190565438+10.2, the wedding of Lian Yu and Ms. Yao held in Shanghai was once promoted as "Mr. Innovative Wedding" by the editor-in-chief of Women's World. Then in this year, Shanghai held three such weddings in succession, and from then on, Shanghai began the form of "civilized wedding". The first civilized wedding in Shanghai embodies the highly respected ideas of freedom, equality and democracy in modern times. It embodies the awakening of human personality consciousness and the formation of independent personality. Therefore, all kinds of etiquette forms accompanying this kind of marriage are often full of emotional appeal of equality and freedom.
Cai Yuanpei's marriage can be a good example. After Cai's first wife died, many matchmakers came to the door. Cai put forward five conditions for the matchmaker, which was a sensation at that time: 1. Women should not bind their feet; 2. Those who must be literate; 3. Men don't marry concubines; 4. After a man dies, a woman can remarry; 5. Couples can get divorced if they don't get along. Cai Yuanpei finally found a qualified woman to be his wife. It can be said that this is a challenge to the ancient "Six Rites" marriage custom in China.
Due to the development and popularization of civilized weddings, after the founding of the Republic of China, new weddings became increasingly popular. The Beiyang government also stated that it would "adopt the internationally accepted formula and refer to the traditional customs and habits of China to formulate the wedding and funeral etiquette of the Republic of China and promulgate it for national application."
The article "Zhang's Legendary Life" published in Guangzhou Daily on June 7, 2008 (5438+065438+/KLOC-0) contains that Tan Xihong, a professor in Peking University, married his wife and sister after her half-sister died in June, 5438+0923, and Shen Houpei, her betrothed husband, arrived in Beijing from Guangzhou. Zhang threw out his "law of love" at this time. Published an article to publicly defend Chen Shujun. In his view, "Ms. Chen is a foreign-style woman who likes freedom, understands love and is pragmatic." He declared: "marriage is your own, engagement is the safety of others!" With your own freedom, you can get engaged if you want to get engaged, and you can cancel it if you want to cancel it. "
Due to the different conditions in different places, it is impossible to hold a formal and civilized wedding. People often transform old-fashioned weddings and use new gifts. This reform has brought many changes to Chinese traditional weddings. However, at that time, due to the special historical chain of China society, there was considerable resistance, so the civilized wedding did not fundamentally achieve absolute freedom. To a large extent, this civilization is only in wedding ceremonies.
1, the modern China civilized wedding first appeared in Shanghai, which has a profound foundation. 1. The change of urban nature and the cultural concept of modern Shanghainese are the important reasons why civilized weddings first appeared in Shanghai. As one of the earliest cities to open ports, many foreigners chose Shanghai first when they came to China. When two cultures with different backgrounds come together, conflicts will naturally occur, which will greatly change the old lifestyle and ideological system that has been maintained for thousands of years. The wedding form has also changed. Second, economic factors. Shanghai's opening to the outside world has made its commercial economy develop rapidly and its social life has been greatly affected. Although the whole modern wedding in China advocates frugality, as a relatively developed Shanghai, the biggest feature of the wedding is westernization and luxury.
2. The special social environment in modern China naturally made modern China a special period for the evolution of customs and culture. The appearance of civilized wedding has also become an inevitable trend of social development. An obvious phenomenon runs through the history of marriage customs in the Republic of China, that is, the aspects that people strongly advocate and widely spread are placed in the supreme position. The special historical period provides fertile soil for the emergence of modern civilized weddings.
3. The result of political customs. 19 At the end of the 20th century, the emerging bourgeoisie in China realized the role of improving social customs in political progress, and came to the conclusion that political reform must be combined with changing social customs. Moreover, bourgeois thinkers and intellectuals also specially discussed the relationship between some specific customs reforms and political evolution. One Hundred Years of Fashion quoted Kang Youwei's idea of reforming traditional marriage in his masterpiece Datong Book. He believes that if young men and women are over 20 years old, their marriage should be "decided by themselves, and their feelings are harmonious, so they conclude a contract, which is called a good agreement ... The other two reformers, Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong, put forward the idea of" monogamy "in a clear-cut manner, and resolutely opposed men's concubinage, thinking that this move is" close to IKEA, far from a good thing. " "Husband and wife from the monarch to the people, there is no example of concubines, all out of mutual desire. Therefore, the couple attach great importance to the disadvantages of the old-fashioned wedding. By comparing Chinese and western weddings, they listed six "advantages and disadvantages" of Chinese weddings. This thought and practice of politicizing changing customs and traditions was inherited and carried forward in the Republic of China. After the establishment of the Nanjing Provisional Government, changing customs quickly developed into a mass movement with strong political color, and various groups to change customs were established one after another. Then, as the most important part of family customs, marriage customs naturally change, and civilized weddings emerge as the times require.