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Zhuang Marriage Customs

In some places of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, it is still popular to throw a ball made of silk strips when seeking a spouse. A young man and a girl who get to know each other through antiphonal singing and love each other even get married secretly without approval from their parents. If a girl finds a spouse through antiphonal singing and throwing a silk ball, without a matchmaker and betrothal gifts, in Zhuang culture this is considered very romantic.

In Longsheng County of the Guilin area in Guangxi, there are some unique marriage customs such as carrying the bride on the back, “stumping ladder,” “dismantling bridge,” and singing in antiphonal style. The bride is usually carried out of the gate by a man who has a complete family of parents and children or by the bride's father on his back.

The bride leaves for the bridegroom's home not in a sedan or chair but on foot accompanied by more than ten bridesmaids and singer(s). The dowry must include a pair of shoes and a suit for the bridegroom, one scarf for his mother-in-law and aunt-in-law each, and one waistband for his father-in-law and uncle-in-law each.

When the bride arrives at the bridegroom's home, she goes upstairs via a bamboo ladder specially built for the wedding and crosses a new bridge constructed for her to enter the bridal chamber. After she reaches the upstairs via the bamboo bridge, a young man whose parents are still in good health will stump the bridge at once. After she enters the bridal chamber, someone else removes the bridge at once. The two customs indicate that the bride has no route of retreat and has to settle down in her husband's family perpetually, live to old age in conjugal bliss and be loyal to her husband forever.

At night, the bridesmaids and singers sing in antiphonal style with young men in the village. The bride visits her parents the next day and the bridegroom fetches her back on the day or the next day of the visit.

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