Just thought I’d contribute a post as a way to test out the blog stream.
Last night I saw a news report on CBS news focusing on the rapid growth of the wedding photo industry. Couples are going all out, spending up to $10,000 on elaborate wedding photography that allows them to “re-enact romantic fantasies”.
One of the things that I found most interesting was the couples that chose to have wedding photos with themes connecting to Imperial China. I’ve skimmed through Jefferey N. Wasserstrom’s China In The 21st Century: What Everyone Needs To Know, and couldn’t help but think of the section dedicated to the resurgence in a historic national pride in the wake of the cultural revolution, which attempted to stamp out all memory of Imperial China. Evidently one of the more popular themes in these wedding photos are “Imperialist China” shoots.
At the same time I believe this extravagance in terms of things such as weddings in a country “where the net urban income averages less than $250 a month” really shows that the people of China are acutely conscious of their country’s status as a nation with one foot in and one foot out of an overall global acceptance and extremely eager to enter a larger cultural dialogue.
Check out the article here
And The Video……