I just watched Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet on DVD. I have some questions about the actual wedding banquet. Where do all the guests come from? The wedding banquet the Gaos throw has over a hundred guests, most of them Chinese. They can’t all be friends of Wai-Tung and Wei-Wei. For starters none of the Chinese seem to realize that it’s just a lavender marriage (as the activities in the hotel room demonsrate). They can’t all have shown up at the wrong wedding either. Did Gao’s old driver just invite people he knew so there’s be alot of guests? And is it actually a Chinese custom to invade the couple’s hotel room, and make them strip off underneath a blanket before leaving?
Chinatown. The movie was set in New York City.
But it was clear that the elder Gaos are well known and well respected in the community. People are showing up a sign of respect for them. They are primarily their friends and acquaintances, not Winston’s or Wei-Wei’s.
And no one other than the bride, groom, and groom’s boyfriend know that Winston is gay (though, IIRC, the elder Mr. Gao might suspect).
I haven’t seen the movie, but if the Gaos are well known and respected in the community this explains it perfectly.
The tradition at a Chinese style wedding is that the guests are mostly friends, business acquaintances and supporters etc of the parents, more so than friends of the bride and groom.
Do you guys know the song played during the wedding banquet ? The chinese song? it’s a duet and has a saxophone playing but I don’t know who sings it or the title of the song. Any help is appreciated, thanks!
This is generally true at all large weddings. My brothers wedding had 150 people, at least 100 of which were the brides parents friends, synagogue muckity mucks and business parter people.
Despite the stereotype, in my experience a large wedding is almost never the choice of the bride or groom.