| In the process of the urbanization in modern Shanghai,the wedding ceremony also had been changing.The history of modern Shanghai can be seen from the changes of the wedding.Therefore,it is the research on Shanghai wedding and the culture of marriage customs that one of the key points of academia in nearly 30 years.The previous researchs on Shanghai wedding mostly focused on the Chinese situation,and they ignored the situation of westerners,which makes it possible to continue to research the changes of Shanghai wedding.On this basis,it can be discussed the changes of modern Shanghai wedding from the western-style wedding,its influence on the Chinese,the continuation and change of the traditional wedding,and the"civilized wedding".After the opium war in 1840,Shanghai was forced into the world system The coast of the Huangpu River developed into the bustling metropolis rapidly and many westerners came to Shanghai from all over the world.However,in the history of modern Shanghai,it was out of balance of the proportion between men and women of westerners,and the male population was far more than the female population for a long time.Coupled with the unwritten rule of forbidding the marriage between Chinese and westerners in the alien society,it is a question worth thinking about that how the westerners in Shanghai to solve the problem of marriage.The methods to slove the problem were that they usually returned home to get married in the marriageable age and came to Shanghai again with their wives,or the brides arrived in Shanghai before the weddings and the western-style wedding was held in ShanghaiWith the increase of westerners in Shanghai,the western-style weddings were also on the rise.It had influence on the Chinese in Shanghai gradually and the influence was not the same between different Chinese groups.Chinese Christians accepted and practiced the western-style wedding firstly.The group having the background of coming into contact with the western culture changed their wedding ceremony with reference to the western-style wedding.And the changes from complete disindentification to part indentification were developed among the ordinary people.It had earlier and more widely influence of western-style wedding in modern Shanghai,because of modern Shanghai having special city characteristics.These characteristics were multi-level Firstly,it embodied in the aspect of urban location and the poplation structre.Secondly,it embodied in the aspect of mentality.The westerners in Shanghai showed a strong sense of cultural superiority,and in the presence of the western strong cultre,Chinese people consciously or unconsciously accepted the western-style wedding.In addition,it also closely related with the rise of the social ideological trend,such as the theory of evolution and the freedom,equality advocated by the May Fourth Movement.At the same time,the city characteristics were not isolated,but connected with each other,and worked together.In the context of the change of times,even if the traditional wedding was continuing,it also can not escape the fate of change.Although the pace of change is slow and the extent of change is minute,the constraining force from parents to marriage had been looser and the form of matchmaking had been changing,etc.In some group,mainly the group having the background of western culture,the influence of western wedding was larger and the changes of their wedding were bigger.Thus it formed the "civilized marriage" ceremony.The "civilized marriage" ceremony which was popular in modern Shanghai for a time was formed on the basis of the reform of marriage custorms and the open of social contact.With that,under the influence of the western marriage culture,the marriage culture of monder Shanghai began to been diversified.They reflect the characteristics of the change of times,and also reflect the urbanization process of modern Shanghai. |
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