Transforming Tradition: Performing Wedding Ritual in Modern China

Abstract

The research is focused on the changing roles of wedding rituals from early modern China to the contemporary modern world. What is the meaning of wedding ritual when it is transformed into the nature of other people, feudal superstition, cultural resources, the object of tourist' gaze and the heritage product? What is the role of wedding ritual in the local's contemporary life when ethnic tourism and heritage industry gradually penetrate into the village? What is the role of the state in transforming wedding ritual practices? Guided by these questions, this paper explores diversified meanings of traditional wedding ritual in a transforming process of national discourse and needs.