Portrait of a Group of Chinese Women , Not before 1930s
Photograph
[CC_PH_00200]

This is a wedding portrait of the Yip family in Vancouver, British Columbia. The ceremony is likely to be the wedding between Alice May Yip (born in 1906) and C.B. Wand, one of the most prominent photographers in Chinatown. The Yip family members in the photo displayed a mixture of traditional Chinese and Western dressing styles, which speaks to social adaptation and complex cultural nuances in the process of migration. The Chinese Canadian marriage ceremony in the 1920s and 1930s was significant for the bride and groom’s immediate families as well as their respective communities. It is an event meant to form social bonds between overseas Chinese communities. Many women’s wedding fashion blends Chinese tradition with Western practices. The 1930s wedding fashion in the West favoured floor-length veil made of lace with a tiara-style headdress. In contrast, Chinese brides at this time would wear a silken covering for the head and face in public before the groom uncovered their veil in private space. In this photo, the bride wears a calf-length cheongsam dress with floral embroidery and a Western veil and headdress, typical for Chinese women who live overseas. Moreover, Chinese Canadian children in this photograph mostly dress in Western fashion, which captures the generational gap in dressing, and visualizes how their cultural identity was more complicated than their immigrant parents.

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