Bride Price

Bride Price

The bride price is more than a tradition; it is a staged negotiation, a ritual shaped by history, but highly contested in modern China. Through the wedding banquet, we explore its deeper contradictions: the trade-off between love and wealth, the conflict between generational responsibility and personal freedom. Through performance, manifesto and symbolic food, we re-imagine the wedding banquet as a space of social tension, where marital practices reflect broader struggles – generational conflicts, regional differences and economic pressures. This project brings the battle over the bride price from private negotiation to public discussion, questioning when traditions become obligations and blessings become debts.