discussion keeps the world turning.
You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Niu Henglin, joined by Ding Heng and Li Yi.
Coming up on the second half of the show, we're dissecting a trend that's reshaping social norms the minimalist weddings favored by many young couples.
We'll tell you how minimal these weddings are.
Explore the reasons behind this shifting trend and try to figure out its implications on our cultural fabric.
And Color Analysis, a service that's both fun and a bit controversial, has not only captivated the style conscious, but also stirred debates on its value and viability.
Join us as we unravel the science and skepticism surrounding this trend.
Let's break it down and see if it's worth the hype.
But now, it's clear that as societal values shift, so too do the expressions of love and commitment.
From minimalist ceremonies to secret registry office adventures, today's weddings are anything but old school.
Let's jump into the world of weddings.
Minus the fuzz, just all the fun.
Let's get the party started by asking some embarrassing or fun questions to both of you.
Because I know for a fact that both of you have had a very well-planned wedding already.
And would you care to share your wedding stories with our audience?
I would say for my wedding, which took place many, many years ago actually, at least more than five years ago, was indeed a well-planned one.
It was in a traditional sense, not a very non-traditional wedding.
And I really need to pay all the attributes to my wife.
Our wedding was not the kind of minimalistic kind of wedding.
And preparing for that event.
There were indeed a lot of hassles and troublesome issues you need to deal with and and my wife was really responsible for most of those issues that was a really really exhausting process, not only physically but mentally.
And of course, the end result was very good.
The feelings and the emotions we We expressed to each other during the ceremony, in front of our friends and relatives, in front of our parents.
Those were genuine feelings.
So, although that was a wedding that still largely catered to all those so-called social norms, social traditions, we were largely satisfied.
And again, my wife deserves all those credits because it is she who took care of all those details in the event.
That was incredible.
When you talk about traditional wedding, are you saying the kind of traditional wedding that's like thousands of years ago with traditional Chinese clothing, or the relatively traditional?
That is the kind of wedding that people for like the past decades, or even 20, 30 years?
The latter one.
Yes, would conduct, which is the kind of wedding that requires situ, where not only the suit and gown the wedding gown kind of ceremony you have in front of families and friends but also some of those so-called traditional let's call them young traditional weddings.
The young traditional weddings would also require you to wear traditional chinese clothing for a part.
That is uh.
For me personally, the first part of the wedding required me to wear traditional chinese clothing and i also had to serve tea to my future family-in-laws and say i'm happy to join the family and they say ah, welcome.
And also here's a red envelope.
We welcome you with money and sincerity.
It's all the red envelope that matters.
It matters a lot.
And you take the red envelope, you say, huh, that's thick.
And your smile get bigger.
And besides that, you've got the suit and white dress and beautiful ring exchange.
Of course you would use fake rings, because you do not want your rings, very valuable and expensive ones, to get lost in the very chaotic scene.
And then you do the vow and you say, I do, in front of a lot of people, many strangers.
And that is the young traditional or the latest traditional weddings we're talking about here.
But apparently, young kids like Li Yi are not in favor of that style anymore.
Yeah actually, you know, although my husband might not really agree with me, I consider my wedding ceremony as a minimalistic or quite simple one, in the way that, first of all, I had all my wedding ceremony procedures and also the main celebration ceremony at one location, which is quite trendy right now because traditionally, I guess some people just need to have their like morning procedures such as du mer, basically meaning that yes, door blocking and some little games in the way that the bride and also the bridesmaid and her friends need to stay in one room and lock the door and somehow to have all those challenging games.
Second thought, huh?
Yeah.
Do not want to marry anymore.
Locking the door, don't get in.
Yes to you know.
Try to make it challenging for the boys to pick up her favorite girl and to get married.
Of course, it's just a very symbolic procedure before the wedding ceremony in the morning.
And usually that happened in your own apartment or somehow in a separate room in the hotel where you host a wedding ceremony.
However, for my wedding ceremony, I just cancel all that procedures.
I don't really have those games.
You didn't have second thought about marrying your husband.
I think that's really not necessary, since we just have our writing ceremony after we, you know, get registered.
But anyway, and also I cancelled all those unnecessary procedures during the official wedding ceremony in the way that i don't really have the say father walking alongside the bride and to you know deliver the hand of the girl to the future husband i don't really have that i simply walk to my husband by myself And also for the, you know, official wedding ceremony, I just I just intentionally asked my host to, you know, reduce the time to limit the whole time of the whole ceremony.
So I just want to have a quite relaxing and easy wedding ceremony which I and my husband and our friends and family enjoys, instead of to have a quite grand and lavish one.
I think that's also the way how a lot of young couples are doing right now.
Definitely.
If you think about the procedures that Li Yi has omitted for her wedding.
Actually, it's quite.
It makes a lot of sense.
For example, having second thoughts.
So I do not want to let you in before I make up my decision and want to marry you.
But the essence of that process is to say that it's not really easy for you to get a girl in your dream.
So we're creating hurdles for you to jump or creating problems for you to solve.
And after solving all these problems, you have proven that you are qualified enough to, you know, get to the girl who are really our really good friend.
I'm speaking as the bridesmaid or something.
And you can take her away from us and you are qualified.
But actually all that process definitely has already happened during the dating and long relationship process.
So it's symbolic in a way.
And also the taking the girl from one location to another symbolizes a girl starting a new life, starting a new family in the new location, in the family she married into.
But it's also not the case for today's society, because you can visit your parents all the time and you're not necessarily living with your in-laws.
You're creating your own little family.
So these processes are quite symbolic in a certain way.
And these symbolisms are not that welcomed by today's young people.
So do you think these simplified ceremonies actually quite align with temporary values and lifestyles?
Not so much to the fact that maybe we're trying to save money, so we have minimalist weddings.
Well, at least for me, I feel like it's more about what they desire for a wedding ceremony instead of just economic factors.
Yeah, I think they do.
Going back to your question, they do align with our contemporary values or way of life.
To begin with, the pace of life in cities, especially in megacities nowadays, don't allow you to have the kind of luxury to plan for a really luxurious or big wedding.
Of course, there are commercial companies that can plan such a wedding on your behalf, but Sometimes, or more often than not somehow, you would tend to find their services are quite often not that tailor-made for you, because their commercial profits is their absolute priority.
So there is really a lack of a sense of uniqueness or specialness or exclusiveness for you.
Therefore, I feel like for wedding, still doing it by yourself and planning for a mini, simplified wedding appears to be a better choice.
Talking about the so-called socializing function of wedding ceremonies, we always need to keep in mind that the kind of genuine friends you have is often limited, no matter how you would love to socialize through weddings.
For some people you know but with whom you don't really have a close friendship or relationship, it's okay that they don't show up in your wedding.
Yeah, I think it's a good point.
It's a fair point.
But when it comes to socializing function, actually, it's not only about you.
It's also about both parties' parents.
Yeah, that's the core issue.
Yeah.
So do parents really okay with these kind of simplified wedding ceremonies?
I think it just depends on who is the major founder of your wedding ceremony.
Getting real, huh?
Yeah, because according to my personal observation and according to my previous experience of, you know, being invited to different wedding ceremonies,
I think when it comes to a wedding ceremony that is majorly founded by either the couple's parents or the boy's parents or the girl's parents, somehow you just need to value their thoughts and their preference so much.
I think it's just to make sense, right?
Who is the big boss here?
I think that's a really clear question.
But somehow I think that's also why a lot of younger generations I mean newlyweds couples they just decide to cover or found their wedding ceremonies on their own.
Maybe they can't really afford to a super grand and luxurious wedding ceremony, but it's the one that they like.
It's the one that they are you know, they earn by themselves.
So that's why they really have a say here.
And, of course, when it comes to say two big families, I mean two young people from two big families.
They have their wedding ceremony, which is hosted and founded by their parents.
Of course you have to consider the socializing purpose of the parents.
They have to invite their friends here.
It's somehow more like an occasion to tell their friends that oh, my kids is getting matured.
Yes, that's a milestone and also very important day for me.
But, you know, gradually, I think that somehow it a perception abandoned by younger generations.
They simply think that it is only my moment.
It's a moment to mark our love and to celebrate our bound, especially instead of a way to you know to showcase our family's wealth or our family's social status i think that's increasingly the case right now let's talk about the other remaining shareholders of a wedding ceremony that is the guests how are the guests reacting to these minimalist wedding ceremonies Because when I, for example, become a guest of a friend's wedding, I would want to see them, you know, changing vows and changing ranks and, you know, saying nice words, telling me about their love stories because I want to witness their happy moments.
And if you minus all that, a little less fun.
Right.
Here in Chinese we have a.
In China we have a saying like as a guest, you follow whatever the host would arrange you.
So to me, I feel like the most important element when I'm attending other people's wedding ceremony is really to deliver or send my best wishes to this newly wedding, to this wedding as well as to this new couple, and that's all.
As to how they would arrange the schedule, the food, etc etc.
I would love whatever fine, whatever is fine for the new couple, and this is a social etiquette etiquette as well, i guess.
So if.
But, on the other hand, if we're talking about A pretty creative or innovative wedding ceremony where, for example, the guests could experience some kind of so-called a city walk with the new couple or experience a garden party, for example, together
I will be very happy to see and experience and join as well.
So Ding Han is a much better guest than I am.
And also there are a lot of activities that you can actually enjoy in this simplified wedding ceremonies as well.
Yeah, I think for the minimalistic wedding ceremony it doesn't really mean that people abandon all those procedures.
They still have very important sex changing vows and to have you know, share their love story.
And, of course, they invite their maybe best friend and their parents to to express the best wishes to the newlyweds couples.
And I think, for guess, sometimes you can actually tell whether it's a well-arranged wedding ceremony, that it is intended to share their love story, or simply a wedding ceremony that is intended to collect your red envelopes.
I think.
I think you can really tell and it does not really matter.
I mean, the scale of the wedding ceremony isn't really the thing that matters most.
I think, as long as you put real efforts and you actually spend a lot of time designing and planning your wedding ceremony, those people who you know watching the whole process, can actually tell the difference.
And they I think most people are there to express their good wishes to you, no matter what kind of procedures you have or what kind of decoration you have.
Of course, the The more prettier one we have, the happier the guests are.
However, I think that's not really the most important case.
Definitely.
And jokes aside, I have attended many wedding ceremonies that I enjoyed quite so much.
You see?
Yeah, some of the wedding ceremonies would provide you the opportunity to take a picture with the newlyweds.
And actually, after attending the ceremony, the photos are already printed out and you can take them away, taking a little picture piece of the sweet memories away with you and also the little presents at every table that you, when you're attending the wedding ceremony, can take the little presents away, and some of the presents even have your name on it.
That's so sweet.
It's very, very sweet.
At least many of the presents would have the newlyweds' name on it.
So you remember where these little presents are from and you remember that sweet moment.
And we get to see that all these simplified or minimalist weddings does not mean that young people would not like to spend money on their ceremonies.
Actually, according to data, Data shows that, at least in 2023, we still see a lot of young people.
More than 42 of young people would exceed their budget in actual expenses when it comes to wedding ceremonies, and a lot of people would spend as much as possible over 150000 yuan on their wedding ceremonies, which is not a small number.
People still value their wedding ceremonies very much.
And the reason they're making it simplified is more towards the kind of self they're trying to express.
And also, I think young people are just being very pragmatic when it comes to hosting wedding ceremony.
They no longer consider it as an occasion to, of course, show off their wealth.
And in that case a lot of people start to care about the sustainability or whether the wedding ceremony is environmentally friendly.
One example is that a lot of people love to host like outdoor wedding ceremony with a lot of flowers being decorated as part of this scene.
And I think a very sweet move that we observed in a lot of young people's wedding ceremonies, that they were just, you know, after the official ceremony or celebration, you know when guests are enjoying their meals and you know exchange uh, the best wishes.
The wedding planners will just help to, you know, dismantle those flower and transform into different flower branches so that they so that you know guests can really take those flowers away back to home.
I think that's really Yeah, very smart in a popular way, you know, for the wedding planning industry right now.
And that also shows how young people start to care whether their wedding ceremony are equally I mean environmentally friendly, and they would also want to, you know, send their you know best wishes and, you know, share their sweet moments to more people.
Yeah, so final word, very briefly, is that wedding ceremony are really a reflection of our evolving social norm.
So as long as our social norm evolves, wedding ceremony will definitely evolve, and I remember reading about a recent survey conducted by China News Daily.
Almost 80 of the young people participating in this opinion poll say they support a so-called minimalistic wedding.
So really a reflection of the changing of the mindset on the part of the younger generation.
Yes.
As we talked about the evolving tradition of tying the knot, it's safe to say whether it's a grand celebration or a quiet trip to the civil affairs office or a so-called minimalist wedding ceremony, the best wedding is the one that reflects you and your newly gained better half.
You're listening to Roundtable.
Coming up next, color analysis, a trend that's coloring the way we think about style.
Stay tuned.
Looking for passion?
How about fiery debate?
Want to hear about current events in China from different perspectives?
Then tune in to Roundtable, where East meets West and understanding is the goal.
It's the Hour of Roundtable with myself, Niu Honglin, Ding Kang, and Li Yi.
We're reflecting on a trend that's as personal as it is popular, color analysis.
This method promises to transform not only your wardrobes, but also self perception.
As we navigate through its layers, we invite you to think about what color means to you.
With high costs and high profiles, we ask, what are consumers really buying?
Personalized advice or just a brush with celebrity glamour.
So what exactly is color analysis?
Or what does this service entail?
Yeah, you know.
Color analysis sometimes it's also known as seasonal color analysis is basically a personalized consultation service that help you determine your most suitable color palette based on your skin, your hair color and even your eye color.
And typically, you know, those experts would just utilize a quite scientific approach, according to themselves dropping various colored fabrics to identify what is exactly the color or shades that suit your unique features.
And sometimes a typical color analysis session would just last for at least one hour or even hours.
And first of all, they would just discuss with you your goals and your expectations with the color analysis.
And then they would just analyze your skin situation.
You know, sometimes your skin tone and undertones will be assessed using natural light and then they will have the color draping process, meaning that different colored fabrics will be draped under your face to observe how each shade actually interacts or suits your skin tone.
And in the end they just help you to determine what is exactly the suitable color palette for you and also offer recommendations for your not only apparel, even like the makeup style, and also what kind of jewelry you might choose.
That is a very comprehensive color analysis service.
I have to say, over 30 years of experience on Earth, I have never noticed my own color of my eyes.
So I do not know what's the color of my eyes.
Yeah.
And I was really sketching my head when he was doing the explanation.
Confusing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it's an interesting business model.
And, as far as I am concerned, it originated from South Korea but was later utilized by a Chinese director and novelist.
Um, so yeah, there is a when, whenever there is the demands, there is the market in, the pricing mechanism for this kind of services is not really cheap, right?
They can range from several 1000 yuan to hundreds of 1000 yuan.
Yeah well that's, that's a lot.
That is a lot of money.
But if someone can actually provide me with a kind of service allowing me to know exactly what kind of color that's that looks good on me not only the color of the foundation, but also different clothes and maybe different um rings and also hairdressers or something like that and then providing me with different styles that I can choose from, it sounds quite pragmatic in a way.
Yeah, and also, although the service itself might not really be super cheap, but when you consider the price of say, inviting or hiring a makeup artist and then a dress up experts and all together, it could also be expensive as this color analysis service and so they can really offer you a whole set of like fashion or makeup advice for you.
So that's why it's super popular for a lot of young people out there.
They think it's really helpful and uh, really helpful in terms of help them to determine their not only their makeup, but also their wardrobe in a quite effective way, which really saved their time.
Yeah, but the concern i'm having is that i understand all the fuss and i kind of understand the fun of having a lot of people not serving precisely serving you, but to run around you and trying to give you the sense that wow, I feel like a female movie star.
And all these people are just trying to make me look better.
And this is fabulous.
I understand the attraction there, and it's okay to experience that once in a while.
But do you think these kind of services can actually deliver the kind of results that we're looking into or looking for?
Considering the mixed reviews, is it more about experience than the results?
Think really, it's about how you know professional the so-called color analysis depending on different studios.
Yes yes, as long as they're super professional and i can really tell that they are, you know, really experts in this sense, instead of simply, you know, trying to make money from me, i think that's really worth the money.
And yet that's why some people are complaining that domestically we don't really have such a mature and authentic service being provided to the market.
And yeah, I think it really depends on the quality of the service.
For many of the equipment used in this industry, they have to be brought back from South Korea.
We don't have the domestic manufacturing capacity.
On top of that, the aesthetic quotient is also very important when it comes to styling.
So, as we explore the colorful journey of personal styling through color analysis, it's safe to say no matter if it's a fad or a fashion staple.
It's certainly making waves.
And that brings us to the end of today's Roundtable.
I'm Niu Henlin with Li Yi and Ding Heng.
If you've enjoyed the show and want more, search for Roundtable China at any podcast platforms.
Don't forget to join us next time for more insights on the latest trends that are shaping our choices.
Bye for now.
