The Changing Of The Rural Wedding Ceremony

As a traditional custom, wedding ceremony is one of the most important wayfor both of the anthropologist and the folklorist to observe the culture and thesocial relations.This thesis discusses the changing of the wedding ceremony in city ofShanghai. The data was collected from two sources: interview and participantobservation.First, comparing with the traditional wedding ceremony, the processes of theurban wedding ceremony has changed. Instead of emphasis its educationfunction and interests of the kinship, the urban wedding ceremony shows moreinterests on the expressing of the personal value.Second, by analyzing the changing of the ration of the guests who wereinvited to attend the wedding ceremony, the new couple wants to build adifferent social relationship on their own way.The result of the study shows that in city of Shanghai, the key factor whichinfluences the changing of the wedding ceremony is the Chineseindividualization.We can see the different explanation or understanding from the view of thenew couples. On one hand, individual wants to express themselves by thechance of the most important ritual; on the other hand, the changing of the urbanwedding ceremonies shows the characteristic of Chinese individualization.