'I was nearly disfigured': Bride in China suffers burns on face after getting sprayed with streamers on wedding day

A woman in China suffered burns and blisters on her face after being sprayed with a frenzied stream of party streamers during her wedding celebration.

In a now-deleted video shared on Chinese social media platform Douyin on Dec 27, the unnamed woman can be seen with her face covered in bandages. Several black marks were also seen on her eyebrows and cheeks.

"I was nearly disfigured as a bride," wrote the woman, who hails from Taizhou in Zhejiang province.

Another video of her wedding celebration uploaded later that day showed the couple stepping out of a car while pieces of confetti rained down on them.

The bride and groom then covered their faces in an attempt to shield themselves as guests sprayed party streamers at them.

While walking down the aisle, the woman was covering the lower half of her face. She appeared to be in pain, and a red mark could be seen on her cheek.

"It was the spray which caused my burns," said the bride in the comments section of her video.

"At that time, my face felt hot, but I was fine. When I woke up the next morning, my face was covered with blisters."

Several outraged netizens urged the woman to lodge a report against the perpetrators while others sympathised with her situation.

"This is too much," a netizen said.

"You should sue them," commented another. "They are not here to congratulate you, but to take revenge."

"When my cousin got married, several men relentlessly sprayed [streamers] onto my face. My eyes hurt so much," shared one netizen.

According to some netizens, it is a custom in Taizhou to spray streamers onto the bride and bridesmaids during the wedding celebrations.

These spray streamers are usually sold on major online shopping platforms in China at 30 yuan (S$6) for six bottles, according to Chinese media.

Sellers of the product reportedly told media that the streamers should be sprayed away from open flames, and should not be aimed at people's faces.

An experiment conducted by the Yiwu Fire Rescue Detachment in 2020 found that the streamers itself are not flammable.

When the spray was aimed towards a lighted flame, however, a stream of fire measuring nearly 1-metre in diameter was formed.

The detachment explained that the spray streamers contain flammable organic solvents such as ethanol or methane, which turns into aerosol when sprayed and hence ignite near open flames.

Xu Zhongzheng, a graduate student from Zhejiang University who studies polymer materials, told Chinese media that the party streamers used in the video could have been defective, which caused the blisters on the bride's face.

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lim.kewei@asiaone.com