Lady in Red

lady in red

 i’m from china, and my name is su. the problem i will tell about began one day when i was sitting with friends at lunchtime talking and laughing. my friend jan told the rest of us that we were invited to her sister’s wedding. i was very excited because i had never been to an american wedding. her sister’s wedding was going to be held the following week.
 when school was over, i rushed home so excited that i forgot to take my math book. i was thinking of what to wear to the wedding. i thought of wearing black and white but then decided that would not be good for a wedding. well, i sat in my room thinking for hours and still i couldn’t come up with anything. then, looking around my room, i noticed something red and thought, why not wear all red to the wedding?
 i asked my mother her idea about it and she told me that red would be a good color and that in china the color red was for good luck. the next day she went shopping with me. we couldn’t find anything for several hours. finally, i found a red suit that i thought was wonderful. it was made out of silk; the trousers were very baggy, and the blouse was like a jacket with see-through sleeves. next, i went to buy a pair of shoes. i bought a white pair with some red flowers on the front.
 the day of the wedding my friends picked me up so that we could go together to jan’s house. i was the only one who was wearing red. when we got to jan’s house, she greeted us and gave me this funny look, which i didn’t like. she seemed mad, but i didn’t know why. when she introduced us to her family, her family also gave me this funny look i didn’t like. after that, jan and her family never spoke to me once the whole day. i wanted to cry because everyone kept looking at me like i had done something wrong.
 finally, the wedding was over. i got home and told my mom what happened. the next day, jan called me and said we couldn’t be friends anymore, but she didn’t give me a reason. later on, one of my friends told me that in jan’s culture the color red is a sign of bad luck. jan and her family thought that by wearing red i was putting the wedding couple in danger. my friend also told me that at most american weddings the red suit would not have been a problem at all. i found all this confusing, but at least i finally understood what had happened.
 in conclusion, i think that people shouldn’t stop being friends or get angry at other people if they do something wrong just because of a cultural misunderstanding. i think people should talk things over before ending their friendship.