Draft:Wedding Bells (book)

Wedding Bells is a book written for English learners of Cantonese who are interested in reading colloquial Cantonese at intermediate or advanced level.

Plot

The book tells the story of Cream Lee (Cantonese speaking woman from Hong Kong) meets Shin Kataoka, culminating in a Chinese-style wedding. The story has twenty chapters, each written in the first-person perspective of Cream Lee. Ms. Lee starts by describing how since childhood she always liked to argue to the contrary of what society wanted her to do and how that helped her accomplished the career and living conditions she now has at her reach. Immediately on the first chapter, you start learning about the nuances of her life and how she has to juggle being a career-minded woman (lit. 女強人 a super-woman).

However, even though she was able to afford a high-rise expensive apartment and vacations to sunshine filled beaches, there was something missing. She continues explaining her life as an "old spinster" or 老姑婆 while men around her get the luxury of being called golden bachelors or 鑽石王老五 (lit. diamond single man). Her mother prays at the 黃大仙 temple for her to get married and her sister insists on her dating and to work fewer hours.

Ms. Lee finally gives in her sister's wishes and has a date with a Japanese man. They immediately click ( 啱key "right key") as they talk about their respective experiences abroad when they travelled while in college. In addition, their mutual love for food and outdoor activities bring them closer.

However, they realize that although they share common interests, sometimes speaking different native languages is difficult on their relationship and they discover sometimes they feel as if they talk like a chicken would talk to a duck (雞同鴨講 talking at cross purposes). This difficulty is compounded by the fact that he has to go back to Japan to work and now they only talk by phone or email.

Mr. Kataoka finally moves back to Hong Kong and they go on a date to the pier where he reveals his intentions with her. The story continues to presents difficulties to Cream as she twists her ankle in Macau and has to be hospitalized. She realizes that Shin is there for her (unlike prior times where she has been hospitalized) and that this current hospitalization has been a blessing in disguise (塞翁失馬).

Ms. Lee's mother meets him and they start planning the wedding. The book culminates on the wedding and wedding banquet, telling a story of how modern day woman and a foreign man traverse throughout customary Chinese wedding traditions. At the wedding banquet, Ms. Lee jokingly says that she only uses him as a stick (since her foot still has not healed completely) as an allegory to being happy that having Shin standing by her to confront difficulties together is really much better than before.

References

https://www.green-woodpress.com/products_detail.php?id=84

Notability

The book meets #3 rule about notability. It is considered a reliable source that has made a significant contribution to Cantonese learning (language that does not have as many resources as Mandarin) as it explores a compelling fictional story. The book has been praised by well known Cantonese teachers Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews on the foreword section. They write "A more personal cause for pleasure is the way in which the authors have put their unique experiences to the service of teaching Cantonese in this fictionalized narrative ... We trust readers will enjoy it as much as we did...". Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews have written multiple books regarding Cantonese grammar, .