Seventy-two years ago today, on April 13, 1950, the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Marriage Law) was deliberated, marking the birth of the first Marriage Law since 1949. The Marriage Law stipulates that "the feudal marriage system of arranged coercion, the inferiority of men over women, and the disregard for the interests of children" is abolished" and "freedom of marriage between men and women, monogamy, equal rights of men and women, and protection of the legitimate interests of women and children".
The first step in marriage in the modern sense changes from the words of the matchmaker to the heartbeat, confession, or introduction, and blind date.
For today's people, taking off a single on social platforms, blind dates and even marriage is a relatively common thing, and the development of digital networks has increased the possibility of meeting strangers quickly, and singles can also filter "objects" through characteristics such as interest, appearance, region, occupation or personality. Even the hottest MBTI (referring to a personality test) may become a way to mark your own personality and inquire about the other person's personality.
Stills from Rouge Buckle (1987).
In real life, I believe that readers and friends who have been single for many years have been urged by their parents to go on blind dates many times, but at the beginning of the last century, public marriage is still an absolutely new thing. Because open marriage is actually a product of modern society. (Traditional societies also have marriage solicitations, but they are generally only open to the local acquaintance society, rather than to a larger, unformed stranger society.)
Because the Republic of China period was at the junction of traditional society and modern society, with the popularization of the phenomenon of marriage requisition, the marital status has derived a variety of strange postures, free love and arranged marriage coexistence, new-style weddings and "wives and concubines" in parallel. These stories have become part of the history of social customs in the Republic of China through pictorial materials.
"Marriage and Love Stories in the Old Pictorial", edited by Zhou Licheng, Guangxi Normal University Publishing House, February 2022. This article is based on the book.
New Trends in Marriage Solicitation:
Relics of "machismo" and bizarre advertising
For the Chinese people at the beginning of the last century, under the influence of the "order of parents and the words of the matchmaker" in the past, the emergence of marriage notices is undoubtedly a radical and bold new thing.
The first cultural celebrities to boldly use this form were Cai Yuanpei and Zhang Taiyan, and from these two people, they can reflect the characteristics of the alternating mixture of old and new values in the Republic of China period. Cai Yuanpei's marriage notice is more modern and open, the attitude towards women is more equal, requiring women to be literate, not to tie their feet, the man guarantees that he will not take concubines, if the marriage is not harmonious, the two can be divorced, in the early twentieth century when modern concepts have not yet been popularized, Cai Yuanpei's marriage requirements can be described as very bold and radical. Zhang Taiyan's marriage notice was much more "macho", his marriage notice was published in the "Shuntian Times" in Beijing in 1912, in the region Zhang Taiyan asked that the people of Hubei in Hunan were the best, and the northern women were not considered, and then claimed that "people marry their wives as food, and my wives are used as medicine", requiring women not to contaminate the values of equality and freedom in the school, and must have the virtue of obedience.
Article on the report of Zhang Taiyan's marriage. The picture is from "The Marriage story in the old pictorial", the same below (except for stills).
Cai Yuanpei and his second wife, Huang Zhongyu.
Although there were many slots, for that era, daring to openly solicit marriage in society was already a very open practice.
Under the impetus of these celebrities, open marriage has gradually become a popular behavior. These marriage notices have different styles, some are concise and direct, directly explaining the requirements, and some are attached to elegance, writing a short poem or even a long text. However, I think that the effect of the latter for marriage should not be particularly ideal, and it should be a very unpleasant behavior to think that if someone sends thousands of words of small essays on WeChat today, it should be a very annoying behavior.
Stills from Half-Life (1997).
In addition to the form, the demand for mass marriage advertisements during the Republic of China period was also bizarre. For example, the 1926 "Declaration" disclosed an absolutely bizarre marriage advertisement, which was issued by a man who was "25 years old, died at a famous university in the United States, had a bachelor's degree in arts, and is now a professor at a college in Wuhan", requiring the woman to be "aged from 18 to 23 years old, regardless of place of origin, and must be innocent, but her character only seeks to have no numbness and no spots", perhaps this person is extremely paranoid about the fact that his body cannot be flawed, and he even wrote at the end of the marriage notice that "he has the above qualifications." Please enlighten the detailed resume, accompanied by the latest nude photo of the whole body, and send it to the Letter Picking Office of the Wuchang Post Office for forwarding."
Who would send their nude photos directly to the other person? It is estimated that this marriage announcement will certainly not get any reply, and if it is placed today, the literature professor will definitely become the laughing stock of the public on social media.
But the bizarre marriage announcement is more than that. In 1934, the Tianjin Shangbao Picture Weekly had a more outrageous marriage notice, in which the man who signed the marriage demanded that the other party be young and intelligent, and that he must be a stone woman. I don't know what he's drawing.
Tianjin Business Daily Picture Weekly page.
Where does trust go
In the early days, the basics of marriage advertisements were men, and in the twenties of the last century, women's marriage advertisements also began to appear in newspapers, but there was a difference, if it was a woman's marriage, or the two parties did not meet before marriage, but through the exchange of letters to determine whether the other party was suitable, so the freedom for women was still limited. In the thirties, this bondage was also broken, and if the woman wanted, she could directly invite the man to the designated place for a date and meet.
Stills from "A Dream in the Garden" (2001).
However, with the popularization of marriage announcements, some scams in the name of marriage solicitation have also emerged.
Newspapers during the Republic of China also recorded many such events. The means are really not necessarily how clever, the means are rough, that is, the woman expresses her liking after marrying and leading the other party to see her parents, but to receive some bride price, the man who is eager to get married will often pour out, and then he will no longer find the woman's figure. The clever means are that when the marriage is not mentioned, the bride price is never mentioned, indicating that love is supreme, and after the two people live together for a period of time, they will say that the family has lost money in business, the parents may commit suicide and the like, and the man will also be generous, and after the woman who wants to go home to take care of it leaves, there will be no news from then on.
At that time, there was neither mobile phones nor other means of communication, nor did photos be popularized, so many times when the cheater left, he suddenly realized that the other party wanted to report the crime, but when he arrived at the police station, he found that the other party even had a fake name. Therefore, there were many such scams published in the newspapers of the Republic of China period, but there was no news of cracking the marriage fraud case.
In order to prevent this situation as much as possible, some newspaper organizations in the Republic of China period organized the Queqiao Association (that is, the blind date association) to provide opportunities for both men and women to meet and reduce the chance of scams.
High-profile air wedding,
The low-key makes the guests not know what to do
Marriage can be unexpected, and when it comes time to get engaged, things don't go well. People in the Republic of China period, but those who received some higher education, will want to express their modernity in a novel way, coupled with the old marriage ceremony has been wiped out with the demise of feudal society, so how marriage should be married has become a matter that is almost entirely decided by the individual.
Exaggerated, you can engage in a grand air wedding.
On Christmas Day 1929, Liu Peiquan, commander of the Tenth Road Aviation of the National Revolutionary Army, married Wang Suzhen, a teacher at Nanjing Girls' High School, and the two took a civil Plane No. 1 at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport to complete the wedding in the air. In the 1920s, getting married on an airplane was a risky choice, because the accident rate of civil aircraft during the Republic of China period was very high, and the civil routes in Yunnan were opened up, but there were not many passengers. Not to mention the civil aircraft taken by the general public, even Liu Peiquan himself, as the commander of aviation, suffered a waist injury due to the damage to the wing when the aircraft landed at the airport during the sea trial, and had to enter the hospital for recuperation. When he continued to insist on holding an air wedding on Christmas of the same year, the impact on the public could be imagined.
On the same day, the two people flew straight into the sky, and after rising to a certain height, they exchanged rings in the cabin, read the marriage certificate, completed a series of wedding ceremonies, and then landed safely. The first air wedding in Chinese history was later made into a documentary.
Coverage of air weddings.
Low-key, you can make the guests not know what they are here for.
In January 1935, because they did not want friends to give gifts, the wedding of the painter Wang Ishiyuki and the Japanese wife Kimiko Iwasaki did not attach any invitations, saying only that they invited friends to dinner, and even many friends did not know what the relationship between the two people had before this. Confused friends arrived at the scene and understood that it was a wedding, and immediately began to create an atmosphere, pulling Wang Shizhi to let him talk about the love process. As a result, Wang Shizhi's speech was very simple - "I met her five years ago, corresponded three years ago, got engaged a year ago, and got married today", and then sat back down.
Unwilling friends continue to make a fuss, asking the newlyweds to perform "two people become three people".
Chinese bride, after translating the explanation, still couldn't understand what this meant, and directly shook her head and said, "We won't change."
The couple is not only low-key, but also a pioneer in anti-marital affairs.
If you want to make the news bigger, you can also sensationalize the whole country.
Reports of Jiang Tao's marriage.
For example, in 1932, the wedding of Jiang Menglin, president of Peking University, and Tao Zenggu. Jiang Menglin and Tao Zenggu's ex-husband Gao Renshan were close friends, and later for political reasons, Gao Renshan was arrested and killed by the warlord Zhang Zuolin, and at the memorial service, both Jiang Menglin and Tao Zenggu were sad and broke their intestines, and they could not cry. After that, Jiang Menglin very intimately comforted and cared for Tao Zenggu and cared for her very much. Eventually, the two men's feelings heated up and they decided to get married after four years. At that time, Jiang Menglin was also a person with a good wife, and in order to marry Tao Zenggu, he resolutely chose to divorce his wife.
The news of Jiang Menglin and Tao Zenggu's marriage immediately shocked the cultural circles. As a witness to the marriage, Hu Shi stood up and spoke, expressing great admiration for Mr. Jiang Menglin's courage, "this wedding can represent a symbol of the change of the times", in order to participate in Jiang Menglin's wedding, Hu Shi, who has always been afraid of his wife, even risked making his wife angry, jumped out of the window (the door has been locked by Hu Shi's wife Jiang Dongxiu) and rushed to the scene.
At the wedding, Jiang Menglin's speech can also be described as shocking.
"I love Brother Gao Renshan the most in my life... Because I love my brother, I love the person he loved more, and I love her more, so that I can be worthy of my deceased friend. "I don't know if my deceased friend Quanxia has knowledge, will he say thank you to Jiang Menglin."
How much is it cost to prepare for the wedding?
Not a penny
Although the above weddings are relatively strange on the scene, the good bride and groom are still reliable, but the wedding of the painter Wang Junyi looks like an outsider throughout the whole process.
Stills from "Allure of Love" (2009).
The wedding of Wang Junyi and his wife Huang Xueying was scheduled for June 4, 1935, and as a result, on that day, the restaurant where the wedding was held could not find his figure, until the wedding officially began at five o'clock in the afternoon written on the invitation, and the groom walked in slowly and slowly, without even changing his clothes, like a passenger on a train at a card point.
Friends quickly pulled the painter in, glad he hadn't forgotten about it. Friends took him to change into the groom's dress and asked him how much money he had prepared for today's wedding, but Wang Junyi shook his head and said that he did not have any money.
So friends helped raise money on the spot.
After the money was raised, the friends found that all the guests who attended the wedding were standing, so they asked him again, "How many tables have you prepared for the wedding banquet, and how many people have been invited?"
Wang Junyi continued to shake his head, saying that he did not know how many people had been invited, because he did not know how many people had been invited, so he did not know how many tables to book.
Friends had to book on the spot with the influx of guests on the spot. No matter what questions wang Junyi asked about love at the wedding, the groom looked like he would not say anything.
There were no parents of both parties, no witnesses, no marriage certificates, no gift money, not even wedding decorations. Everyone got together for a meal, then wiped their mouths and left.
On May 26, 1934, the "Tianjin Shangbao Picture Weekly" also recorded a similar event. The protagonist of this time is an ordinary person, held a wedding in the French Concession in Shanghai, and as a result, after the wedding, the groom found that he did not have enough money at the checkout and planned to go out to borrow, and the hotel said that he could not directly let the debtors go away like this, so as to leave something that could be mortgaged. As a result, the groom actually mortgaged the bride on the spot and ran out to borrow money himself. The money was not collected until the afternoon of the next day, by which time the bride had been detained at the hotel for almost a day. It is not known whether such a wedding will leave a shadow in the bride's heart.
Reports of marriage scams.
From marriage to marriage, the emergence of these interesting talks is actually not the characteristic of the Republic of China, but first, there are many pictorial tabloids in the Republic of China period, leaving a large number of records; second, in the early twentieth century, a stable and universal social and moral concept has not yet been formed, and most things can be used as interesting talks in this period of time and laughed. If it happens today, look at the topic discussion of "strange objects encountered by blind dates", all kinds of strange words and deeds can only be exchanged for the verbal criticism of netizens.
Another difference is that even if there are intellectual requirements for each other in the marriage revelations of the Republic of China period, it is only a very vague expression such as "educated", and the current blind date notice will continue to refine and upgrade such requirements, not to mention the specific ideological concepts, even if the question of "do you support Trump" is more real, it is enough for two people to quarrel.
This may be the marriage and love fun that will be left for the future today.
This article is the original content, and the information is referenced from the "Marriage story in the old pictorial".
Author| Miyako;
Editor| Nodon;
Proofreading | Liu Jun.