NEARLY 1,000 students from Qingdao joined a Chinese adulthood ceremony Oct. 31 in Qufu in Shandong Province, the hometown of Confucius.

    At the ceremony, parents capped their children with a traditional cap and presented them with a certificate of adulthood, while the children, dressed in traditional Chinese clothing, swore an oath of adulthood and bowed to a statue of Confucius.

    In China, the adulthood ceremony for men is known as the capping ceremony, in which their hair is wound into a bun or coil and a cap is donned. In contrast, the ceremony for women is called the hair-pinning ceremony, in which the hair is gathered into a knot and fastened with a pin.

    In China, coming of age is considered a process of metamorphosis. In bygone days, the main purpose of such ceremonies was to mark the transition of young people into the society of adults.

    (Jane Lai, Wang An)