The first day of 2007 witnessed a special wedding in which a middle-aged man married the photo of himself wearing a red cheongsam in a square of Guanzhou Village, Haizhu District, Guangzhou.

　　The bridegroom in yellow suits and the life-size photo were the focus of curious villagers and wedding guests who crowded the square.

　　The wedding followed the full procedures of an ancient Chinese wedding. Accompanied by the best man and the matron of honour holding a red umbrella, the bride kowtowed to heaven and earth, to ancestors and to the elderly aged 90 and above with the photo in a temple of the village.

　　During the wedding banquet, the bride, holding the photo in his arms, toasted to each of the guests in turn. Biscuits, candies, lucky money and peanuts, all of which symbolized good luck in a traditional Chinese wedding, were distributed to guests and children in the village. “It is a real grand wedding except that the bride is a photo,” a guest said.

　　Bridegroom: I’m narcissistic

　　The bridegroom introduced himself as a 39-year-old bachelor surnamed Liu and pen named Liu Ye (流野). He used to be an editor and now runs a culture company with his friends.

　　The reason why he chose the village as his wedding venue lay in that the village had a simple and pristine atmosphere with well-kept ancient buildings, as fitted in with his dream of holding his wedding in such an atmosphere.

　　Liu Ye said that he would bring his “bride” to register in civil affair authorities if possible.

　　“There are diverse reasons for me to marry myself,” the Hakka native said, “The main one is my dissatisfaction with reality. Marrying myself is a process of deconstructing and reconstructing myself. I make use of the wedding to reconsider opposite-sex marriage. My behavior seems ridiculous, but I am traditional and conservative in heart so the wedding ceremony is traditional.”

　　He was not a gay, he emphasized, “I’m just a little bit narcissistic. The idea of marrying myself was inspired by my friends who are performance artists. I myself am not a performance artist. I am just an angry Chinese youth at best.”

　　During the wedding, a group of performance artists who claimed themselves as Ph.D and painters held a serious of performance art activities.

　　Villagers: we didn’t know what they were doing

　　According to the master of the wedding ceremony, Liu’s life experience had a direct bearing with the wedding. “In our eyes, he is a man of great talent,” the master said, “He suffered hardship in childhood and later became an editor of a state-run media. He is full of anxiety in real life so he has been thought of doing something special to catch the public’s attention.”

　　The master also said that Liu was a man with strange ideas compared to ordinary people. “Although the wedding seems ridiculous, I support him as his friend.”

　　Villagers said they totally had no idea of what the wedding was about. “I thought it was a group wedding,” a young mom said.

　　Wedding guests included the groom’s friends, his company’s clients and even some people who just met him once. Most of them came here out of curiosity.

　　Psychologist: he is abnormal

　　A professor surnamed Shen in Baiyun District Psychology Hospital said the bride seemed to be psychologically unhealthy since he as a middle-aged man did not find a female or a male as his partner.

　　新年第一天，一名中年男子和他的旗袍女装照在广州海珠区官洲村举行了一场另类婚礼———与自己拜天地。