Chinese groom arrested after hiring 200 actors to attend his wedding

A Chinese man has been arrested after it turned out that his 200 wedding guests were not family and friends but hired actors – much to his new wife’s surprise.

It’s not clear exactly how this is illegal, but the man, named as Mr Wang, is in a world of trouble after his bride noticed that the wedding ceremony was starting with no sign of his parents.

The bride, Xiao Liu, and her guests were further rattled by the vague conversations with people who could not elaborate on how they knew her husband-to-be beyond saying that they were friends.

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It turns out that the groom had paid around 200 guests to attend in place of his actual family and friends, with a regional TV station reporting that they were each promised 80 yuan (around £12) to pretend to be his pals for the day.

The fake guests ranged from students to taxi drivers, with most being recruited over the internet.

Local media report that the couple had been together for around three years, but moved in different social circles.

Television cameras captured the scenes in the aftermath of the discovery, with many guests distraught to the point of tears and some fake guests showing the chat conversations they’d had with the groom as they negotiated pricing.

Nobody is sure why the groom resorted to paying fake guests on his special day.

The BBC suggests that his wife’s family did not approve of the marriage because they deemed him too poor – so he uninvited his side to keep them from embarrassment.

But then, as some social media commenters have pointed out, if he’s got £2,000 to drop on fake guests then he can’t be doing too badly for himself.