In a modern competitive industrial society, the individual is often forced to devote so much time and energy to the pursuit of his career, that he may have very little opportunity to tend to his personal burdens. That being the case, enterprising service organizations are springing up around the country to meet a rising need.
Chefs, housekeepers, janitors, beauticians, and travel agents are among the up-and-coming service personnel of new firms organized to assist overburdened modern people with everyday problems. Their activities, directly and indirectly, are boosting Taiwan living standards.
There is a wedding service now which will organize all the time-consuming details involved for both bride and groom leading to the marriage. There is a postnatal care service that tends to the new mother's health and comfort during the first month at home, and to the nourishment of her baby during the same period. A diaper service will shoulder that task for busy mothers. And other services take on such jobs as getting kindergarteners safely to and from school, or even buying the groceries.
Because these new service companies are a growing aspect of 20th-century life, Sinorama is, with this issue, introducing a new regular department--"New Services." Our opening article describes a new wedding service.
The Chinese people attach great importance to traditional etiquette. The three biggest events in most lives--birth, marriage, and death--all, accordingly, surrounded by ritual requirements that also involve friends and relatives. In the traditional society of China's past, marriage was a union of two households, as well as two people, its aspects involving status and economics as well as a form of social well-being-mutual benefit to both.
The wealthiest families --like others the world over-- use the occasion as a pretext for exhibiting their riches and social status, lavishing sums on each phase. In past times, expenses began with the matchmaker, went on through the gifts sent by the groom's family to that of the bride, etc. Today the wedding service may even select the wedding date and invite the guests. Once the wedding day required the killing of pigs and sheep, and the entertainment of a throng of friends and relatives at the home of the groom, where the din would continue until midnight. But in modern times, young people have become increasingly more free to arrange their own marriages. Since the youth of today largely ignore traditional requirements, they often expend enormous energy trying to arrange the decorations, gifts, wedding invitations, cards, etc. for an appropriate modern ceremony.
The district courts around the island offer a special marriage service, with the district judge officiating, so a wedding may be actually completed in a very simple and solemn manner. However, many still desire the elaborate celebration of a "memorable" wedding.
Lin Shih-shan and her friends co-founded a wedding service to arrange "memorable" weddings, handling details from engagement parties to honeymoon hotel bookings.
The service lists ten major elements: gifts, setting of dates, the cakes, invitation cards, wedding dress, make-up, photos, limousine, reception party, and honeymoon trip.
"A couple needs to spend only two or three days conferring with us. Then they will be free to devote their time and energy to other important matters--like their first home," Lin advised. The full service, including 50 boxed cakes, a five-table reception party, and a 24-hour honeymoon sojourn at a northern beach resort may run in the neighborhood of NT$40,000 (US$1,000).
Last October, a new "Bridesmaid Company" was established in the central city of Taichung. The firm provides women skilled in cosmetology to assure the bride is at her most beautiful through the most important day of her life.
The firm's professionals normally undergo three months' training in cosmetics, skin-care, keep-fit exercises, wedding clothing... and even in psychology, not to mention the various wedding customs and legal requirements. Their normal service fee is about NT$300 per hour.
Wedding pictures are a requirement of long standing met by some four hundred specializing companies around the island.
This month one such firm, Sesame Photo & Wedding Gown Company, plans to set up a "Wedding Square", patterned after a department store counter, to bring together all pertinent goods and services for engaged couples.
In Taiwan's fast-paced, hi-tech society of the 1980s, the wedding ceremony has maintained its traditional importance; though career-occupied brides, grooms, and parents may no longer have the time to arrange that once-in-a-lifetime "unforgettable" ceremony, it is no farther away than the telephone.
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Photo shops can provide beautiful backgrounds to give wedding pictures a joyful appearance.
1.3. Car rental and decoration of the reception hall are among the services provided by the wedding company. 2. Wedding photos include both the conventional inside type and the outdoor variety. 4. Trained experts assist the photographer with lighting and the pose and straightening of attire as part of their comprehensive service.
In a church ceremony bridesmaids of the same faith as the bride accompany her in the singing of hymns.
1.3. Car rental and decoration of the reception hall are among the services provided by the wedding company.
2. Wedding photos include both the conventional inside type and the outdoor variety.
1.3. Car rental and decoration of the reception hall are among the services provided by the wedding company.
4. Trained experts assist the photographer with lighting and the pose and straightening of attire as part of their comprehensive service.
In a church ceremony bridesmaids of the same faith as the bride accompany her in the singing of hymns.
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