Since Ancient times, Chinese people practice the giving of gifts to the family of

the bride, which is a sign of betrothal prior to the wedding ceremony. This tradition is
made up of two parts. First, the matchmaker or the groom will visits the brides home and
presents gifts, two weeks before the day of the wedding. This process called Guo Da Li,
which assures the bride of the grooms word of honor to keep his promise. The second
part of the betrothal tradition is the giving back of the gift by the bride to the groom. This
symbolizes her goodwill, and the return gifts may include 2 bottles of honey or orange
syrup, as well as the other items in the betrothal basket, with the exception of the jewelry
and 1 pair of dragon candles. The meaning of orange syrup is as a good luck. The jewelry
contain male accessory made of gold such as ring, watch and Ang Bao and more.
Nowadays, most of the Chinese still practice traditional Guo Da Li. Chinese
will have betrothal ceremony before one month of the wedding or the lately two weeks
before actual wedding. Some modern Chinese people will practice their own betrothal
ceremony. In this new era country, we need spent a lot of money in our daily expenses.
Due to this reason, modern Chinese family can divided into poor family and rich family.
But this do not prevent the youngster to get marry. Marry is very important to Chinese
people. As the eldest said youngster should have the responsibility to carry on ones
ancestral line. To prevent the family to disappear. Marry is major turning point of
lifelong import.
Based on our survey, many modern Chinese are from hakka dialect. Hakka
speaking Chinese are the sixth largest Chinese dialect spoken among Chinese in
Malaysia. Originally, the ethnic Hakka trace their ancestry to the early immigrants who
came from the various provinces of Southeastern China such as Guangdong, Hainan,
Henan, Hubei, and Hunan. The early immigrants were from northern China which are
Beijing, Hebei and Heilongjiang. They had migrated to become a temporary resident in
the southern provinces between the 4th and 18th centuries. Thus, they are called Hakka,
Kechia, or Khek, which means "guest people" in Chinese. Although the Hakka dialect
may contain elements from both Mandarin and Cantonese, it is a distinct language in its
own

right.

Hakka speaking Chinese are widely dispersed throughout Malaysia usually in many rural

areas. Chinese speaking Hakka can be found in the states of Penang, Malacca, Johor,
Kedah and Perlis. (Joshua Project, n.d)
Hakka Chinese will prepare well in Guo Da Li gift ceremony. This is because
marriage brings about the union of two families. Proper customs need to be followed
during the betrothal gift ceremony as a form of respect to both families and show of
sincerity for the union. Traditionally, Hakka Chinese will invite match maker which call
Mei Po ( ) to have a marriage proposal. The groom with his family will bring
betrothal gift to brides house. The groom need prepared certain gift and put into gifts
basket and send to bride. The gift need to be prepared for Hakka Chinese are one Ang
Bao with betrothal gift money called Ping Jin ( ) and normally the money need
have an amount with 8, two pairs Double Happiness candles (2 dragon 2 phoenix),
prepared roast pork for Mother-In-Law and hard liquor or wine to Father-In-Law.
Wedding cake will be prepared by brides family to distribute to relatives in order to let
them know they will be married. Groom will prepared 8-12 oranges which symbolize of
good luck and 1216 apples which symbolize as peace. 1 Gift Box containing
Jewelry to bride. This gives the bride an assurance that she will always have
a comfortable life with the husband. If brides family have grandparents, the groom
should prepared the Pine tree leaf which Symbolized longevity and health, health
and vitality for couple and a pair of Coconut which homophone for Grandfather and
Child. This meant by to have a family with multi-generation. Abacus Suan Pan Zi (
) very important for Hakka Chinese. It symbolizes that in the coming year, everyone
will have money to count or calculate. (suanpanzi, 2011) Besides, 5 types of seeds need
to prepare and it symbolizes prosperity, growth and perpetuation of the family and the
beans must be planted in potted plants 12 days after Guo Da Li ceremony. After the

brides family accepts their gifts, which should all be in even number, an auspicious date
for the wedding will picked and details of wedding will be discussed. Afterwards, the
bride family will return portion of the gifts which usually half, a gesture to say that they
wish to maintain a good relationship with the grooms family and include the brides
dowry for the grooms family to bring back. (Top Photography, 2015)

As undergo modernization, some Hakka Chinese will prepared less betrothal gift
due to them migrate to new place and learn the new cultures. They will practice the major
Hakka culture at the new place such as in Malaysia. Hakka Chinese in Malaysia will
undergo Betrothal gift ceremony but they will prepared less things compare what had
ancient Hakka people prepared. Some of the reasons are some betrothal gift have
difficulties for modern Hakka Chinese. Nowadays the bride and groom have their own
works and they have no enough time to plant the seeds. Besides, some Hakka family are
poor and the economic in Malaysia become worst. They do not have enough money to
affort in the betrothal gifts so they decide to prepare less gift. They will prepare the
important betrothal gifts such as Angbao with betrothal gift money, 2 pair of Double
Happiness candles, Suan pan zi and Gift Box which containing Jewelry and more.
Nowadays, Hakka Chinese do not follow the traditional Hakka method. They will follow
the trend which do not have the Hakkas rules. For an examples, brides father has to
carry a red umbrella to shelter her to the car. Afterwards, the bride do not allow to look
back to her mother. This supposedly to mean that the bride has to look ahead to a good
future. (Cheers, 2013) Any dialects have practice this not only in Hakka.
There are no Taoist Hakka people practice Taoists betrothal ceremony. They just
follow the way of dialects to practice the Guo Da Li gift ceremony.

References:

1. Han Chinese, Hakka in Malaysia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 16, 2015, from
https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/12054/MY
2. About Suan Pan Zi. (2011, December 22). Retrieved November 16, 2015, from
https://suanpanzi.wordpress.com/about/
3. Betrothal Gift Ceremony (Guo Da Li) for Hakka and Cantonese. (n.d.).
Retrieved November 16, 2015, from http://www.topphotography.com.sg/weddingtraditions-for-hakka-and-cantonese/betrothal-gift-ceremony-for-hakka-andcantonese/
4. Advice needed for Hakka tradition. (n.d.). Retrieved November 16, 2015, from
http://singaporebrides.com/weddingforum/threads/advice-needed-for-hakkatradition.1352/