American Culture Lecture

More than 2,000 people in attendance-- and the guy that took the pictures sucks. So there arent many of them, but here they are.



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Chinese Wedding

I had the pleasure of attending a Chinese wedding, in which, to my surprise, I was the guest of honor. Having spent time with this family previously, I was excited to be in their company again for such a joyous occasion.

This picture was taken outside of the main area where the event was held, at my friend Julian's grandparents house in the Countryside. These were guests of the wedding, a fun group of men who loved to follow me around chanting the Hello's!!! and NICE TO MEET YOU's!! throughout the cold and wet afternoon.
The man on my back insisted on jumping on my back as the picture was being taken. It was quite funny.

The two grandfathers of the party. The elder men of the house. To my surprise, I would be seated at the most honored table in their home during the wedding reception. Julian was asked not to sit at the table, but I insisted because he was my translator!!!








I did not get to kill the pig as planned, I had to teach lessons when they decided to do it, but here is one of them, in all their glory. A nice yummy pig particle sitting on hooks for god knows how long. They cooked two entire pigs for the wedding--and most of it was delicious--although I did have some pig liver that looked just like steak--which was tolerable, but pig liver is just not so appealing to me... :)




MMMMMM, pork dishes!!! Lovely Chinese food, that to my shock and surprise, didnt make me ill at all, but then again it might have been the Bijao-Homemade Chinese rice wine-- think of everclear with a pineapple flavor--everytime a dish is served you must toast the dish for good luck, so the Bi-jo was flowing like the Yangtze.







One of my favorite shots-- the bride and groom entering the reception with literally thousands of firecrackers going off all over the place--an intense display --the smoke and gunpowder from the display almost made me gag several times. The clouds were so thick you couldn't see the ground in front of you, but I just kept following the red umbrella!






The happy couple in their new bedroom at Grandmas house. I am not sure if they are going to be living here or not, but it was very interesting to see. They recieved as a gift a new bedroom set complete with a refrigerator (a big deal here in the countryside). It was pretty cool.














Oh yeah, my favorite shot. There is another one before this where his mouth is closed and he is really smiling huge, it is cute, but this one, this one will make me feel great anytime I am concerned about my teeth. This is not an uncommon site in China--bad teeth are everywhere. This mans teeth were simply amazing--I would be one grumpy bastard if I had that much mouth cancer, but this guy was just awesome.




Ahhhh, Bijo at the head table!!! This is the head of the house, the elder grandfather of the clan. To drink with him is a wonderful honor.











A fun random shot. The women in the green is the happiest woman I have ever met. Capturing her smile on film is truly as beautiful as the highest peaks of Guilin.


Well, that's enough for now... If you haven't already, check out the other pics of Guilin. I will be spending the next couple of days grading more than 200 papers on the Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and doing some consulting work with the students on their final projects.

Winter has finally hit here in Chenzhou, as you might be able to tell. That was the only thing that was so unfortunate about the whole wedding, the weather sucked. I wore my suit and a simple Patagonia parka and was freezing most of the afternoon--most of the area where we were was outside and there was no heat except for the fires used to cook the food--just amazing to me. When Joe Wadden said that it will be good to live so close to the bone, I now know what he meant!!! Read more!

I had the pleasure of having a dumpling party this past Saturday night, which, as you can see, involved the making of hundreds of dumplings!!!
It was an exciting time and many dumplings were to be had by all!!
In all, we made close to 500 dumplings, and only ate about three hundred, so there are about 200 dumplings sitting in my freezer right now!
We made pork and onion, pork and mushroom, beef and mashed potato with cumin (I finally found cumin, so life is a little better now), and various veggie samplers. Delicious and good for your health!!!


This is a shot from the main centre in Yangshou, where all the westerners hang out. It was such a beautiful weekend and an equally beautiful place as well...!


Another monkey shot for Jacobe... These monkeys were just hanging out at the Famous (everything is famous in China) Seven Stars Park. The monkeys paid no attention to you unless you annoyed them or gave them peanuts. This first shot was when I moved a little too quickly and the monkey king shot me a threatning look.... The other shot is the monkeys on the peanut watch. Notice the younger one on the back end-- So cute, but nasty at the same time!!!
















Anyway, I am off to a traditional Chinese wedding today. I am scheduled to help kill the pig as a sign of good luck. I hope it isn't too big-I hear they can get to be quite difficult to kill once they figure out that they are the guest of honor. The wedding is going to last over two days--I'll try to take a lot of pictures.... Read more!

While you were watching the Cougs lose another game, I was in Guilin.... The most beautiful city in China, according to the Chinese....

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