YESTERDAY SAW the celebrity wedding of the year in China, an extravagant feast that showed just how the country’s new rich live.
After dating for four years, Xie Na, China’s most famous TV presenter, known as “the girl who spreads happiness”, married up-and-coming pop star Zhang Jie in a lavish ceremony in Shangri-La.
The state government in Yunnan province provided the 30 million yuan (€3.5 million) needed to cover the wedding costs, prompting outrage online among those who felt the money would be better spent on building schools in the impoverished region. Guests also brought betrothal gifts worth an estimated 37 million yuan (€4.3 million).
The bride wore white and the ceremony, which had both Western and Chinese themes, was blessed by a Living Buddha. “I will work very hard to be your good wife,” Ms Xie told her husband.
The bride is more famous than the groom, hosting some of the most popular TV shows in China, including “Happy Camp”, while Mr Zhang is still finding his feet in showbiz.
On China’s version of the banned Twitter social network, Sina Weibo, Ms Xie has 9.8 million followers. One fan wrote: “When I watched, I was so moved, especially when Xie Na thanked her husband for loving her when she needed it most.”
But not all comment was positive. “This is a province where students don’t have meat with their meals, but gave 30 million to a wedding for a couple of entertainers, the tragedy of a country, the sadness of its people,” one citizen commented.
Among the celebrities attending the event was comedian Zhao Benshan, who reportedly gave a wedding gift of 660,000 yuan (€76,600).
“If everyone gave that much as a wedding present, they’d be broke,” one online commentator wrote, while another responded: “He’s good for it.”
Shangri-La, the fantasy kingdom of English writer James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon, is a mythical place of enlightenment in the eastern Himalayas.
The local government, keen to build on the tourism potential of the legendary destination, officially declared the town of Zhongdian as Shangri-La a few years ago and has pumped millions of euro into a huge development programme.
Now Shangri-La has gone from myth to real tourist destination and is officially located in Yunnan, a huge province larger than Germany which stretches from the peaks of the Himalayas to the tropical jungles on the borders with Burma, Laos and Vietnam.