The Chinese of Singapore have matchmakers who arrange marriages.  They also have horoscope readers and fortune-tellers who tell if the bride and groom are good together.  The matchmaker is usually an older woman and a friend of the family.  If she found a successful match she was usually given eighteen hams.  The matchmaker usually knew both families involved and both families had the same social standings.  Photographs are exchanged and the young man’s mother is taken to meet the girl.  Later, a meeting between the boy and girl is arranged.  A fortune-teller, or astrologer, was then consulted.  Magic tests were carried out to see if the match would be successful together, horoscopes of the couple are very important.  If a girl is born in the year of the tiger, she was considered a dangerous match for a boy born in the year of the goat.  Because a tiger can devour a goat.  A girl born in the years of the tiger, monkey or snake might have to lie about her birth date or end up without a husband.
     Traditionally it is harder for educated women to find partners to marry.  Men prefer women who don’t have a lot of education.  This is probably because the men want to be the one in the marriage that has all the power and would not need any help from the women.
     Once everything is clear and the girl and boy are good together they get engaged.  This involves the couple exchanging rings or other jewelry.  The man also has to buy special cakes or sweets wrapped in special red paper and have it taken to the groom’s family.  This lets them know that there will soon be a wedding.
    The groom's family give the bride's parents an exchange of money.  This gives the husband sexual, domestic and procreative rights over his wife.  It also meant that the children would have his families’ name.  It was also a symbolic payment for all the care the parents took towards raising the girl and then losing her to the groom’s family.  The bride price was not to actually buy a wife, but repay the bride’s family for their services.
     Traditional weddings would last three days, with certain rituals for each day.  The boy and girl would stay in their own homes and have their mothers do a ritual combing of the hair.  This symbolized their maturity.  The girl is to have sex with the man on their first night of marriage.  A specially prepared piece of cloth is laid on the marriage bed and the groom’s mother would inspect it later for signs of virginity.  She would test for any stains she finds by rubbing lemon juice on it.  If the stain turns yellow then the girl lost her virginity, if not, the girl might be sent home and the groom’s mother would call her a “bad girl”.  This would later follow up with a divorce.