Most of the culture stories written here were told by my homestay parents and the local people in HsinChu. So, there is no salt and paper added to the flavor.
FYI, I have been staying in Taiwan for approximately 7 weeks for cultural exchange under Aiesec organization. Thereby, I did some observation, food tasting, traveling which were a worthwhile and fun experience for me.
One fine night, I attended a wedding in Taiwan. It was so random because we were asked to attend at the very last minute for the sake of getting-to-know the wedding culture. The funny thing was we weren’t invited by the hosts and we just showed up without giving any red packets. I think the homestay parent that we followed did give, couldn’t remember though. Normally, Hakka citizens live in suburb areas because by that time they came to Taiwan, most of the city areas were dominated by Minang race (福建). The wedding venue was located in QiuQiongHu, HsinChu. On the way there, we by passed a quiet long winding road and dark jungles which were quite adventurous and amazing to see via the car window.
I was excited by the time we arrived. The wedding atmosphere was quite similar to a typical Chinese wedding culture in Malaysia until I saw something else. Nevertheless, the food was quite unique too.
The arrival of the newly-wed couples. Everyone clapped their hands!
Most of the crowd was upper middle-aged citizens, and were Hakka undeniably
Our plastic bowl, plastic cup, disposable chopsticks and wet tissue
First main course
Salted chicken
糯米飯 I enjoyed eating the rice. It was well-cooked and tasty.
Lobster
Fried chickens
Steamed fish
Overall, the dishes were quite simple but tasted not that bad (told by my friends) as I did not eat any meaty stuffs other than kept on drinking the juice
Now, here comes the differences between Msia & Taiwan wedding culture (in certain regions/races). Throughout the wedding dinner, we were entertained by sexy girls singing different type of songs on stage/off stage.
The singing routines was unique. Firstly, the AA female singer would cover up her body by wearing a cardigan/coat while singing the first song. After that, they will just take off their cardigan/coat leaving with bikinis for the second song. While the AA female singer was singing, here came a BB female singer dancing on the stage(with cardigan on) waiting for her turn.
Usually, the AA female would walk down the stage and shake hand with ONLY the gentleman while singing with solely her bikinis on. From my observation, those men would keep eyeing on the singer while their wives/girlfriends who sat next to them looking at the singer with a skeptical angry look.
After AA female singer finished singing, the BB female singer would sing the third song on stage. For the fourth song, the BB female singer once again would take off her coat and walk around the dinner tables while CC singer dancing on the stage. This routines kept repeating with different sexy singers appearing on stage.
See the distance between the sexy singer and the newly wed couples. I wonder why they were facing behind the singer. Normally wedding couples sit facing the stage so that they could see what’s going on the stage.
My homestay parent told me the wedding program was even worst during their time (many many years ago) where the strippers would wear NOTHING and some of them would even sit on the bridegroom's lap. I couldn’t stop imagine what would the atmosphere look like back on those days.
He told me the program was meant to be like this to entertain the crowds. If not, the crowd would easily get bored (mostly strangers on each table) and most probably would end up with undesirable matters to deal with.
The kids felt embarrassed when the singer approached them
The mini coat the girl has could barely cover her tops
Spotted someone took picture of the female (not me). She quickly hid behind the other girl. The reason was she’s still single and not married, would not want to expose herself in bikinis to the public (via internet)
Last but not least, a usual scene we could see during Chinese wedding
All in all, I enjoyed my time with my friends at the wedding, not because of the sexy girls, I am glad to be able to expose myself with others’ culture/lifestyles. Every race/place has its own unique identity that we ought to respect. As a Hakka myself, this event intrigues me to learn more about Hakka, the people and the food.
Hope you guys enjoy reading this post. Feel free to leave a comment as you like.
Have a nice weekends. xoxo
