Kunming Part 10: Ju Yuan Lang Wedding Company (part III)

Finally, the day came for the anniversary party. I left immediately after classes were over and headed over to the hotel room where the event was being held. My goodness, you should have seen the room! It was gorgeous; I had never seen that many flowers altogether in my life! That’s no exaggeration. There were these huge bouquets of flowers that were about the size of a small oven, and there were maybe ten of them on each long table, and there were like maybe 10 or more tables that were lined next to each other across the room. And then there were flowers that hung across the back of the seats, and there was purple lighting that illuminated the different shades of purple flowers that were in the bouquets and the pinks of the roses. There were white candles in silver stands, and blue lights on the table that looked like ice.

And ultimately the fact that they wanted to dress me up as this pretty angel made sense. As I said before, I was with four or five other people (the rest Chinese, haha) dressed as angels and we were to greet the guests coming in. It really gave the environment an angelic heavenly-ish feel, haha. Ultimately, it was just this really lovely sight and I am so glad I had the opportunity to be a part of it.

The performance went on, and I did what I was supposed to do, leading the speakers up to the podium and then finally performing the dance with Min Dan. And when it was over, we got to all sit down and eat the yummy Chinese catering they had at the event. It was really good.

Ultimately, as we were all sitting together, Min Dan had everyone give me a round of applause fr helping them out, which was cute, and by the end of the program I had just made a bunch of new friends. And here’s one moment that I will just never forget. As I was sitting and talking with one of the friends I had made, he turned and said to me (in Chinese of course), “Thank you for appreciating and respecting China. Thank you for appreciating Chinese people.” And when that happened, it made me think: There it is. That’s what my coming here to China, to Kunming, was all about. I mean, ever since I stepped on to Kunming ground, I realized that I represent all the communities that I am part of. For example, women, black people, or Americans. There’s many more, but those are just three. I’d say my main community though, the one that Chinese people are going to remember the most, is black people. And so everything I’ve done is so that people would be left with a good impression of my communities. If I so much as did something rude or disrespectful, it could change their opinion of my communities for the worse, and they would tell their friends and family about how they met a (insert community here) girl, and this is what she did. (Insert community here) people aren’t nice at all! Stay away from them. OR if I did something really great, it could change their opinion for the better, and they would tell the people they meet that they met a (insert community here) girl and this is what she did. She was a great person! I came here not only to learn from Chinese people, but also through my actions and just being who I am and being respectful, have them learn from me. And I believe in all my time in Kunming, from end of February to mid-July, I have accomplished that.

At the end, when I was getting ready to leave with Min Dan, we had become good friends at this point, Min Dan gives me a huge, long hug, saying, “Thank you, Kexin, you helped me out a lot!”

So…though the way I stumbled on the Ju Yuan Lang wedding company may have been strange and RARE (I won’t be doing it again), but I obtained a rare and wonderful experience of meeting Chinese people…not just Chinese students, but rather Chinese people who were living in the city with different stories and different backgrounds and different incomes. It was an experience I was extremely lucky to have, a once in a lifetime experience.

Here are some pictures of the flowers...I took a bouquet home and took pictures of it...sorry I have none of the actual place...maybe I'll get some later from my friends. If I do, I'll put them up.

These next two pictures were from some extra orchids they gave me.

I actually really like this one picture below, it's kind of deep, hehe.

Of course, the bouquet got smaller after some of the flowers died. And it got smaller and smaller until it was gone. :( But hey, you can't take it with you.