Revolutionary Wedding
'Revolutionary Wedding'
Yangjiabu, Shandong
45 x 34 cm
reprint of ca. 1950s
Traditional Chinese weddings were grand and expensive affairs that could easily bankrupt a family. In response, the communist government encouraged people to have 'revolutionary weddings' that consisted simply of inviting a few friends to a marriage registration ceremony. In this picture the happy couple has done just that, and as the large characters on the left and right indicate, they are 'perfectly satisfied'. As for the character in the middle, where have we seen it before? Compare this image with the earlier Stove God image - do you see any parallels?
copyright 2003
