While it may seem commonplace abroad for royalty to marry or to marry commoners, the Chinese seem to prefer the “right family” when it comes to marriage. The actual marriage is more important for love, or money is more important? This is a question worth exploring.
Brunei princess marries 29-year-old civil servant
Brunei Princess Hafizah Sululul Bolkiah, 32, married 29-year-old civil servant Haji Mohamed Razaini on the 20th.
The Sultan of Brunei married his daughter in a lavish ceremony at the gilded royal palace, a fairy tale from the “Thousand and One Nights”.
Princess Hafizah is the fifth child of Sultan Bolkiah and Queen Salah. She and Razayni were married in a ceremony at the Nulloimane Palace on the afternoon of the 20th, attended by family, friends and international dignitaries.
The Nulloimane Palace is one of the largest royal palaces in the world and the residence of the Sultan of Brunei, with 1,700 rooms inside. It has been described as “when you step into the palace, gold is at your fingertips. The taps are gold, the carpets are woven with gold thread, the crystal vases are open with never-ending roses, their rhizomes are gold, the petals are inlaid with sapphires, rubies, emeralds and diamonds, …… even the electric light buttons are made of gold. When the sultan held a banquet at the palace, every guest had a shiny gold rice bowl in front of them.”
The Sultan Bolkiah family has ruled the country for 600 years, and when Brunei became independent in 1984, Bolkiah was head of state and prime minister, finance minister and home affairs minister. Both Princess Hafizah and Razayni were on the sultan’s staff. The princess, who has a degree in business administration, is an employee of the finance minister’s office, while Razaïni is in the prime minister’s office.
By tradition, a sultan can marry twice. But Bolkiah, 66, has had three wives, the second of whom was repudiated years ago, before he married his third in a low-profile ceremony. Bolkiah has five sons and seven daughters. This is the first time in five years that he has married his children, the last time being in 2007 when Princess Burchia was married.
Royal weddings are also a carnival event for Bruneians, with the 2004 wedding of Crown Prince Muhtadee Billah drawing a huge crowd to the capital. More than 2,000 guests attended the wedding, including members of the British, Japanese, Jordanian and Malaysian royal families.
A glimpse of the world’s dowager princesses who ignore their identities for love
Japanese princess marries civil servant at 36
On Nov. 15, 2005, Japanese Princess Kiyoko KIMIYA finally ended her 36-year-long bachelorhood in her own year, officially marrying Tokyo Metropolitan Government civil servant Keiki KURATA.
On November 15, 2005, Princess Kiyoko KIMIYA finally ended her 36-year-long bachelorhood in her own birth year, officially marrying Keiki KURATA, a civil servant of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. This is the second time in 45 years that the Japanese royal family has married a daughter since 1960, when Princess Kiyomiya (now known as Shimazu Takako), the fifth daughter of Emperor Showa, was married. After the wedding, the two couples will move into a new house in Tokyo. The couple’s new home is a rented downtown high-class apartment with furniture and appliances and a security system, as the home they bought beforehand is not yet finished.
After much deliberation, the Kuroda couple decided on a new home in Tokyo’s Toshima district, reportedly not far from the imperial residence and near a forest that will help Kiyomiya’s research on birds, according to sources. The couple spent 500,000 yen to buy their new home. The apartment is small but cozy, and KIMIYA is proud of the fact that she did all the decorating.
From royalty to commoners, Princess KIMIYA has done a lot of work to play the role of housewife. Before her marriage, when she heard her maid say, “It’s hard to clean your closets and closet when you live in a new place,” the princess responded, “What? Do I have to clean?” Norimiya has reportedly learned to cook hard to keep her husband happy, and has learned to cook Chinese food well. And, she has learned to drive and shop at supermarkets herself.
Swedish Princess Victoria marries fitness trainer
Princess Victoria, 32, the future Queen of Sweden, and her “commoner” fiancé, 36-year-old Västerling, were married on June 19, 2010 in Stockholm, Sweden. The wedding was the biggest royal event in Europe in recent years.
The couple was married in Stockholm Cathedral at 3:30 p.m. local time on June 19, then paraded through the city center in a royal carriage, accompanied by a royal guard of horses, to receive congratulations from the public, and then returned to the palace by water on the Royal Vasa yacht for the wedding dinner. The wedding was attended by members of the royal family and heads of government from around the world. The royal family announced a list of more than 950 guests, including King Carlos of Spain, Crown Prince Tokujin of Japan, Prince Edward and his wife of the United Kingdom, and the Queen of Denmark.
The “grassroots prince-in-law” Westling was Princess Victoria’s personal fitness trainer in 2001, and they fell in love. The two are in love for eight years and have won the royal seal of approval and much public support. 61-year-old retiree Söderström said, “He’s not from the royal family, he’s just a normal person like you, which is great!”
Britain’s ‘equestrian princess’ marries rugby star
July 30, 2011, the British royal family has made another happy announcement, following Prince William’s wedding on April 29. Princess Zara Phillips, the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, and rugby star Mike Tindall were married in Scotland, the first royal wedding to take place in Scotland in the last 20 years.
While it was a royal wedding, Princess Zara and Tyndall kept it simple and low-key, a “world away” from the lavish century wedding of her one-year-old cousin, Prince William. A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said, “This is a private family wedding”, only friends and relatives are invited to attend, and the media are not allowed to enter the wedding site to photograph. The wedding ceremony was officiated by the Rev. Neil Gardell of Cannonguet Church and lasted about 45 minutes. The 15-member children’s choir from Gordonstoun Boarding School in Scotland performed a number of beautiful songs at the wedding. Zara used to attend this school.
After the ceremony, the couple traveled by car to the Queen’s palace in Scotland, Holyrood Palace, where they hosted a banquet for their guests. The couple’s first visit to Edinburgh was to the streets of the city, where 6,000 people gathered to wish the couple well. The newest member of the family, who is a member of the family, is also a member of the family.
When Prince William and Kate got married on April 29, not only did they attract millions of people to the streets of London, but some 2 billion viewers around the world watched the wedding live on TV. The wedding of Zara was far too low-key by comparison.
Chinese women in the eyes of foreigners: Choosing a spouse is a matter of choice before love
In 2011, an article in the Wall Street Times titled “Are Chinese women too picky” attracted a lot of attention. According to the article, associating love with money may be very common, but in China, especially for the older generation, it is still a taboo subject. As a result, a series of TV matchmaking shows that let young women talk openly about material standards have greatly touched a public nerve.
The first dating show in China was “TV Red Wedding” on Shanxi TV in 1988, but it didn’t cause much controversy at the time. “The previous generation deliberately downplayed the material element of marriage, focusing instead on ‘fate’ and ‘love’ and building relationships based on mutual understanding and heart-to-heart.” said Yager Liu, who studies Chinese sexuality at Sophia University in Japan.
And currently, matchmaking programs such as “Nonetheless, Do Not Disturb” are prevalent. The authorities say some dating shows “promote gold-digging and have unhealthy and incorrect views on marriage and love,” while one Chinese expert says the problem with them is that they “reflect reality too frankly and directly. Liu Yager agreed: “For men and women in China now, the biggest obsession with marriage is affordability.”
In parks across China, different types of weekend dates are in full swing. Parents show and exchange photos and profiles of their unmarried children. Specific requirements for a son-in-law or daughter-in-law usually include age, height, income, occupation and, for men, a “wedding house. The lack of a house is a major factor for Chinese girls to flip out. Before the 1980s, houses were provided by the workplace, but now, property prices are very expensive,” said Li Leng, a professional matchmaker for a Shanghai-based company. Li Leng said the show represents “a portion of Chinese singles,” most of whom are rural girls. She said, “These rural girls who come to the city see the well-to-do life, feel the hardship of their situation and want it.”
Another article in the Los Angeles Times raises the same question, offering a “boyfriend’s” perspective on the problems that China’s housing boom poses for unmarried men. Along with soaring housing prices, a new generation of painful and helpless bachelors has emerged in China.
Mike Zhang thinks he’s boyfriend material. He knows how to order at Italian restaurants, he makes delicious margaritas, and he’s always motivated to carry his girlfriend’s bags. But awkwardly, Zhang, a 28-year-old tour guide and foreign language translator, couldn’t afford to buy an apartment in that hot Beijing real estate market. To stop wasting more time, his girlfriend of 2 years broke up with him. What happened to Mr. Zhang is not an isolated case. After breaking up with his girlfriend, Mr. Zhang realized that he had to start saving up for a house. But he would prefer to have a woman who loves him because of his charm, rather than using a house to keep his head down.