FP is churning out some steoreotyping articles and lazy pieces of journalism lately. While I'm not a big fan of the Chinese state myself, this witch hunt is getting ridiculous- get a spurious premise (why those Chinese- they like wedding photos!), add in some dubious and self-righteous moralism and boom one arrives at the baseless conclusion that's it an act of excess and consumption gone wrong. I'm sorry- is the obsession with weddings or photos for that matter, peculiar or unique to the Chinese? Oh wait, it isn't. Every wedding with the means to do so turns it into an elaborate production. It's not even foreign policy anymore, for crying out loud.

Ceremony-wise at least, although officially my wedding was in Tokyo.

The West should be happy about its media influences. Instead of Chinese crying about how their culture is being assimilated like say, the Tibetans and the French, the Chinese are embracing and leading the assimilation! Considering that the West has always been fixated on China to become more like the West, is this really a bad thing?

The article itself has this degrading tone which makes Chinese couples, who just want to look good and keep a good memory of their wedding, sound like a bunch of fakers. Maybe China should write an article about America's fascination with Jersey Shore and conclude that Americans are not only fake, but complete douchebags as well.

There's really no need to be so sensitive--that is, unless you find something in this photo-essay to be personally embarrassing. Do these people sound like fakers? If so, maybe that's because nouveau riche yuppies (from any country) have phoney tendencies, going for aspirational display rather than pragmatic virtue.

A "witch hunt"? "Degrading tone"? Maybe some people are reading a different article than the one that I see.

This is not in any way, shape, or form a China-bashing article, although it certainly seems less like a foreign policy article than a "Top 10 Blah, Blah, Blah" photo-essay such as one sees these days on TIME.com.

Living in China for the past five years, I've seen endless evidence to support exactly what the author is talking about: The lines of dressed-up couples having mirrors shined in their faces; the elaborate sales pavilions set up by photo studios in the midst of public squares; the slightly charmless (Greek Classical) perfection of pose and expression to be seen in ubiquitous photo displays.

It's real, it's really kitschy, and if that's what the couple likes, more power to them. No need to be defensive.

The article clearly implies that Chinese wedding photography is a vapid, materialistic, surreal and shallow experience. It makes some quibbling acknowledgment that in the West weddings are a big deal, but the condescending tone is clear:

You don't have to say the words outright to strongly imply something. NOT inferring that subtext would be an act of active denial. Those who are defending this article as just another human interest piece, accusing us of being "defensive," are only trying to defend their own world view that parallels this article's author's. They say, "Nuh-uh, I've been to so many Chinese people's homes and I saw these stupid pictures too, but they miss the point and the larger context.

Implication: Chinese care more about the image of the wedding than the actual romance and connection that a marriage union represents. Similarily, Chinese people join in this ridiculous tradition just to impress and flaunt their wealth against others. What a small-minded society (of automatons)!

Truth: This wedding photography phenomenon is championed and led by the liberal democractic country that is in Taiwan, aka Republic of China. Half of the studios in Shanghai are run by Taiwanese people. The same phenomenon occurs in authoritarian Vietnam, democratic Korea, semi-democratic Malaysia (among Muslim Malays).

Second, marriage traditions are different across the world. Since the elaborate costume party and banquet charade in American weddings is NOT a cultural tradition of Asia, it's natural that they place an equal if not lesser importance on the ceremony itself. For example, if married couples in Asia or Africa don't exchange rings, are they less in love?

Furthermore, it's also true that the money spend on wedding photography almost always pale in comparison to the 10K-100K USD spend by American brides for their fleeting ceremony. And of course American brides also want to be the belle of the ball and impress their friends, evenly occasionally to the point of one-upsmanship.

The author of this article could have written a fine piece comparing the costly wedding traditions in the U.S. and in China, highlighting similarities in humanity as it modernize. Rather, the author writes a patronizing piece of drivel. Of course in this climate of multi-front China bashing -- Evil Dictatorship, Cruel Colonialist, Mindless Automatons, Nationalistic Fascists, Greedy Hoarders -- the author believed no one would notice the overt attempts to dehumanize the Chinese.

@JOSHUAXANADU

I feel like you should take stock and reread what you wrote, particularly that last paragraph. I don't think you can call an exposé (excuse the pun) on Chinese wedding photography 'dehumanizing'. That's a stretch by any definition.

The fact is that the wedding photography phenomenon does usually involve an excessive splurge, and it is elaborate and expensive. Witness it first hand and you could almost liken it to a factory, with scores of couples being bussed into exotic-looking locales in rented dresses and borrowed hair. Without needing to imbue it with any special significance about what this says of Mr and Mrs Zhou, of the CCP, of rampant consumerism or the peculiar fusion of cultural traditions, it is simply an interesting product and reflection of contemporary Chinese society.

The analysis isn't deep, I'll give you that. More could have been done with the photos, and as you rightly point out far more could have been done by way of comparison with OTT traditions in other cultures. But that hardly warrants your conclusion.

This is funny! What does this have to do with foreign policy? FP Mag is starting post publish some really ridiculous stuff. I think I'll starting seeking out other publications that are more serious.

I agree with others' comments that the author's condescending and superior tone undermined what could have otherwise been an interesting article contrasting different wedding traditions.
I've have never been the principal subject of wedding photography, but as someone who has had the dubious "pleasure" of being a bridesmaid in several standard American weddings, Chinese-American weddings, and Chinese weddings in China, I can confirm that although Chinese wedding photography is 10,000 times more Xtreme than its American counterpart, it doesn't seem any more "vapid" or "materialistic" than certain other aspects of Western weddings, which seemed to be the author's implied assertion.

A disclaimer, I do find Chinese wedding photography to be, for lack of a more sophisticated descriptor, cheesy. And, although I generally keep this to myself at friends' weddings I have the same opinion about: poofy $10,000 wedding dresses, Hummer limousines, costumed dogs serving as the ring-bearer, frilly centerpieces, the chicken dance, and forking out a small fortune for crystal and china that no one notices.

I realize these are all just personal opinions though and would never presume to impose my tastes or values on anyone else. The author would benefit for doing the same, or perhaps initiating a career shift and writing for TMZ or some other news magazine that specializes in cattily passing judgement on matters of personal taste.

I like the other side of the lavish-wedding-photo trend: people who actually ARE wealthy doing the tongue-in-cheek '60s thing. An example, via Hong Kong actor Jordan Chan: http://english.cri.cn/6666/2010/09/30/63s597103.htm

sad to see that the narcissism from the USA, has infected the new chinese yuppies.... with so much needed to be done there, this is how selfishness manifests itself...

That’s very important to have good wedding photographs. Its memories, great memories! custom essaysWhen these people would be old, they could show photos to their grandchildren not just to tell, but to show how beautiful and happy they were that day!

American weddings tatil is NOT a cultural tradition of Asia, it's natural that they filmcin place an equal if not lesser importance on the ceremony itself. For example, gazeteler if married klip izle couples in Asia or Africa don't exchange rings, are they less antalya otelleri in love?

American media is the number one export from the United States. Has it ever shaped foreign policy?

Who on this board has lived in Asia long enough to witness the appetite of the "glamorous lifestyle" of the West among adolescents and "yuppies?"

It's a huge deal that Chinese couples find seeking glamorous photos extremely important. Asian countries in a whole are typically introverted with feelings, perhaps not with the youth, but most certainly with adults. Western societies are consumed with extroverted feelings visual or otherwise. Living in Thailand for the past few years I've noticed acts of narcissism that would put the west to shame.

It's fair to say that Asia can join the debate held for decades in North America if diets of these pursuits is healthy - TV, movies, music etc etc... all seeking attention from glamorous lifestyles, or at least the perception of one.

I will be back to continue a respectable dialogue on this topic. I enjoyed everyone's input thus far - great to read such passionate points of view.

Thanks,
-Opolistic