A Comprehensive History of Chinese Customs (Volume on the Qing Dynasty)

Author: Lin Yongkang Yuan Lizhe / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features:
(V) The Trend of International Marriages Gradually Emerges The phenomenon of international marriages during the late Qing Dynasty not only gradually increased but also gained momentum. Precisely because of this, in the year before the fall of the Qing Dynasty (the second year of the Xuantong era, 1910), the Qing government's Ministry of Education submitted a proposal to ban overseas students from marrying foreigners, indicating an unstoppable trend. It is noteworthy that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the practice of international marriages first began, the groom was often Chinese, while the bride was mostly Westerners or Japanese, with very few Chinese women marrying foreign men. Typical examples of such marriages include: Around 1898, a Norwegian female missionary, Mrs. [Name], married a Chinese clergyman named Cheng Xiuping while serving as a missionary in Huozhou, changing her Chinese name to "Cheng Yuying" and having one daughter with him. In 1900, Zhang Wen (transliteration), a staff member at the Qing government's embassy in Germany, not only married a German woman but also held a Western-style wedding ceremony. In 1906, Chen Xinzhi, a student from Sichuan who studied in Japan, married a Japanese woman named Yamaguchi Tomoe during his studies. After completing his studies, he returned to China with his wife and taught the Japanese language (Japanese) as his profession.