‘Three or four nothings’: China tradition of elaborate weddings rejected by growing numbers of young people who opt for no-frills simplicity
- Groom picking up bride, serving parents’ tea, emcee, unknown guests, all shunned
- Country’s young ditch patriarchal belief that husband owns wife, embrace gender equality
A new simpler wedding trend that rejects traditional elaborate nuptials and abandons dowries and bride prices is on the rise among China’s younger generation.
The style, known as “three or four nothing weddings”, means downsizing lavish arrangements. That includes cancelling traditions such as the groom picking up the bride from her home to take to the couple’s new home and the newlyweds serving tea to their parents.
It could also include not hiring an emcee, as well as not inviting guests they barely know, and even forgoing bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Instead, young Chinese couples are choosing their own ways to wed.
A woman, surnamed Huang, whose wedding was in southeastern China’s Guangdong province in August 2023, told Chinese media outlet New Weekly that instead of her husband picking her up from her home, they took a city walk with friends.
City walk is an informal leisure activity that means roaming around a city freely without a destination, which became popular in post-Covid China last year.