Family says that groom’s father was just pretending to forcibly kiss the bride
He was allegedly merely acting in accordance with local customs which call for the bride to be ‘pranked’ on her special day
Recently a video spread like wildfire across Chinese social media which was rumored to show the drunken father of a groom forcibly kissing his son’s bride on stage at a wedding banquet in Yancheng, Jiangsu province.
However, the family is now claiming that the father was merely pretending to smooch the young woman — paying “lip service” to a local wedding tradition — and have hired a law firm to take action against those who have damaged their reputation.
In a statement released yesterday, the Jiangsu Dazhi Law Firm notes that stories, photos, and videos of the alleged incident have done great harm to a formerly joyous family and have also given a bad image to the local customs of Yancheng.
The statement claims that the father, surnamed Bian, hosted a large party on Thursday inside the banquet hall of a local hotel to celebrate the marriage of his son, inviting numerous family members, friends, and co-workers.
At the banquet, Bian was acting in accordance with a local tradition of “pranking the bride” (闹新娘子) when he appeared to be forcibly kissing his new daughter-in-law on stage, but was in fact merely pretending to kiss her, “playacting” to meet the expectations and for the enjoyment of those attending, as well as to create the necessary “jubilant” atmosphere for such an event, according to the statement.
The law firm says that stories, photos, and clips which have misportrayed the incident as something else are infringing on the privacy rights of the family and have unfairly tarnished Bian’s integrity and reputation.
The firm has demanded that all outlets who have published the footage delete their posts and issue a public apology or the family will be forced to defend their legal rights.
In the immediate aftermath of the video going viral, there certainly were a number of rumors spread on Chinese social media, including that the bride’s family and groom’s family got into a massive brawl over the kiss, resulting in the groom’s father jumping off a building to his death.
Local police have refuted these rumors. Meanwhile, videos shared which claimed to show scuffles in the aftermath of the kiss have been proven false, including one that we shared yesterday.
However, some Chinese netizens are still refusing to believe that the “kiss” was as innocent as the family is trying to claim.
“Fake? Do you think that we’re blind?” wrote one Weibo user.
“This is the first I’m hearing of this Yancheng custom. Very interesting!” commented another.
Meanwhile, most are appalled at how the father of the groom even pretending to kiss the bride is considered a form of wedding entertainment. In recent years, China’s troubling tradition of “wedding pranks” has come under fire following a few shocking and tragic incidents.
Last June, a pair of groomsmen were arrested in Xi’an after video went viral of them sexually assaulting a bridesmaid in the backseat of a car. That same month, a bridesmaid died after falling from a 4th-floor balcony in rural Guangdong province with some overly-enthusiastic groomsmen being suspected of having accidentally shoved her to her death.
In China, newlyweds are sometimes forced to engage in sexual games or humiliated in some fashion on their special day. Videos regular hit social media showing brides being sexual harassed in one way or another. A couple of years ago, a video of a pair of newlyweds being stripped and pressed into having sex in front of some very giddy wedding guests stirred up a storm online.
