in effect financed with gifts from the other members of the community with the expectation that the new couple and their family will give gifts in future wedding receptions within the village.
