2003-08-29-jewish-taiwanese wedding

2003-08-29-Jewish/ Taiwanese wedding

Jewish Life Cycle Events

Jewish weddings


Cultures intermingle in Jewish-Taiwanese wedding San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, Aug. 29, 2003

By Daniel J. Brin

SAN DIEGO — Tied together with a red string and standing under a chuppah, David Franklin Harrison and Hui-Wen Chang exchanged vows on Sunday, Aug. 17, in a ceremony that combined Taiwanese and Jewish wedding traditions.

As the sun prepared to set over Mission Bay at Paradise Point Resort, guests in the outdoor ceremony examined a small leaflet, handed to them in red envelopes, that explained the customs of two distant and different worlds.

The leaflet explained that in the tradition of Taiwan, Hui-Wen's homeland, the red string symbolizes a couple's lifelong ties of matrimony. It also explained that in the Jewish traditions of David¹s family, the chuppah, or wedding canopy, symbolizes the Jewish home that the two newlyweds will build together.

As Rabbi Alexis Roberts of Congregation Dor Hadash read from the couple's ketubah, or Jewish marriage contract, Kuang-Tsu Hsueh, founding president of Kaohsiung Normal University and high school teacher of the bride's father, stood by to read an official Taiwanese marriage certificate. And after David and Hui-Wen circled each other in a Jewish custom demonstrating that they now constituted the centers of each other's lives, they bowed to each other three times, indicating in the Chinese manner that they will respect each other today, tomorrow and forever.

At the ceremony's conclusion, David stomped on a glass and, to the shouts of mazal tov and the joyful fiddling of violinist Myla Wingard, the wedding party led the guests into a banquet room where they all engaged in a custom that is shared by every culture: the wedding feast.

Members of the wedding party and honored guests from both cultures were introduced during breaks in music performed by a band led by Herb Cohen. Among these were the parents of the groom, Heritage co-publisher Donald H. Harrison and his wife, Nancy; the bride's parents, Dr. Wen-Shion Chang, president of Lung-Hua National University of Science and Technology in
Taiwan, and his wife, Ming-Hui Liu Chang. Others included the groom's sister, Sandi Masori, who came with her husband, Shahar, and their 2-year-old son, Shor, who served as ringbearer, and two of the bride's sisters, Hui-Shin and Hui-Chih. The latter¹s daughter, Ting-Hsuan, served as the flower girl.

Other honored guests included the grandparents of the groom, Sam and Sydel Zeiden of Oceanside; uncles of the bride Chien-Te Liu and Chien-Yu Liu of Taiwan; uncles and aunts of the groom, Bill and Donna Harrison of Ventura and Carl and Barbara Zeiden of Modesto, and scores of other family members and friends from Taiwan, Minnesota, Florida, Maryland and various parts of California.

Best man was Dr. Alkes Price of San Diego and groomsmen were David Goldberg of Riverside and Jason Weibert of Los Angeles. Maid of honor was Jenny Liu of San Jose and bridesmaids were Jungho Lee and Cathy Sun, both of San Diego.

The bride and groom surprised their grandparents and parents by arranging for all the guests to form a circle and dance the mezenek, a Yiddish dance honoring parents who marry off a youngest child.

Donald Harrison then pulled a surprise of his own, welcoming the Taiwanese guests with a speech in the Mandarin language that amused his coach, Peggy Han, and apparently puzzled the Mandarin speakers in the room. Subsequent interviews with the newest members of his extended family revealed to Harrison that between 50 and 80 percent of his words were comprehensible to
them.

The day began with a series of prenuptial visits and ceremonies that accorded with Chinese customs, albeit with a Jewish flavor. After the bride shared with her family a traditional farewell meal at D.Z.Akin's delicatessen, they returned to the private guest house where they were
staying in time for David to show up and submit to a series of "test" questions prepared by the bridesmaids to see how well he knew his future bride.

After passing his examination, David was allowed to meet with Hui-Wen's parents, who watched as their daughter, the bride, served her groom and guests a special sweet tea brewed with red dates — a symbol of fertility.

The wedding couple then went down on their knees to thank the bride's parents for a job well done in raising her.

Soon they were at the groom's house, where— again according to Taiwanese tradition— the bride stepped (carefully) over a small charcoal grill and the groom broke a roof tile before entering. These two ceremonies symbolize the hope for fertility. Once inside, it was David's turn to serve tea to Hui-Wen and to her bridesmaids.

The couple's intercultural romance began in April of 2002, when Sandi Masori succeeded in maneuvering her brother David into meeting Hui-Wen at their favorite restaurant, Sushi Ota in San Diego. It wasn't long before David and Hui-Wen understood that their match was beshert (destiny). Sandi, owner of Balloon Utopia, also created the centerpieces for the wedding reception.

David had to wait until the end of the SARS scare to fly to Taiwan and ask Hui-Wen's parents for permission to marry their daughter. From that point, the families had six weeks to prepare a wedding in San Diego— the bride's father had to be back in Taiwan in time for the university to start its academic year at the beginning of September.

The newlyweds have no immediate plans for a honeymoon. David reports that his parents gave them an ocean cruise for a wedding present, and he and Hui-Wen might use it to sail close to her parents at some point in the future.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, David Harrison is director of finance for Jacques Gourmet, a San Diego company that specializes in meringue cookies and owns 18 restaurants. Hui-Wen, whose American friends call her Cathy, has two master¹s degrees, from Southern Illinois University and SDSU.