Jie mei zhuo, the sisters’ table
The night before the wedding the bride’s family lays one table for unmarried friends and her own sisters, the bride at the head of it, and the sisters’ song is sung.
Pronunciation jiě mèi zhuō｜Rites of life｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
The night before she leaves, the bride’s family lays out a table of food and drink and invites only unmarried girlfriends and her own sisters, with the bride in the seat of honour. It is called the sisters’ table, or the sisters’ feast. No men are asked. Once the table is eaten, each goes her own way in the morning.
Songs are sung at it: one starts and the rest take up, mostly old stories of carrying water together and going to the opera together as children. Some sing the song of the twelve months, a line for each, and the table breaks up at the twelfth.
When you see it
Most often the night before the wedding, sometimes several days earlier. The food is plain; what counts is who is at the table.
Words easily confused
It is not the shi zhuo, the wedding feast laid outside the groom’s door with seats ordered by generation. The sisters’ table is in the bride’s own house, one table only, all of them women of her own age. It sits next to the giving of money and rice, which is a portion handed to younger siblings before she goes out: the table first, the portion after.
Read next: Chaoshan marriage: from the first approach to the return visit.
See also: Rites of life: the five thresholds side by side.
Same group: weeping at the wedding, making the four lines, the banquet table.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026