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Dai Wedding in the Internet Age

The National Day holiday is one of the busiest seasons for weddings in China. Today our reporter Wu Jia will take us to a small village bordering Vietnam, and join a wedding ceremony of the Dai ethnic group and send our best wishes to the new couple.

It's the wedding day of Feng Ming and Wang Guifang, both residents of Jinshuihe, or the Golden River Village. Amid the sound of firecrackers and cheers, the groom, looking a little shy, picks up the bride in his arms and gets off the car. Instead of red or white gowns like the Han ethnicity or western brides, Wang Guifang is wearing a black dress adorned with unique ornaments which are all in the traditional Dai style. What the groom wears is not Dai style clothes but a dark blue suit, making the wedding a combination of Dai and western style.

The wedding reception is pure Dai food as most of the participants are relatives and friends from the same village. The party starts in the afternoon and the banquet is so large that the family has to borrow the village basketball court to hold more dinner tables in addition to their own courtyard.

The groom's uncle Feng Hongjiang is busy collecting cash gifts from guests. He clutches 50 or 100 yuan notes and looking very excited, proclaims this to be one of the biggest wedding ceremonies he has ever seen.

"We have received 20,000 yuan lucky money in red envelopes from our guests and provided dinner for about 1,000 people on 160 tables. It's common that 100 tables or at least 80 tables are served in a wedding banquet. You can invite as many people as possible as long as you can afford it."

Feng Hongjiang is in his early 40s. He becomes emotional when he talks about his wedding in the 1990s. He says it was very simple because most people in the village were poor.

"We cooked meals for the guests, instead of ordering dishes from restaurants like we do now. The main dish was stir-fried pork with green Chinese onion. There was no fish. There were sometimes chicken but everyone ate chicken soup rather than chicken meat. But now, more and more people prefer vegetables and say they have had enough meats and become tired of it."

Feng Hongjiang explains that the villagers started to plant banana and rubber trees in the early years of China's reform and opening up starting in 1978. And fruit farming has since become a main source of income for the villagers. All families have become affluent and are equipped with all kinds of electric home appliances.