Why your Chinese wedding invite has a cake voucher included, and traditional types of cake
A cake voucher often accompanies an invitation to a Chinese wedding, part of a practice that dates back centuries
![Assorted Chinese wedding cakes. Photo: May Tse](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1020x680/public/d8/images/canvas/2024/11/13/ff5de3ed-ca73-4400-9df8-b8b13ec93917_15d1d137.jpg?itok=6-Cy4Bi8&v=1731481646)
When you receive an invitation to a Chinese wedding, there is often an extra envelope that contains a cake voucher – a part of a practice that dates back centuries.
One story goes that the Chinese wedding cake tradition was born during the Three Kingdoms period (220AD-280AD) in ancient China.
At that time, Sun Quan, a governor, pretended to marry his sister to warlord Liu Bei as part of a scheme to take back disputed land from the warlord.
Liu’s strategist, Zhuge Liang, saw through this and turned the ploy back on Sun by asking Liu to hire a well-regarded pastry chef to make “dragon and phoenix” cakes – symbolic of harmony in a marriage – and to give them out to every household in the area.
After word about the marriage got out, Sun Quan had no choice but to marry his sister to Liu.
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