26-07-2002 16:10									#91
	Put an end to popups!

The funny thing is (okay, maybe "funny" isn't the right word to use... "curious" perhaps) that Chinese thinking in the past used to condone and in certain cases actively encourage cousin weddings. Think of all the intercousin romances in the famous Chinese work "Dream of the Red Mansion" ("Hong Lou Meng"). Think of that poet whose name has temporarily escaped my sieve like memory, who was forever barred from marrying his cousin - not through social taboos, but simply because his mother disapproved.

The tragic story goes that many years after his cousin married, he visited her home and sat in the orchard at the back among the trees, and this cousin had a maid send him some sweets and refreshments as a sign that she still loved him, despite the intervening years. This particular garden still exists, preserved in the Chinese city of Shaoxing. (I saw it, but it's not quite as romantic as the story itself.)

As for traditional American mindsets, I'm not sure. I've spent most of my years outside of America since I was about seven years old, so I haven't come across traditional Americans. By which I don't mean conservative (at least, not politically conservative). I just mean Americans who act more with consultation of the past rather than jumping on the liberatarian bandwagon.

Ron Jeremy is actually kind of right here. The last time I attended a family wedding, there were over 400 guests, and every single one of them was related either through direct blood, or across at most one marriage. That's quite a lot of people. Then again, my father is the eldest child of fourteen.