Shanghaiist used to have this pink dream (fenhongse de meng or 粉红色的梦) about weddings. They should be happy, joyful, unbelievably romantic days with lots of kisses and flowers. (Hey, a girl can dream!) But now to harsh reality: This wedding in Kunming (news in Chinese) two weeks ago is one of the worst we could imagine.
The bride, A Rong, kept the groom, Huang Tianrong, waiting and waiting and waiting, but never showed up. Mr. Huang told the reporter he started this relationship with A Rong three years ago, and everything was alright until he presented the betrothal gifts. His parents-in-law had been complaining the gifts were not enough and they wanted to cancel the wedding. Well, it looks like they meant what they said. The wedding ended up with the groom crying in a private room and all guests were left in the dark.
Betrothal gifts are an age-old tradition of brides-to-be taking gifts from the groom-to-be to her family, similar to arranged marriages. We had thought China’s dating scene had modernized but what do we know -- we grew up in Shanghai. Seems old habits are hard to break (but weddings are very easy to break-off).
On a side note, Huang should feel better when he reads this -- at least nobody got physically hurt. Maybe he'll have better luck with the next girl?



Those photos are sad -- especially the one of him standing out front -- but don't they feel a little staged?
Even with my poor chinese levels i could read enough of the attached article to see how sad this situation was. Suprisingly, the media did not roast the gal for leaving her fiance at the alter...
Really really sad indeed.
God that must have been hard for that guy !
i think the guy let the report get everything, including him crying in the private room probably he wants the bride to see this and come back to him. Wow, he could be really so in love with this girl that he is willing to lose all his pride and dignity. Not his lost.
Wow. That really sucks. Well, he doesn't really need a greedy little b-ch anyways. That's a pathetically shallow reason to break off a wedding. I mean, really.
My cousin almost got the same treatment. Luckily he was a lot smarter than the groom in this story and broke up with the chick long before.
perhaps the poor groom should go after Indian girls, where their custom is for the bride's family pay a dowery to the groom's family.