Gloria_Chapter 3_Response

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day! What do you associate with when we talk about Valentine’s Day? Is it Love? Is it Romance? Is it wedding?

I attended my cousin’s wedding party right before the day I set off to UIUC. Interestingly, I found out that many traditional customs and cultures are reflected during the wedding party. Therefore, I want to use it as an example to illustrate and exemplify how Chinese share characteristic of high power distance.

China is a country with a long history and has its own traditional culture, which is quite different from the west. Hierarchy and high power distance are typical features in Chinese culture. There is a strict classification among family members. You can see the three generations relationship chart below.

Chinese families are usually extended families. Each of your family members or relatives has specific titles. It is important for you to call them properly, especially in the Chinese wedding tea ceremony. Why to say so? It’s because the bride and groom need to serve tea to parents and seniors to express gratitude. It will usually take place on the wedding day when most of the family members are present. Furthermore, there is a strict order of service, which is usually parents, grandparents, grand-uncles and grand-aunties, uncles and aunties, elder brothers and sisters, elder cousins. However, there are also families that prefer to serve the grandparents tea before the parents. That’s because they’re at the top of the family tree.

Besides, there are head tables in the Chinese wedding banquet. These head tables are especially for the VIPs, who are the closest relatives and friends of the bride and groom. Those VIPs would like to be treated differently from the ordinary guests. People will feel like being respected if they are sitting at the head tables, which is usually at the front of the ballroom. Therefore, inequality is expected and desired. The others feel alright even if they are just sitting far away because they are willing to share the tables in the same rank properly. That is the implicit rule in the Chinese wedding banquet.

Everyone plays different roles in the wedding banquet, they are grouped and classified and they act according to what their roles are supposed and expected to do.

That’s something interesting I found in a traditional Chinese wedding party and hope it helps you to view how inequality and high power distance exists within Chinese culture.