A bride-to-be using the name “K” on Monday last week posted a series of anonymous complaints regarding her wedding plans on a Facebook group. After the groom’s sister replied with her side of the story, along with screenshots of private chats with the groom, the incident went viral and drew criticisms that escalated over the week, resulting in a backlash against the bride-to-be.
In the first post, K said the groom’s parents wanted to hold a traditional “roadside wedding banquet” of 50 tables in Kaohsiung, with each table priced at NT$9,000. Considering roadside banquets to be “low class,” K wanted to hold the wedding at a hotel. She took to Facebook to vent her frustration, asking if it is true that “country folks” still enjoy roadside wedding banquets. She called the food at such events “inedible.”
K continued her criticisms over the following days. Saying she had been raised in the US, she found night markets, food stalls and roadside wedding banquets “unhygienic,” and she found it a “crass” and “lowly” custom for guests to pack leftovers from such celebrations. Many people online accused the bride of displaying a bad case of “princess syndrome,” and included stereotypes of northern and southern Taiwanese in their remarks.
That a private affair between two people triggered such a controversy reveals several aspects about Taiwanese culture, including conflicting marriage values between generations, northern and southern Taiwan stereotypes and caring too much about what other people think.
In traditional Taiwanese culture, marriage has been a matter between two families, often based on the pursuit of “an even match.” However, marriage is now more of a matter between a couple. Couples often choose to keep weddings simple, sometimes foregoing banquets altogether.
Parents from older generations often want to have a large say in their children’s marriages. From deciding the form of the wedding banquet to placing a deposit on a new house, perceived meddling is often a source of conflict for both families. Taiwan remains deeply influenced by traditional Confucian culture, making many people feel obliged to cater to their parents’ wishes.
Roadside banquets have been a central custom in Taiwanese culture. From funerals, deities’ birthdays to celebrations of any kind, the events are often accompanied by loud singing and gaudy performances. As large quantities of food are often served, guests are encouraged to pack leftovers.
However, as social customs and culinary habits have changed over the years, roadside banquets are becoming less popular. They tend to be more popular in southern Taiwan, while those raised in Taipei are more likely to find the practice outdated or “lowly.”
There is no denying that people such as K have not broken from the shackles and ideologies of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), whose members often regard anything of Taiwanese origin as low class, including local languages and culture.
As Taiwanese tend to judge others on a long list of personal traits — such as occupation, income and university ranking — they have come to care too much about other people’s opinions. For a bride-to-be, a wedding banquet’s form, price and guests could end up conveying the groom’s social status, wealth and image, and that is likely the root of K’s aversion to roadside banquets.
As times are quickly changing, perhaps the best plan for a happy wedding is to let go of old prejudices, embrace the diversity found in Taiwanese culture and pay no heed to the frivolous opinions of others.
As it has striven toward superiority in most measures of the Asian military balance, China is now ready to challenge the undersea balance of power, long dominated by the United States, a decisive advantage crucial to its ability to deter blockade and invasion of Taiwan by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). America expended enormous treasure to develop the technology, logistics, training, and personnel to emerge victorious in the Cold War undersea struggle against the former Soviet Union, and to remain superior today; the US is not used to considering the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)
The annual summit of East Asia and other events around the ASEAN summit in October and November every year have become the most important gathering of leaders in the Indo-Pacific region. This year, as Laos is the chair of ASEAN, it was privileged to host all of the ministerial and summit meetings associated with ASEAN. Besides the main summit, this included the high-profile East Asia Summit, ASEAN summits with its dialogue partners and the ASEAN Plus Three Summit with China, Japan and South Korea. The events and what happens around them have changed over the past 15 years from a US-supported, ASEAN-led
President William Lai’s (賴清德) first Double Ten National Day address had two strategic goals. For domestic affairs, the speech aimed to foster consensus on national identity, strengthen the country and unite the Taiwanese against a Chinese invasion. In terms of cross-strait relations, the speech aimed to mitigate tensions in the Taiwan Strait and promote the coexistence and prosperity of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in China and the Republic of China (ROC). Lai is taking a different stance from previous Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administrations on domestic political issues. During his speech, he said: “The PRC could not be the
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army is pressuring Taiwan using high intensity tactics to tire out Taiwanese forces and force them into making mistakes, The Economist cited Navy Commander Admiral Tang Hua (唐華) as saying in an interview published on Thursday last week. China is “using an ‘anaconda strategy’ to squeeze the island,” he said, adding that it is “slowly, but surely” increasing its presence around the nation. “They are ready to blockade Taiwan at any time they want,” Tang said. It is welcome to see a high-level official give an interview to international media on this matter. Although Taiwan is one
RSS