Chinese custom sees women throw embroidered balls from balconies to choose husbands

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1. Thu, 13 August 2026

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   • South China Morning Post10:00first to report
     Chinese custom sees women throw embroidered balls from balconies to choose husbands

     In some classic Chinese novels and period dramas, women of ancient times would throw an embroidered ball from a balcony to the street to randomly choose whoever caught it as their husband. In the classic novel Journey to the West, published in the 16th century, the father of the main character, Buddhist monk Xuanzang, was chosen by his mother by throwing an embroidered ball. In the 1998 Chinese drama My Fair Princess, adapted from Taiwanese writer Chiung Yao’s novel set in the Qing dynasty...