The Tainan City Government is planning to give top model and actress Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) 12 items that represent “the seven everyday necessities” as gifts in celebration of her marriage to Japanese actor Akira.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) presented the wedding gifts, which he dubbed “a full oxcart of dowry,” to the public at City Hall yesterday. The gifts are to be given to the couple at their wedding banquet tomorrow.
Tainan is the hometown of Lin’s parents, and the city is treating the wedding as if it is “giving Lin away,” Huang said.
Photo: Hung Jui-chin, Taipei Times
The presents cover all seven items that are listed in the ancient Chinese phrase: “Firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea are the seven necessities to begin a day,” he said.
The firewood consists of bamboo charcoal produced in Tainan’s Longci District (龍崎), while the rice is of championship quality from the Houbi (後壁) and Lioujia (六甲) districts.
The gifts also include sesame oil from Shanhua (善化) and Sigang (西港) districts, salt from Cigu (七股), Dongcheng soy sauce and Chengkung soy sauce from Sinhua (新化), plum vinegar from Nansi (楠西) and white gourd tea bricks from the West Central District (中西區).
In addition, the gifts include a set of silk bedsheets and pillowcases, which represent a wish for the newlyweds to sleep well at night, dried longans and longan honey produced in Dongshan District (東山) that signify a wish for the birth of a son, Puli-produced lappa and soft rush products from Sigang District (西港), which are to be given to Akira’s parents.
Huang said that the city government invited Taiwanese artist Chen Chi-tsun (陳啟村) to craft a wooden baking mold to make traditional wedding cakes for the wedding.
Huang described the job of selecting the 12 gifts as far more challenging than selecting the candidates for legislator-at-large seats by his party.
All the items are produced in Tainan, he said.
After years of reports of a romantic relationship with a Taiwanese actor, the 44-year-old Lin announced her marriage to Akira, 37, in June, surprising entertainment circles in Taiwan and Japan.
Akira’s management company announced that the couple registered their marriage in Tokyo after doing the same in Taiwan on June 6.
Akira, whose real name is Ryohei Kurosawa, joined Japanese boy band EXILE in 2006 and is also an actor.
Recently it was confirmed that the couple would hold their wedding and wedding banquet on Sunday at the Tainan Art Museum’s Building 1.
The museum was built in 1931 and originally housed the city’s police administration during the Japanese colonial period. It was designated as a historic monument in 1998.
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