Professional bridesmaids are being hired to perform wedding duties in China because amateurs are finding the tasks demanded of them too demeaning or vulgar.
Reports suggest that the role has changed significantly in recent years.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
These increasingly demeaning and humiliating tasks "have scared away the real bridesmaids who usually used to be friends and relatives of the bride", it adds.
The practice has come under scrutiny following a viral video showing the treatment of a bridesmaid at the Bali wedding of Chinese actor Bao Beier.
Bridesmaid Liu Yan is seen being seized by several celebrity groomsmen who then tried to throw her into a pool, ignoring her protests.
Critics say this is sexual harassment and highlights the plight of bridesmaids at Chinese wedding ceremonies.
"Liu was definitely sexually violated, whether she said it is true or not," Luo Ruixue, from the women's right group Women Awakening Network, told the Global Times.
"If we dig deeper, in China, the teasing culture in weddings shows men collectively harassing women," she added.
One professional assistant, Vision Peng, told the Financial Times that by hiring bridesmaids, a bride was effectively doing her friends a favour.
"Professional bridesmaids like me are tougher than amateurs," Peng said. "Some best men will tease bridesmaids or be fresh with them. Professionals like me can solve the embarrassment easily and quickly. That's one reason I think why people hire me, to protect their friends."
-
Judge tosses DOJ petition for Oregon voter dataSpeed Read The decision was made following a letter sent by the DOJ to Minnesota
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
Trump inches back ICE deployment in MinnesotaSpeed Read The decision comes following the shooting of Alex Pretti by ICE agents
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from Gaza
Speed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
