On the afternoon of November 24, 2025, Associate Research Professor Zhang Tao from Tsinghua University was invited to visit the Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University and delivered a wonderful lecture entitled “The Classic, the Code, and the Custom: Tracing the Transmission and Transformation of Marriage Rituals.” This lecture was sponsored by the Department of Communication. The lecture was chaired by Dr. Diao Xiaolong, with Dr. Chen Vivien, Dr. Chen Jianing, Dr. Wong Kar Bo, and more than thirty teachers and students participating in the exchange.

In the lecture, Prof. Zhang adopted a broad historical perspective to clearly and accessibly trace the historical evolution of Chinese marriage rituals. He pointed out that ritual, as a primary cultural phenomenon at the dawn of human civilization, has always evolved dynamically along with social development. He argued that marriage ritual is not merely a simple set of ceremonial norms, but possesses multi-layered forms of expression and profound inner meanings. Among these, the classic represents the core spirit of ritual, deeply rooted in the cultural substratum and formed through long-term accumulation; the code is ritual as recorded in institutional statutes, forming the norms of state governance and social management; and the custom is ritual as it vividly appears in everyday life, becoming the collective practice of the people. Prof. Zhang emphasized that there exists a close interactive logic among these three: as social customs evolve, legal provisions (the code) are correspondingly adjusted and transformed, while cultural “classics” continuously play a fundamental role at a deeper level in rectifying and guiding the whole system.

The lecture focused in particular on the dramatic transformations of traditional marriage rituals against the broad backdrop of modern exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations. Prof. Zhang specifically pointed out that, in the context of modern society, Chinese weddings, while absorbing diverse cultural elements from around the world, are also constantly spreading overseas. In this two-way interactive process, Chinese marriage rituals are gradually taking on a new form that combines deep national cultural roots with an international perspective.

Prof. Zhang’s talk aroused great interest among the teachers and students present. In the subsequent Q&A session, they engaged in lively discussion and academic exchange with him around topics such as “the historical evolution of marriage rituals” and “the functions of ritual in modern society.”

Expert Biography

Zhang Tao holds a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University and is currently an Associate Research Professor at the Institute for State Governance and Global Governance and the School of Humanities, Tsinghua University. His main research fields are Confucianism, ancient ritual studies, and the modern transformation of traditional Chinese culture.