The photo captures a wedding during the Lunar New Year celebrations in the rural Hunan Province of China. Traditionally, many couples will marry during the ‘Spring Festival’, or Chinese New Year period. During this time families come together to relax, eat, play mahjong, and enjoy each other’s company as many family members, separated by work or school, have only this one chance each year to see each other.

Rural communities in China remain largely cut off from the accelerated development taking place in urban areas. Most people farm at little more than a subsistence level and jobs are scarce to non-existent, spurring the massive exodus of workers to the cities. Rural dwellers, eking out a living from the soil in a harsh and unwilling terrain, make up about 60% of China’s population.

Also, check out articles in New America Media category: Asian