Attended Cindy's & James' wedding today in a nice Claremont church..... this is truly the year for weddings. Didn't think I could make it originally be'cos of (now non-existent) class but I thought yx would like it if I came, plus I missed her, her mum, Darwin and Claremont in general anyway. They're going to seal off access to our complex anyway, during the fireworks, so might as well leave the insanity behind and spend a nice weekend down south.
The congregation supposedly made up of the couple's religious fellowship; 97% of the people there were Asian-Americans - reinforcing the distinct "no-longer-in-America" feeling of certain portions of LA. This was an affluent crowd of well-to-do Chinese who chose to uproot themselves in the 70s & 80s and raise their next generation in America. The children were all well-groomed and very typical (how typical, I can't really put in words) upper-class ABC. The older generation also displayed traits of upper-class Taiwanese-ness, exuded grace and high-class-ness. People were resplendent in their Western suits and Cheongsams.
Being more adventurous, yx convinced me to wear my black Zhong Shan attire - aka Dr. Sun Yat-Sen style and being sel-conscious I had to endure the probably non-existent feeling of being a sore thumb and sticking out like a clown in the crowd of well-dressed Chinese people who might have thought that I was trying to be funny. Sort of like a character from a bad American kungfu movie where every Asian person knows kungfu and spoke bad English with an even worse accent. But I mean, if Chinese women look nice in their Cheongsams and Indians look great in their traditional costumes, why can't Chinese men wear our traditional formal attire? Hmm... I will try to buy more of such clothing the next time I'm in Shanghai or Beijing.
Anyway, back to the wedding - it was a relatively short one compared to previous church weddings. You have the march-in of the groom, his bestman and groomsmen, then the bridesmaids the maid-of-honour, pretty, pretty yx, the ringbearers, the flower-girls and finally Cindy accompanied by 陈叔叔 (Chen2 Shu3shu2). Cindy looked so serious and solemn.
After the church ceremony, we adjourned to the banquet - at a restaurant that resembled an old mine from the outside, for an afternoon of feasting. Our table was supposedly the sole non-Christian fellowship table, consisting of Cindy's high school teachers and youth orchestra coordinators, Diana (the third in the triumvirate of yx, Diana and Cindy), Liz (D's sister), followed by yx, (Ayi2) and myself. I spent the first few minutes figuring out the technical setup and getting the projector to work. Did I mention that if not for Pauline, the video that yx painstakingly worked on for the past two weeks would not have gotten shown at Cindy's wedding? I forgot to get yx the video adapter for my iBook and luckily Pauline brought it and her PowerBook so we did a frantic transfer of files in the morning before the banquet.
Great video - yx could finally rest at ease. She was pretty stressed out but at least she seemed relieved at the end.
Well, we're going shopping tomorrow 'cos I decided Joshua Tree Nat'l Park is too hot at this time. So hopefully I can get something nice for Datou & PeiTze.
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