Hacker News Reader

Comment by philliphaydon | Hacker News Reader

Last year I got married in Taiwan, I got to pick between Cake Cutting, or a giant pyramid of glasses. I picked cake thinking I get cake.

So come wedding day we have this giant cake next to the stage, we do the cake cutting and we leave.

My best friend at the wedding was shocked I had such a large cake, he was telling people at the table it was huge, my group of friends informed him it was fake, he didn't believe them.

So he got up in front of everyone, nervously walked across the room to inspect the cake, touched it and realised there was dust on the lower pieces and it was hard, then he went to see my father in law to confirm if it was fake or not.

Well it turned out the only real bit was the top bit which was super cheap and not edible, just show for cutting. He was disappointed he wasn't getting cake, after the wedding my wife informed me I wasn't getting cake and I was sad. :(

Apparently this is the norm in Asia.

View on HN

A friend who lives in Singapore attended his first Chinese wedding last month. He kept saying that they had a HUGE cake that they never fed to any guests. He kept waiting for the cake to make its way to his table, but it never did.

He kept saying that the cake must have been a fake, but I never believed him.

And yet, here we are

Also the norm in (parts of?) the Balkans. Typically a cake for cutting, another cake (or several kinds) served in slices afterwards.

Really? Which parts?

I am from Slovenia and never heard of this. Reasonably certain it is not common in Croatia either.

I'm from Bulgaria and I've also never heard of this... Attended a lavish wedding last spring, the cake was quite real and quite delicious!

Same in Greece.

wtf

Got married in Taiwan > Norm in Asia.

That's a huge jump mate.

> That's a huge jump mate.

I live in Singapore and after speaking to people about this, I'm told its the norm, at-least in Taiwan, China, Singapore, Vietnam.

Can confirm for Thailand and Cambodia as well. Honeymoon pictures are typically of the couple being photoshopped on pictures all around the world as well.

(Got married in Cambodia, got fake cake and said pictures as well)

Norm for Japan as well.

People forget that about 2.5B Asians live in the Indian sub-continent and Middle-East

There are no cakes at Indian weddings

I assure you, people do not forget that more than a billion people live in India.

I've seen people make sweeping statements about "Asians" without including Indian people at all.

For instance, I often hear comments like "Asians don't consume much dairy" when they're actually talking about Chinese/Koreans/Japanese people.

Many people think of India and the rest of their side of the Himalayas as a different cultural subcontinent from Asia, much like Europe over the Urals. It's OK.

Every definition of Europe I am familiar with defines the area as east of the Urals. What bits of Europe are on the other side? Were you perhaps thinking of the area south of the Carpathian chain?

It depends. ie one dictionary definition:

Asian

1. belonging to or relating to Asia or its people

2. in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, belonging to or relating to China, Japan, or countries near them

3. in the UK, belonging to or relating to India, Pakistan, or countries near them

Essentially, one definition of "Asian" in the English-speaking world is "the people from Asia that have historically immigrated to our country".

yes, basically.

In American English, "Asian" is a shorthand for "East Asian". In British English, "Asian" is a shorthand for "South Asian".

For example, i don't think there is anyone with an East Asian background in Asian Dub Foundation. And the Asian Cultural Centre in Oxford distinguishes between four kinds of Asian ethnicity, all South Asian, and Chinese:

http://www.asianculturalcentre.org.uk/new.htm

So i tend to think that this usage is not a mistake, but an idiom which differs across the Atlantic.

I've seen people make sweeping statements about "Asians" without including Indian people at all.

I think that's a side effect of changing the usage of "Oriental" ("Oriental is a rug, not a person.") Okay, that's fine, some (many?) find it offensive, so we'll quit using the word that way. But we forgot to have a replacement word. So now instead of "Oriental" we have "Asian" to describe folks from the more eastern parts of Asia. And we're left with "Indians" and "Asians", even thought that's not entirely accurate.

In American English, the continent is split in three: "West Asia", "South Asia", and "Asia".

Ok so I asked my co-workers.

Muslims = 'no there is no such custom'

Hindu = 'we have, its 100% cake, no fake'

Christian = 'we have cake'

Cakes at actual Hindu weddings is almost never a thing. You might have them before the wedding - at the engagement for instance. But weddings are almost always filled with Indian sweets

Are you sure? I literally just googled and the first thing that came up was:

> http://thebigfatindianwedding.com/2014/the-essential-guide-t...

> Many modern Hindu weddings will also have a giant, tiered cake at the reception that the couple cut and do that whole cake-face-smear thing. This is an obvious Western influence, but you can keep it in the right cricket-field at least by doing something like a mehndi or chai-infused cake. Just a suggestion.

Living in India for 30+ years. I am hearing this for the first time. In my state in South India, I am 100% sure there is no cake at any stage of the wedding for Hindus or Muslims.

Does Indian cuisine (and I realize that I'm sweeping a lot of complexity under the rug) include cake?

Predominantly not. Traditional Indian sweets and desserts tend to be milk-based puddings, deep fried items or soft candies similar to fudge, caramel or marzipan. You can't really bake a cake in a tandoor.

As far as I know, cake is not part of Indian cuisine. I am from the state of Kerala (South India). All the bakeries here sell a few types of cakes.

Your question made me curious and I started searching for history of cake in Kerala and came across this: https://www.thebetterindia.com/125658/kerala-mambally-bapu-t...

https://m.facebook.com/tellydiary/posts/600462363372968

Looks like it started in 1880s.

I am big fan of plum cakes that we get in Kerala.

Not really. But cake is a part of birthday celebrations and you'll find bakeries selling cake virtually everywhere.

I'm just going by what my co-workers say. I've personally never been to India. But maybe it's a new thing. Some do it, most don't.

My original comment about it being the norm tho, would be better worded as: 'In Asia where weddings have cake, it seems to be the norm that the cake is often fake'

Have never seen cake in a Hindu wedding. This is the first I’m hearing about it.

Been to a dozen Indian weddings (in the US and India). At the weddings in India, no cake. At all of the weddings in the US, there was cake, regardless of the couples' religion(s). But they were all real cakes; after the couple made the first cut, people lined up to watch the caterers cut the rest of the cake and grab pieces as they were laid out.

Lived all my life in India. I'm 30, married, and as are all my friends. There was no cake at any wedding I've ever attended.

From your own link:

"Western wedding cakes, along with Western pastries like macarons, are becoming more and more common at weddings"

Are becoming popular. Though I doubt what metric they used to measure that

Might have skipped a couple of steps there, buddy. It was probably more like:

Got married in Taiwan > Was surprised about the cake not being real > Asked some Taiwanese friends if this was normal > Friends say yeah, and not just in Taiwan > Really, what other places do this? > Norm in Asia

Reply on news.ycombinator.com