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decorated cock but in order to make this valid three conditions must be fulfilled.
a valid betrothal;
an intention of the bridegroom to attend the marriage ceremony; and the eventual arrival of the bridegroom for consummation.
The witness explained that in certain parts of China because of lack of communication a bridegroom was sometimes delayed and as a matter of expediency a cock was sometimes allowed to represent him.
A settlement was negotiated by the third day of the hearing and the learned Chief Justice held that he was entitled under the circumstances to grant letters of administration jointly to the plaintiffs and the defendant but by consent the grant was made to the first and third plaintiffs, that is to the widow and one of her sons, and they were to pay about a quarter of the value of the estate to the defendant, who had filed a caveat as next of kin, against his abandoning all claims to the estate.
Cases of such marriages by proxy are rare and those which have come to the attention of the authorities in Hong Kong were celebrated in the neighbouring Chinese territory.
In 1954 Mr D. R. Holmes, the present District Commissioner of the New Territories, took statements from two villagers from the Po On District of China in regard to this customary form of marriage. One witness first distinguished the custom of a representative of the bridegroom's family taking a cock with a red thread tied on its leg to the bride's home in order to fix the date of the wedding. This custom takes place a few weeks before every wedding whether by proxy or otherwise. On the evening of a proxy wedding day there was a distinct and separate cock representing the husband carried by an attendant, which went together with the bride into the household shrine to worship the ancestors of the bridegroom's family. This cock too had a red thread on its leg. The act of worship was an essential part of the marriage custom. Only a “kit fat” wife could be taken in this way.
There is no form of customary marriage by proxy where the bridegroom is present but the bride absent.
The custom of “sam p’o tsai” or prospective daughter-in-law exists in the New Territories. Since it is practiced particularly by Hakka.