Asian papers gush over wedding
2005-04-10 12:36
Hong Kong - The wedding of Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was front-page news in Asia on Sunday, but newspapers contrasted the downbeat service with the prince's "fairytale" 1981 wedding to Princess Diana.
Most coverage also focused on the couple's confession to "manifold sins and wickedness" during a religious blessing, interpreted as atonement for the disrepute into which the royal family has been brought in recent years.
In the former British colony of Hong Kong, a huge four-column picture beneath the headline "Together at last" led the Sunday Morning Post's coverage.
The paper devoted a leader column to the Windsor wedding, saying the ceremony brought a happy ending to a turbulent period in the prince's life.
Although it said Parker Bowles would never replace Diana in people's hearts, the prince had at last found happiness and stability.
"Their relationship has faced some of the toughest tests imaginable," it said. "This was not a fairytale wedding - far from it. But it is one which is likely to last."
In India, where royal gossip is hot news, most national dailies featured a picture of the wedding on the front page.
"The Merry Wife of Windsor" screamed the headline beneath a picture in the Times of India.
Inside, the story was accompanied by another picture of the royal couple with the headline "A decades-long wait finally ends". A kicker said: "Prince Charles and Camilla confess 'manifold sins and wickedness' during wedding."
The Hindu newspaper had a page one picture but highlighted the muted affair with a story entitled "A low-key royal wedding".
The Indian Express and the Hindustan Times both had pictures on page one of the couple walking out to the crowds after their wedding. The Hindustan Times called it "The end of the affair" with a story in the inside pages headlined "It's just two old people getting hitched."
Chinese newspapers were surprisingly gushing about the royal event.
Air of decay
Almost all major papers, with the exception of government mouthpieces like the People's Daily, carried full coverage. Some splashed pictures of Prince Charles and Parker Bowles on the front page.
The Beijing News, a widely read and popular paper, even ran a special six-page supplement.
While coverage was wide in other nations including former British colony Malaysia, the city-state of Singapore - another ex-colony - was less enthralled.
The Sunday Times ran a small front-page photo of the couple but pushed the story deep into its world pages.
In Australia the wedding was less warmly received.
An editorial on the website of Melbourne's The Age contrasted what it called the "indifference" felt towards the royal wedding with the outpouring of grief at the death of Pope John Paul.
"The remarriage of the Prince of Wales, which might in other circumstances have been an occasion of great joy, had almost an air of decay about it," the editorial read.