| Marriage customs, being an important component of human culture, are the reflection of material and spiritual civilization in daily life for a nation, people or region. China has formed its set of marriage procedures and customs over the course of its long feudal history, which includes marriage proposal, engagement, marriage, divorce and remarriage.From the late Qing period, China began the process of modernization that brought about unprecedented changes to social life. Amidst crumbling natural economy, transforming society and politics, east-west cultural exchanges and rising women’s movement, profound changes took place in Chinese people’s concept of marriage and its customs. As a pilot in modern China to open up to the outside world, Fujian also underwent complex and subtle changes in marriage customs with the changes of time and society. New developments in marriages in modern Fujian included that more freedom in the choice of marriage for children, streamlining of traditional rite of marriage and the emerging of new-style wedding. Weddings at that time featured a combination of the old and new, Chinese and Western, which were the result of forces in the society then. However, as marriage customs were fixed by nature and China was a half colonial and half feudal society, these changes were uneven, limited and lagged behind. |
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