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“Pre-wedding” photos and the coastline for young Chinese couples: the staging of an imagination from the Western world?

Meng Li
Traduction de Nelson Graburn. University of California Berkeley
Cet article est une traduction de :
Photos de « pré-mariage » et littoral pour les jeunes couples Chinois : la mise en scène d’un imaginaire issu du monde occidental ? [fr]
Autre(s) traduction(s) de cet article :
La fotos "preboda" de las jóvenes parejas chinas en la costa: ¿escenificación de un imaginario procedente del mundo occidental? [es]

Résumé

The evolution of the consumption behavior of young Chinese couples is one of the signs of the opening of China and its economy. Western-style pre-wedding wedding photography in particular is one such phenomenon that emerged and formed during this period. This article therefore attempts to analyze the evolution of this practice, in particular the imaginations which underlie it, for Chinese newlyweds. We will see here the link between this practice and the development of tourism, in mainland China and in the surrounding countries, especially in coastal destinations. Our sites for this research are in Shanghai and Sanya in China, and on the island of Phuket in Thailand, where we will also see the spatial and social construction which underlies this cultural industry, through its actors.

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Notes de la rédaction

Peer-reviewed Article

Texte intégral

Introduction

1China's consumer base has a majority of young people aged between 20 and 35 (RBC, 2023), which is the result of the reform and opening-up policy initiated in the early 1980s and the subsequent development of the economy. They are generally educated and tend to spend more on leisure than their parents, while saving less. They are also more likely to purchase products online and prioritize quality over low prices.

  • 1 China's marriage law stipulated in 1980 that the minimum age for marriage was 22 for men and 20 for (...)
  • 2 Three main products, or “三大件” (san da jian): this involves a bicycle, a watch, a sewing machine, wh (...)

2At the same time, the concept and customs of marriage evolved rapidly. The consumption behavior of Chinese newlyweds1 at this particular moment changed: while they had to buy "three main products2" until the 1990s, they then began to organize wedding banquets in star hotels. Then, in the 2000s and following years, the practice of personalized wedding photography developed (Wang, 2008).

  • 3 Renminbi (人民), the national currency of China.

3In mainland China, pre-wedding photography emerged and therefore developed in less than twenty years (Zhuang, Everette, 2018). The scale of wedding-related expenses thus increased from 3,000 renminbi (RMB3, approximately 2,013 US dollars) per couple in 1980 (NBSC, 1980), to more than 64,000 RMB (approximately 9,861.3 US dollars) in 2015 (NBCC, 2015). Today, Chinese consumption of weddings and honeymoons is evident in Asia. Worldwide, China's share of the wedding photography industry was 26.7% in 2015 (Singh, 2016).

4In terms of imaginaries, Chinese newlyweds are following the trend of Western-style weddings: 81.8% of young people want to be photographed at their wedding in 2019 and 72% of women declared that wearing a wedding dress like a Western-style (white) bride was a very important stage of their marriage for them (TMI, 2019). For a country like China where red and yellow are the traditional wedding colors (Sun, 2019), the influence of white wedding dresses and a Western style more generally are notable developments. As we shall see, especially for brides, wedding photography constitutes a consumption experience of multiple values, with the ultimate objective of long-term pleasure, profitability, testimonials and timeless memories (Huang, Chen, 2011).

5This article will attempt to understand these developments, in particular the imaginaries that underlie current practices of Chinese wedding photos, in mainland China and Southeast Asia. It will begin with an analysis of the multiple reasons which led to use this Western style in this service. We will thus see the link between this practice and the development of tourism, especially in coastal places. We will then specify our methodologies, on Chinese wedding photography companies and the associated field surveys (in Shanghai and Sanya in China, on the island of Phuket in Thailand). Finally, we will study in these places the evolution of the imaginary which has been woven between tourism, coastline, and wedding photos, for young Chinese.

I. Literature review

A. The recent emergence of the practice of wedding photos in China

6The habit of taking wedding photos in China is different from that in the West: here the photos are taken before the traditional or civil ceremony, approximately 3 to 6 months before (Daniels, 2007). This business practice was introduced from Taiwan by Japan in the 1970s and quickly became an economically efficient art and commerce service between the 1980s and 1990s (Yang, Lin, 2012). Zhongshan Bei Boulevard (中山北路) in Taipei for example was home to some of the largest, most technologically advanced and popular wedding photography businesses on the island of Taiwan. In this part of the city, the concentration of these businesses was due to its unique, Western-style location (Ching, Hsu, 2006).

7These Taiwanese players began looking for better opportunities in mainland China after 2000, when they settled in economically developed coastal cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou. They sought to quickly find target customers and partners on the continent (Hsiao, 2008). These commercial activities were quickly developed and expanded by local traders in mainland China (Lin, 2020). This is the case of entrepreneur Shi Jiahao, a former employee working for Taiwanese in Shanghai, who founded Studio Artiz in 2008. It is now one of the largest wedding photography companies in China and, in 2018, its turnover amounted to 1.5 billion RMB (equivalent to 180 million euros). He talks about his company which sells “happiness to the Chinese” in the documentary “China Love” (McGuire, 2018). The documentary highlights the services of this company specializing in the production of wedding photographs in the studio, in various settings. The scenes presented depict a form of happiness that has been artificially created.

8This is rapid development. Due to limited economic conditions, Chinese brides and grooms in the 1980s could only have one couple photo, and in the 1990s, only one standing wedding photo (Yang, 2018). Shooting production only changed starting in the 2000s. At that time, the wedding photography business model that spread from Taiwan was mainly about allowing couples to choose between 2-5 sets of different dresses, to be photographed against so many different backdrops. These were typically images of European castles, European palace interiors, famous Western establishments (e.g. Paris's Eiffel Tower, New York's Statue of Liberty), and coastal towns (Wu, 2015).

9Now (in the 2010s, until the Covid-19 pandemic), depending on the wedding suits, photography packages range from generally 5,000 RMB to 20,000 RMB (Li, 2013). These services, as a (Korean) photographer said in the previous documentary, make the “dreams of couples who cannot go abroad” come true (McGuire, 2018). Indeed, the shots that were taken in these photos show a desire among young Chinese to travel outside China and beyond (Li, 2014).

10These rapid developments can be understood in terms of Chinese society. The Chinese tend to prioritize starting a family before devoting themselves to their career. This makes Chinese parents willing to increase their financial investment to encourage their children to marry (Xu, 2022). Influenced by Confucian culture, Chinese consumption attaches great importance to the social value of products (Zhang, Jolibert, 2000). For this consumption of marriage, wedding photos are indeed one of the important interior wall decorations for Chinese people (Chen, 2013). The house as an exhibition of the family's social success makes the content and setting of the wedding photo more and more important.

  • 4 A Chinese proverb says that “you earn your face and others give their face” (脸是自己挣得,面子是别人给的). In hi (...)

11We can therefore say that in Chinese weddings, the function of wedding photos for social demonstration and integration into society (between family members, friends and colleagues) is stronger than the function as a souvenir. This idea is consistent with what Chinese sociologist Zhai Xuewei calls the “unity relationship between face and face4” (Zhai, 2005): before getting married, take “pre-wedding” photos that summarize your personality and personality. social position.

B. Tourism, the Seaside and Marriage Photos

12Before the development of Chinese domestic tourism, wedding photography was a distinct business practice. There was no need to travel: outdoor wedding photography, away from home, was an option. This practice is also closer to wedding photographs in the West (Li, 2014). The difference here is that most of the outdoor scenes were picturesque parks or historic buildings (Gan, 2021). Cities like Shanghai, Qingdao or Guangzhou, with historic Western architecture and close to the sea, are the Chinese cities that have experienced the strongest growth in this sector (Gui, Cheng, 2016).

13With the development of tourism, other places have appeared in the country. The island of Hainan, for example, under the impetus of Chinese state policy and real estate developers, has become a choice often made by the new generation of consumers (aged 20 to 35), for their trips and vacations. Locally, companies began to create and develop a business model halfway between wedding photography and honeymoon vacations, starting with the city of Sanya (in the south of the island; Li, 2013). Travel photography then involves traveling from the place where the couples live to another location. The choice of this mainly stems from the type of wedding photos desired. For example, flying from Beijing to Sanya to complement their dream wedding experience with a few days of beach vacation. The wedding experience they dream of is complemented by a series of commemorative photographs on site (Lu, Jiang, 2019).

14This situation reflects a change in the way we view the coastline in China. As we saw above, this link between the development of coastal tourism and wedding photography was first made in Taiwan (as well as in Hong Kong and Macau). There, the coastline was already a tourist area. In mainland China, Chinese tourists' perception of coastal tourism has gradually moved from ignorance and fear to awareness, understanding and even desire (Taunay and Violier, 2012).

15Until the 1980s and 1990s, the sea was, however, primarily a huge sensory shock for tourists, especially those living inland (Taunay, 2008). The Chinese government's development and policies towards coastal tourism have profoundly shaped and influenced this change. There has therefore been an evolution of the imagination associated with this type of space, which can be attributed to “calendar photography”, very popular in the 1990s. This photographic practice was thus the original model of photography coastal tourism (figure 1).

16Chinese perceptions of coastal tourism and their travel behavior have changed radically since the reform period in the early 1980s. This change can also be attributed to the departure of many civil servants from public institutions in the center of mainland China, in the 1980s, to do business in coastal areas; what was called “taking to the sea (xia hai: 下海; Lemoine, Poncet, Ünal, 2014).

Figure 1. Two pages of photos from the 1999 calendar

Figure 1. Two pages of photos from the 1999 calendar

The Chinese caption on the right ((xia zhi lian : 夏之恋)) means “summer love.”

Source : www.sohu.com/a/454922812_113338

  • 5 The average residential price in Sanya is 42,489 RMB/m² (approximately 5,618 euros), which places t (...)

17In these tropical coastal areas, such as Hainan Island, the very large number of tourists who come not only to take “the sea for the first time” (Taunay, 2015), but also the interest in visiting real estate projects (with a view to buying a vacation home), has changed the Chinese imagination. There's the emergence of a desire for coastal tourism and tropical coastal life, mostly for the rich however. Real estate in Sanya is indeed one of the most expensive areas in the world5.

  • 6 The AAAAA (5A) and AAAA (4A) labels are classification categories used by the ministry of Culture a (...)

18To understand this evolution, we must take an interest in the videos that take place in Hainan: tourist (promotional) films broadcast on national television, television series as well as films approved by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and tourism. In all of these, we clearly visualize the new model of Chinese coastal tourism vacation: that created by the extension of projects real estate mentioned above (and supported by state policy), in a model of life here Western. This is the case for example with the Chinese director Feng Xiaogang, known for its series of films broadcast on the Spring Festival in China. In his film “If you are the one II.” (2010), he filmed wedding and moon celebration scenes of honeymoons in villas (figure 2), in the tourist area of Yalong Bay (a AAAA 6 area tourist east of Sanya6).

Figure 2. Advertisement for the film “If you are the one II” (fei cheng wu rao :非诚勿扰 2)

Figure 2. Advertisement for the film “If you are the one II” (fei cheng wu rao :非诚勿扰 2)

Source: www.movie.douban.com

19More recently, with the development of Chinese international tourism, the practice wedding photos spread outside China. This is particularly true in South Asia. Southeast and Thailand, the country which has most stable political relations and tourism policy with China. This country has thus become the first tourist destination for the Chinese, appreciated in particular for its tropical atmosphere and its coastlines. As a result, since 2016, the Chinese represent the first contingent of international tourists in Thailand (Li, 2019). This is also where a large number of wedding photography businesses have developed, initially based in mainland China (Li, 2021).

II. Methodology

  • 7 The “Chinese Dream” or “Dream of China” (中国梦) is a committed policy launched by the President of th (...)

20All this leads us to question the imaginations associated with photographs of marriage for young Chinese, when they are tourists, in China and South Asia South East. So far, a number of questions haven't been discussed much: what are the reasons for the particular importance of taking photos for the Chinese, especially in specific scenarios, before weddings? In particular, why are these photo shoots growing rapidly in the context of coastal tourism? Wedding and travel photographs of brides Chinese represent a projection of the “Chinese dream” (中国梦7) or a happy life as known in the West? By whom are these organizational practices specifically implemented, and with the mobilization of what imaginary? Finally, what changes have these practices brought to the different travel destinations?

A. What are the wedding photography companies?

21In order to carry out the study of the aforementioned problems, this article uses several methodologies. It is first of all a quantitative analysis, which consists of counting the number of wedding photography companies in China and their evolution from 2012 to 2018 (table 1). This is to understand the importance that this practice has taken on in China. It is necessary to look at the data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce which, under the general term "portrait photography", divides the activities of wedding photography, general photography and photography for children. For wedding photographs alone, as we can see from the data, the number of companies in the sector in China increased by 316 % between 2012 and 2013, then this figure remained fairly stable until 2018 (for a average of 139,800 over this last period). However, it is difficult to find in the public data of this ministry information on income sales of companies or the specific cities where they are located.

Table 1. Evolution of the number of wedding photography businesses in China (2012 - 2018)

Table 1. Evolution of the number of wedding photography businesses in China (2012 - 2018)

Source: Site of the Ministry of Commerce of Chine ; consulted, 20 décember 2022.

22This is why, during doctoral research (2016-2019), in order to understand where they were operating, we met a certain number of companies in Mainland China. We then designed an interview system and questioned first five companies: Only Photo, Chloé Photo, Bojue Photo, Madame Gold Photo and Artiz Studio, which are among the top five wedding photography brands according to statistics from the China Branding Network (chinapp.com consulted in October 2017). In 2017, the number of photography workshops, distributed by region in China, is shown on the map below (figure 3). In addition to tourist towns, better known in mainland China (Lijiang, Guilin, Xiamen, Hangzhou), we see then the main coastal tourist places which are Qingdao, Shanghai and Sanya; but also international destinations such as the islands of Phuket in Thailand and from Bali to Indonesia.

Figure 3. Location of wedding photography locations in mainland China and Southeast Asia, for 5 Chinese companies

Figure 3. Location of wedding photography locations in mainland China and Southeast Asia, for 5 Chinese companies

Source: Official locations of businesses (consulted in October 2017).

B. Analysis by interviews with actors of wedding photographs

23Other surveys were carried out in mainland China and on the island of Phuket in Thailand, between 2017 and 2019. There, interviews and observations were used to collect data and information from Chinese actors in the wedding photography sector (table 2). The interviews conducted adopt primarily a semi-structured method, with predefined standard questions and open questions. There is no order to follow in the questions, on the contrary, the interview adapts according to the speech and comments of the people interviewed. In order to update these surveys, particularly during the period of Covid where the number of Chinese tourists has almost disappeared, we have renewed some of the past interviews, via online interviews, conducted in Mandarin (2020-2022). In this text, however, we will concentrate mainly on the period pre-Covid, by opening extensions when necessary, with almost three years of Chinese border closures.

Table 2. Actors interviewed in the field of pre-wedding photos.

Name (modified)

Sex

Nationality

Date

Location

Length

Occupation

Momo

Female

Chinese

January 9th, 2018 /

January 16th, 2018 /

February 9th, 2018 /

February 3rd, 2019 /

February 19th, 2019 /

October 1st, 2020 /

December 17th, 2021 /

November 15, 2022

Phuket

300 mins

Director of a wedding chapel

Lu

Male

Chinese

January 18th, 2018 /

February 9th, 2018 /

September 9th, 2020

Phuket

120 mins

Photographer

John

Male

Canadian

January 18th, 2018

Phuket

30 mins

Conductor of wedding ceremonies

Tim

Male

Canadian

February 19th, 2019

Phuket

30 mins

Conductor of wedding ceremonies

Guo

Male

Chinese

December 7th, 2017

Shanghai

60 mins

Director customer relations at Only Photo

Sun

Male

Chinese

December 7th, 2017

Shanghai

30 mins

Photographer at Only Photo

Shen

Male

Chinese

December 18th, 2017

Sanya

60 mins

Director customer relations at Cholé Photo

Han

Male

Chinese

December 18th, 2017

Sanya

30 mins

Photographer at Chloé Photo

Zhao

Female

Chinese

December 18th, 2017

Sanya

60 mins

Director customer relations at Bojue Photo

Xue

Female

Chinese

December 18th, 2017

Sanya

30 mins

Photographer at Bojue Photo

Shanghai, Sanya and Phuket (2017-2022)

III. Results

A. From Shanghai to Sanya in China: the deployment of a Western imagination.

  • 8 City classification is an unofficial term in China, originally arising from the real estate. Curren (...)

24In mainland China first of all, we observe a strong attraction for decorations that place one in a Western universe. Madam Guo, the customer director of the company Weiyi (唯一, Only Photo), explained to us, from the headquarters of the company in Shanghai: “Young people from fourth and fifth tier cities8 in China crave big city life. So they choose to come to Shanghai for their wedding photos. Because this metropolis has the Bund, the tower of the Pearl of the Orient, its Western-style architecture and its cosmopolitan atmosphere, these symbols are for them events not to be missed. »

25Companies in Shanghai have understood this desire, as evidenced by their commercial and spatial logics. At the Onlyphoto company headquarters in Shanghai, we thus observed an adaptation: the buildings of the old textile factory (cotton; figure 4), have been reconfigured to adapt to the new practice. Especially, the Western imagination is immediately seen upon arrival, with the mention of the “blue coast” on the walls (figure 5).

Figure 4 and 5. The reconfiguration of a factory into a wedding photography workshop in Shanghai (2017)

Figure 4 and 5. The reconfiguration of a factory into a wedding photography workshop in Shanghai (2017)

Photo on the left: the old textile factory, built in the 1970s.
Photo on the right: the wedding photo workshop in December 2017, with registration in “Blue Coast” Chinese characters (weilan waian:
蔚蓝海岸)

Photo on the left: source: www.people.cn; accessed February 10, 2018)
Photo on the right: photo by the author.

26Newlyweds in big cities have different choices, as Sun, a photographer in the same studio, explains: “90% of our clients from big cities want to take their wedding photos by the sea, and Hainan Island is their first choice because they can travel and take photos at the same time. The price is three times lower than in Europe and there is no language barrier. He then specifies the advantages of the city of Sanya: “It’s actually the same setting in Hainan and internationally [see Box 1 below], plus it’s cheaper.”

27The Chinese government would also like to see the wedding photo trade flourishes in Hainan, an island that he has promoted “international”: “In 2010, the central government programmed the transformation of the tropical province of Hainan into a world-class destination by 2020. To achieve this objective, the province has experimented with a range of diversification measures, the opening of duty-free shops and the authorization of lotteries. » (Goulard, 2011)

28The activity generated by wedding photos was thus one of the assets aimed at diversifying coastal activities on the island, and it is also for this reason that workshops opened there. In Sanya in particular, more than a workshop, an entire neighborhood was created (Figure 6). It consists of an architectural ensemble of a “Western” type (a church, a palace and a street), located opposite the yacht quay (on the peninsula to the west of the bay of Dadonghai (map, figure 6). This Western architectural ensemble is shared by a number of different wedding photography companies. In fact, it is a commercial operation and, as Han, a photographer who previously worked in Shanghai, explained to us "the real estate company continues to develop the area. They have chosen to work with some of the largest companies in wedding photography. We must pay an annual subscription to be able to work here. This is where we come in. Small businesses do not have of this scene”. At the end of the interview on the commercial cooperation model in force here, it specifies that tourism stakeholders (in the broad sense: companies real estate companies, wedding photo workshops and tourism companies) know the importance of symbols of Western coastal life (architecture, the sea, yachts, churches and helicopters) for tourists, and therefore do everything to highlight these. This practice is an evolution of what was common in the years 1990 and 2000, when photos were mainly taken in the studio. She now involves moving the sets to tourist destinations. So, all these symbols are transformed and grouped together in artificial landscapes, especially to create wedding photography backdrops.

29To understand why this imaginary is dominant here and why young people there are also many brides and grooms who come to have their photo taken with this decor, it is necessary, however, also take into account the commercial logic of companies. Shen, customer manager at Chloé photo, puts it this way: “Our workshop is long based in Sanya and it is our specialty to sell these products. I wasn't a manager before in Shanghai, just a saleswoman. My job consisted to recommend our services in Sanya to customers, online or in our store. Besides, to progress in my career I had to leave, so I came to Sanya to become a manager.” Other employees of companies photographs confirm this: there is a desire to sell Sanya and its décor tropical coastline.

Figure 6. A western neighborhood created for wedding photos in Sanya

Figure 6. A western neighborhood created for wedding photos in Sanya

The palace (photo, bottom left) was created ex nihilo, built next to a church and a street defined as “European”. Inside it (photo, in the center), tourists have their photos taken next to reproductions of paintings and famous sculptures (photo, top). The whole is an example of the importance of the “Western” imagination in the practice of photos preceding the wedding in China.

Source: Taken by the author in 2017.

B. The island of Phuket in Thailand: the first international destination for Chinese “pre-wedding” photos

30According to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security in 2012, only about 38 million Chinese citizens held an ordinary passport, or 2.82% of the population of the country at that time. This figure had increased to around 120 million in 2016 (8.5%). Traveling internationally, whether to Southeast Asia, or Europe and the United States, is therefore new to most Chinese. Young tourists, however, want to start their married life with photos of ideal pre-weddings. This still often involves stays in mainland China but also, increasingly, abroad. Thanks to new social networks, these Chinese tourists are quickly adapting to new booking methods for travel. Some of them have freed themselves from group travel and can quickly book their own trips outside China. They then often choose Thailand, which has become the leading international tourist destination since 2016.

  • 9 One of the largest travel sites in China. Known to individual tourists, it offers a service of

31On the Mafengwo site9, many travel stories explicitly mention the Practice of wedding photography in addition to a tourist trip. An article titled “Love in Phuket, Rock my wedding”, published in January 2016 is a good example (figure 7). It relates a 3-day experience dedicated to taking photos of wedding, in order to make one (or more) album, which will be presented to the guests during the wedding ceremony (which will take place in China). This article, which has 724 views and 10 likes, is just a fragment of the nearly 3,000 travel stories on Phuket Island published on this website. On this set, we found that 10% of articles deal with this type of tourist practice.

Figure 7. Themed tourism practice: “Love in Phuket, Rock my wedding

Figure 7. Themed tourism practice: “Love in Phuket, Rock my wedding”

Source: Screen shot from the site Mafengwo.

32As Zhao, director of Bojue Photo in Phuket, explains, “a lot of young Chinese people still choose countries like Thailand and Indonesia, where the reported price-quality is good, while having the possibility of going abroad for first time.” Chinese tourists thus acquire international experience at the same time as they acquire their wedding photographs. This is why these destinations, but also wedding photographer companies, quickly started to develop their own business strategies to adapt to the Chinese tourists on site. This is the case of the large groups seen so far, but also small teams, whose strategy consists of building their clientele little by little (by word of mouth).

  • 10 Wechat (wei xin: 微信), is a mobile application developed by Tencent in 2011. It is very popular for (...)

33Regardless of the size of companies, they work with strategies and similar models. A package (mentioned on the form completed before departure, with a choice of different dresses and scenes) is chosen on the company website or by communication via WeChat10, and based on this, a decision is made on the destination of the trip (usually a coastal city, China, Southeast Asia East or Europe). The final photo taking then consists of simulating scenes of wedding in different settings.

  • 11 Although this is not the heart of the matter here, it would be appropriate to understand the intern (...)

34The requirement for large companies in particular is that the quality of photography of marriage is maximum: “the requirement is that the result is the same as that shown on our advertisements, this is our commitment” proudly announced the Director Guo (2017). To achieve this result, Chinese companies wedding photography use mainly Chinese staff in their branches abroad: “the quality of our shots is very high, and our staff in China and abroad are trained by headquarters” (ibid.). We were able to check in Phuket, during several field trips between 2017-2019, notably in the area of villas in Kamala (in the northwest of the island), where the greatest number are located workshops (more than 30): all photographers were trained in China11.

35The imagination that today leads young Chinese tourists to go to Thailand, and Phuket in particular, is also to be found in several films and series, which have contributed to the popularity of this destination. According to statistics from Thai Ministry of Culture, between 2010 and 2015, there were 183 Chinese films including filming which took place in Thailand. Thus, in the Chinese series “Ode to Joy” (season 2, released in 2017), the main protagonist spends three days of vacation on the island of Phuket (figure 8). In the photo on the left the series producers chose to introduce leisured practices: swimming in a private pool, drinking wine red, reading on a deckchair, etc. These take place in the “Iniala” resort, which is located on the edge of the Andaman Sea (photo on the right), in the north of the province of Phuket.

Figure 8. The Resort Series “Ode to Joy” (Season 2)

Figure 8. The Resort Series “Ode to Joy” (Season 2)

Source: From the internet site of the series.

36This example, combined with others, probably contributed to generating an imaginary of powerful leisure practices, in a resort by the beach. As we have already mentioned, the Ministry of Culture of mainland China (which is also that of Tourism, since 2018), applies a strict censorship system for films and television series. The choice to highlight this destination is not harmless.

37From the analysis above, we can therefore already conclude that the imagination of the West of coastal tourism, for Chinese tourists, is based on numerous representations. Notably that of material cinema and television which, for easy implementation, results in the form of a photo session abroad, in the tropics. It was there, before the Covid-19 pandemic, for young Chinese about to start a family, the expression of a certain “Chinese dream” in their everyday life.

C. “The Chinese want a wedding like in Disney movies”

38For the Chinese, a final imaginary structures the practices of the ceremony of marriage, particularly internationally. It’s about having shots that take up scenes known to the future bride and groom, with which they identify. The decoration and the spirit of the staging are very clearly Western, even explicitly Americans. Indeed, in certain cases, young Chinese not only come to take photos for a future wedding album, but they also want to be photographed during a ceremony specially organized for them.

39We were able to observe it during two wedding ceremonies (January 17, 2018 and on February 20, 2019), organized by Momo, a Chinese entrepreneur based in Phuket since 2009 (see above). She had brought two celebrants (to serve as a pastor), John and Tim, originally from Canada. She explains why she works with these two Canadians for a long time, and not with Chinese: "John has better relations with Chapelle managers because he has lived in Phuket for 25 years. I think his image corresponds to the portrait of a pastor of a chapel. Tim, on the other hand, is younger and his image is very popular with young Chinese, which makes it more suitable for a seaside wedding entertainer. I pay Tim a little more.” (Figure 9).

Figure 9. The performance of a wedding ceremony by Momo

Figure 9. The performance of a wedding ceremony by Momo

Taken by the authour, February 2019.

40This type of arrangement reflects the idealization of Western life by young people Chinese, a new style of consumption which is also the result of the policy of reforms initiated at the end of the 1970s (which led to the international opening). In figure 9, at the top Tim (left) and Momo (right) are in a ceremony. In figure 9 at the bottom, this is the final adjustment before the ceremony itself: we see the guests there, Momo, the photographers and Tim (in the center of the flower portico).

41During these ceremonies, John and Tim communicated with the couples through Momo who, as general manager, translated and explained each step of the process to the bride and groom and their families, who came for the occasion. At the beginning of the ceremony, they explain this type of organization: “These weddings basically follow the same process, like what is shown in an American movie, it’s a Disney-style wedding. The Chinese want a marriage like in Disney films.” Besides the setting, the oath in particular is directly inspired by foreign films, known in China. We see this with the text that John must read,as well as the parts that young Chinese people must repeat, in English (figure 10).

Figure 10. The Wedding Vows during the wedding ceremony

Figure 10. The Wedding Vows during the wedding ceremony

Source: Chapel of Angsana Laguna.

42All this is the result of a very particular organization, specifically intended for Chinese tourists who came here on purpose. There, it is no longer the big companies whose headquarters is in mainland China who are in charge. They are smaller entrepreneurs who have settled in Phuket in response to the increase in flow of Chinese tourists. Lu, for example, was previously a photographer for a medium-sized business in Phuket, before becoming a small independent business owner. He explains it this way: “many photographers work here for six months and then start working independently.” Today he works with his makeup artist girlfriend and they have a small business. “We have the advantage of benefiting from much more advantageous prices and serving a single couple at a time, who stay in our villa. They get the only service they can benefit in 2 or 3 days.Their villa in Kamala is organized as follows: “The ground floor ground floor is the living room, dressing room and makeup room, and the first floor is the guest room and our bedroom. We source all of our dresses from China via plane ".

43Momo, the entrepreneur seen above, fits into this model. She is one of the first to not only offer photo sessions, but also filming weddings in chapels and on the beach. For example, in January 2018 (figure 11), Momo (from behind, with a red top) is explaining to the newlyweds (as well as two photographers), how the scene will unfold with the exchange of rings during the wedding ceremony.

Photo 11. Momo and her clients in a marriage chapel on the isle of Phuket.

Photo 11. Momo and her clients in a marriage chapel on the isle of Phuket.

Taken by the authour, January 2018.

  • 12 The Zhuang constitute the second largest Chinese ethnic group after the Han, the population majorit (...)
  • 13 Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is a southern Chinese province, on the northern border of Vietnam.
  • 14 This name is the contraction of two Chinese characters written phonetically (“pinyin”): “thai” for (...)

44In fact, Momo has adapted to the changing desires of Chinese tourists, gradually as there were more and more of them and they sought to have photos of marriage different from what existed then. Momo has been working in this part of the south of Thailand since September 2009. A Chinese of Zhuang12 nationality, she was born in the province of Guangxi13, in the south of the country. After her Chinese degree in foreign languages, obtained in China, she was chosen by the diaspora office – a Chinese girl from Guangxi to be sent to the Thaihua14 school in Phuket, as a Chinese language teacher. She subsequently, after the end of her contract, she remained on site, where she did different jobs: interpreter (Thai-Chinese), but also as a private guide for Chinese tourists. It is thanks to these experiences that she accumulated numerous in situ relationships, particularly with members of the Chinese diaspora, but also Thai residents. A Chinese couple living in Phuket did this and pledged to help him create his workshop in 2014.

45Now director of a workshop specially dedicated to this type of celebration, she offers its services only to Chinese customers. “I want to do it differently from others,” she said repeatedly. In this professional framework she works with photographers, also of Chinese nationality, like Lu. She collaborates also with different Thai partners, whether hotel owners, restaurants, or even interior decorators. With them she communicates in Thai, a language that she learned and has mastered perfectly, which gives her gives an advantage over its Chinese competitors, who rarely speak this language. At the same time, she speaks English fluently at work, which she has perfected by working with English speakers, such as pastors for a mock wedding ceremony, like John and Tim.

Conclusions

46The reform and opening-up policy initiated by Deng Xiaoping at the end of the 1970s enabled strong economic development in mainland China. During this period, the influence of Hong Kong, Macao, but also Taiwan was strong from the 1980s, transforming the way of life and consumption habits in the country. This is the case for wedding photographs, which emerged at this time. Later, with the development of Chinese tourism, in China and internationally, this practice spread, particularly on the coasts. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, many young Chinese tourists went to Thailand to obtain photos with a strong foreign, Western influence. After three years of the “zero-Covid” policy in China, we can assume that the current revival of tourism and the freer movement of people will allow this practice to resume. How the wedding photography industry and tourism continues to grow and evolve for young Chinese, in a climate of low marriage rates and high divorce rates, and how this is playing out in South Asia South-East as well as in Europe, will then deserve to be studied further.

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Notes

1 China's marriage law stipulated in 1980 that the minimum age for marriage was 22 for men and 20 for women. This law has undergone modifications since its initial version (20 years for men and 18 years for women) put in place by the Chinese Communist Party government in 1950.

2 Three main products, or “三大件” (san da jian): this involves a bicycle, a watch, a sewing machine, which were necessities for a young Chinese couple at that time.

3 Renminbi (人民), the national currency of China.

4 A Chinese proverb says that “you earn your face and others give their face” (脸是自己挣得,面子是别人给的). In his study on the relationship between the face () and the countenance (面子), Zhai asserts that the face is the image and expression of an individual, which is designed to arouse the approval of a certain social circle. It is when members of a social circle evaluate the face that its face appears. A positive review means a person wins heads, while a negative review means they have no heads. ‘Face’ and face represent different resources. The ‘face’ represents the resources of the individual's impression of how to do things, such as personality, abilities, appearance, speech, etc. The face represents the psychological status resources generated by social circle relationships, such as status, position, position, money, power etc.

5 The average residential price in Sanya is 42,489 RMB/m² (approximately 5,618 euros), which places the city at seventh place according to the ranking of real estate prices in China (source: gotohui.com, March 2023). The top three cities are Beijing (68,843 RMB/m², approximately 9,106 euros), Shanghai (68591RMB/m², approximately 9,073 euros) and Shenzhen (65,703 RMB/m², approximately 8,691 euros).

6 The AAAAA (5A) and AAAA (4A) labels are classification categories used by the ministry of Culture and Tourism, awarded to the most important and best tourist attractions maintained by the People's Republic of China. In 2020, there were 279 tourist attractions classified 5A, for 4030 4A.

7 The “Chinese Dream” or “Dream of China” (中国梦) is a committed policy launched by the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, since 2012. This formula summarizes the direction of its policy: restore the past glory of China and its state, make the Chinese proud and happy, in order to maintain social stability.

8 City classification is an unofficial term in China, originally arising from the real estate. Currently, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are generally recognized like the first-tier cities on the continent. The other municipalities directly under the central government, sub-provincial cities, provincial capitals, and tier cities economically developed prefectures are classified as second and third cities levels. The rest of ordinary prefecture-level cities and economically developed counties, county-level cities are classified as fourth- and fifth-tier cities.

9 One of the largest travel sites in China. Known to individual tourists, it offers a service of

reservation of tourist products as well as a space for sharing travel experiences.

10 Wechat (wei xin: 微信), is a mobile application developed by Tencent in 2011. It is very popular for Chinese people because it is a text, voice, audio messaging tool and platform for share your photos and videos.

11 Although this is not the heart of the matter here, it would be appropriate to understand the internal functioning of these businesses. On this subject, see Li, 2021.

12 The Zhuang constitute the second largest Chinese ethnic group after the Han, the population majority in China. It has around 18 million members.

13 Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is a southern Chinese province, on the northern border of Vietnam.

14 This name is the contraction of two Chinese characters written phonetically (“pinyin”): “thai” for Thailand, and “hua” for Chinese diaspora. Taken together, this means “the Chinese of Thailand”: the school was opened by members of the Chinese diaspora present on the island of Phuket.

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Table des illustrations

Titre Figure 1. Two pages of photos from the 1999 calendar
Légende The Chinese caption on the right ((xia zhi lian : 夏之恋)) means “summer love.”
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-1.png
Fichier image/png, 583k
Titre Figure 2. Advertisement for the film “If you are the one II” (fei cheng wu rao :非诚勿扰 2)
Crédits Source: www.movie.douban.com
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-2.png
Fichier image/png, 855k
Titre Table 1. Evolution of the number of wedding photography businesses in China (2012 - 2018)
Crédits Source: Site of the Ministry of Commerce of Chine ; consulted, 20 décember 2022.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-3.png
Fichier image/png, 61k
Titre Figure 3. Location of wedding photography locations in mainland China and Southeast Asia, for 5 Chinese companies
Crédits Source: Official locations of businesses (consulted in October 2017).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-4.png
Fichier image/png, 427k
Titre Figure 4 and 5. The reconfiguration of a factory into a wedding photography workshop in Shanghai (2017)
Légende Photo on the left: the old textile factory, built in the 1970s.Photo on the right: the wedding photo workshop in December 2017, with registration in “Blue Coast” Chinese characters (weilan waian: 蔚蓝海岸)
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-5.png
Fichier image/png, 324k
Titre Figure 6. A western neighborhood created for wedding photos in Sanya
Légende The palace (photo, bottom left) was created ex nihilo, built next to a church and a street defined as “European”. Inside it (photo, in the center), tourists have their photos taken next to reproductions of paintings and famous sculptures (photo, top). The whole is an example of the importance of the “Western” imagination in the practice of photos preceding the wedding in China.
Crédits Source: Taken by the author in 2017.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-6.png
Fichier image/png, 880k
Titre Figure 7. Themed tourism practice: “Love in Phuket, Rock my wedding
Crédits Source: Screen shot from the site Mafengwo.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-7.png
Fichier image/png, 219k
Titre Figure 8. The Resort Series “Ode to Joy” (Season 2)
Crédits Source: From the internet site of the series.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-8.png
Fichier image/png, 607k
Titre Figure 9. The performance of a wedding ceremony by Momo
Crédits Taken by the authour, February 2019.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-9.png
Fichier image/png, 421k
Titre Figure 10. The Wedding Vows during the wedding ceremony
Crédits Source: Chapel of Angsana Laguna.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-10.png
Fichier image/png, 454k
Titre Photo 11. Momo and her clients in a marriage chapel on the isle of Phuket.
Crédits Taken by the authour, January 2018.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/docannexe/image/10274/img-11.png
Fichier image/png, 639k
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Référence électronique

Meng Li, « “Pre-wedding” photos and the coastline for young Chinese couples: the staging of an imagination from the Western world? », Via [En ligne], 24 | 2023, mis en ligne le 19 décembre 2023, consulté le 16 avril 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/10274 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/viatourism.10274

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Auteur

Meng Li

Nanning Normal University, China

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