Is a picture of the married couple displayed on a stand traditional at a Chinese wedding banquet? I was watching the Taiwanese movie, "A One and a Two" (Chinese title is 一 一, but written like this, to

Calvin

Is a picture of the married couple displayed on a stand traditional at a Chinese wedding banquet? I was watching the Taiwanese movie, "A One and a Two" (Chinese title is 一一, but written like this, to look like a "two": 二). The father is helping to set up for the wedding banquet for his daughter. Everything looks traditional. He places a huge (about 1 x 1.5 meter) portrait-style picture of his daughter and her groom on a stand. I found this really strange...my first thought was, that doesn't seem right. I thought there are superstitions about ceremonially displaying people's pictures in certain contexts because this is what is done at a funeral and the picture could be taken as a prefiguration of someone's death...a bad omen, at least bad luck. To make things worse, he places the picture upside down at first (which of course is terrible in itself), but my question is just about the picture itself: is it traditional at Chinese weddings to display a huge picture of the married couple on a stand for everyone to look at?

Jun 16, 2019 3:19 PM

Answers · 5

Yeah, believe me, it's extremely "traditional" in China. I've seen those pictures from 1990. I'm not sure what it's like before. But, considering I'm a Mainland Chinese and you ware watching a Taiwan movie. I think at least it have been like that since 1940. I believe that's because Chinese wedding ceremony, unlike west one, are mostly holding at a restaurant. There could have several couples have their ceremony at the same night. And there will have so many guest. Not all of them know will about new couple. Plus, bride always have amazing make up. So, without those pictures, it will be embarrassing if somebody goes to the wrong place. Typically, you'll see name in the poster. (yeah, we call it "poster". I keep my wedding poster in my cabinet) We have picture in funeral as well, but it's different. It has to be "black-and-white photo". So if you transfer somebody's picture (mostly formal one, front face, good looking) into "black-and-white", you should take care of yourself. That's really a curse. Your Chinese friend will feel insulted even you know nothing of it.

June 16, 2019

现在都这样，新婚两口子到影楼拍一幅大照片，叫做“结婚照”，挂到新婚的洞房里。

July 24, 2020

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