before a couple gets married, it's popular in china and taiwan for them to take fancy pictures together--to show they are happy and they are beautiful.

i see these pictures every now and again. on the bus train from yilan to taipei, there is a television advertisement for them. the pictures are nicely composed and the settings, costumes, and make-up are fantastic. there are scenes of the man leading the woman in a waltz, the couple riding in a hot air balloon, the couple holding hands in a park.

but it's just a fantasy. it's just make-belief. these pictures are made so that they can show others what a "perfect" relationship they have. underneath the surface, it's all a facade of adulthood--that the couple knows how to love and how to live and how to think for their families. i see these pictures, and i feel a cloud of disappointment because this is exactly the kind of facade my parents want from me. it's a fairy tale that cannot come true.