Clan of the White Lotus - Marriage Customs

[DrNgor]

I've read in places that, for the most part, widows were expected to remain single for the duration of their lives out of respect for their husbands. That was one of the cruxes of the unrequitted love subplot in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In Clan of the White Lotus, Hong Wending (Gordon Liu) helps Mei Ha (Kara Hui) raise her child after her husband in murdered. At one point, she tells him, "You're all I've got." In Chinese culture, would Hong be allowed to marry her and raise the child as his own son  (and presumably have more children together)?

[Asmo]

9 hours ago, DrNgor said:

I think some of the dialog suggested that the employees at the basket factory already thought the two were together, since he helped out so much with the baby and stuff. I'm sure he could marry her in a secret ceremony of sorts (if those existed) and nobody would be the wiser.

Indeed. That could be the case, but if such a thing happened they'd need to be relatively secretive about it. I'm sure there must have been cases where folks remarried (even in secrecy) and others were none the wiser and/or their reputations were unaffected. Those might have been the exceptions based on what we know historically.

[Asmo]

As I understand it, widows were seen as virtuous if they stayed widows. Women could remarry but in doing so would be seen as less decent. Values shifted over time of course, but I'd think that at least some of these perceptions were prominent during the periods of time in which these films were set.

[DrNgor]

10 hours ago, Asmo said:

As I understand it, widows were seen as virtuous if they stayed widows. Women could remarry but in doing so would be seen as less decent. Values shifted over time of course, but I'd think that at least some of these perceptions were prominent during the periods of time in which these films were set.

I think some of the dialog suggested that the employees at the basket factory already thought the two were together, since he helped out so much with the baby and stuff. I'm sure he could marry her in a secret ceremony of sorts (if those existed) and nobody would be the wiser.