In Asia, Hong Kong has the most women to put on the Chinese wedding gown.
In 50 years, the price did not change much.
But back at that time, the most expensive one cost
HKD18,000 (around USD2,300) which worthed about half of the price of an apartment.
Nowadays, the price of a Chinese
wedding gown stays about the same. Thus, the cheapest apartment you can find worths over HKD1 Million (around USD125,000).
Interestingly, there are 5 main rules to follow:
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1. Traditionally, men could marry with more than 1 woman. The first wife was the
decision maker and/or the leader among the wives.
Therefore, the first wife was the only one having the
privilege to wear red wedding gown.
Other wives could only put on pink wedding gown in the wedding ceremony.
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2. The most expensive Chinese wedding used to be worn by the rich people.
Not only because they could afford it, but also the special design of the gown allowed the bride to show off all the jewelery.
Traditionally, the gown was embroided with golden threads. It did not bring out the sharpness of the jewelery.
As a result, the groom had to buy a lot for the bride to put on.
To solve this problem, it used kess gikd threads
from the collar to the chest. And it used silver threads on the sleeves which would allow the bride to show her thick
bracelets carved with dragon and phoenix.
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3. According to the Chinese customs, the end of the skirt had to be flat and smooth.
It symbolized that the marriage would go smoothly and stable.
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4. Collar had to stand straight up to show the elegance and being the first wife of the
family.
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5. In the rich family, the mother-in-law-to-be of the bride and other relatives would
put on a gown for the wedding.
Bride put on the red wedding gown embroided with golden threads.
The
others would put on the gown with black top and red skirt.
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It may sound strange that the women in a family put on the similar gowns to attend the
wedding.
But a wedding gown was very important to a woman in the old Chinese world.
Here I want to share
with you a personal story.
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My mom had a Chinese wedding gown like this and embroided with real gold threads.
After the wedding, she still put it on very often. Yes...I mean it.
Every time when my grandparents from
my father side celebrated their birthdays, my mom prepared the lotus tea and hard boiled eggs. She brought this over
to my grandparents on their birthday mornings and put on her wedding gown. Then, she knelt down in front of them and
hand them each a cup of lotus tea.
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In return, my grandparents gave her 2 red pocket monies.
According to my grandmother
from my mother's side, this was the tradition in the rich and privileged Chinese families.
Is that really
true? I am not sure. But I sure rememebered this incident every year in my childhood and early teen years clearly.
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