Qing niang mu, the woman who sings the verses
A woman hired for the wedding who chants four-line verses, from the moment the bride leaves the house and gets into the chair until the couple are shut into the room.
Pronunciation qīng niáng mǔ｜Rites of life｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
A woman brought in for the fetching of the bride, whose work is to sing. She starts as the bride leaves the house and climbs into the chair, and keeps singing to the bridal room, making a verse about whatever she sees, four lines at a time, all of it auspicious. The trade is called zuo si ju, making the four lines.
At the rowdy hour of the wedding night she also answers the guests on the bride’s behalf: a guest sings a line, she takes it up, standing in front of a bride too shy to open her mouth.
When you see it
On the day the bride is fetched — leaving the house, getting into the chair, arriving at the groom’s door, into the room and through the noise afterwards. When the wedding is over, her work is done.
Words easily confused
The qing niang mu comes on the wedding day and sings, but does not arrange the match; that is the go-between, who appeared months earlier at the first approach. Both are called mu, and they belong to two different stages.
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: the sisters’ table, making the four lines, threading the face, the sharing of the sweet balls.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026