Random Thoughts of a Neophyte in Beijing: The bride had cold feet? or Ewe and I together forever

It’s Valentine's Day in China and since we are almost a day ahead of the U.S. I have had a day to observe the happenings here. The Chinese celebrate two Valentine's days. The American one, which they celebrate the same way as us with lots of roses and flowers being purchased, plans for dinner and romantic evenings. They also celebrate one later in the year that is more traditional and centers on an ancient fairy tale. Young lovers in China, I was told by a co-worker, are more into the American version. They like getting flowers and gifts. Tonight walking home I saw men scrambling quickly with flowers in hand trying to get home to their sweethearts. Some looked truly happy to be heading home and others looked like they were in trouble for waiting too long to think of buying flowers. For the record I got my flower order in early. There were kissing contests in various cities in China to see who could lock lips the longest. At a tourist area in Beijing a large teddy bear was placed on a pink bench so loving couples could pose with it. It seems that the Chinese have truly embraced this made-by-Hallmark holiday.

The biggest Valentine's day news has been an on-going story in the paper about a love affair that has captured the imaginations of netizens all over China. At a wild animal park in Yunnan province a deer named Chunzi and a ram named Changmao have been kept in the same enclosure and the chemistry developed into a full blown national love affair. Pictures of the couple started showing up on Weibo a social media site and the netizens went nuts. There were cute pictures of the two “kissing” and later some rated R photos of them practicing some inter-species hubba hubba. Zoo keepers tried to separate them but that caused problems. Jealous bucks tried to get between the lovers by challenging the ram one got his leg broken by the lovesick ram. Changmao would accept no substitute for his true love. He even refused the hottest ewe. Finally the zoo keepers decided that they wouldn’t stand in the way of a love that strong and soon came the announcement of the Valentine's day wedding.

This morning we got a call from our Yunnan based freelance photographer that the wedding was delayed! Apparently the bride got cold hooves and took off right before the nuptials. OMG what will the waiting public do?? After a few hours of silence we got the news that the bride was back and the happy groom had forgiven her for her runaway bride act. Soon photos came into the newspaper that showed the two walking under an arch that said in Chinese characters “ I do” and then a great photo of the happy groom smiling a huge teeth-bearing grin. He got his love back and all was good again. Only in China.