'Youth, beauty, virginity & homemaking'
- Source: Global Times
- [13:42 November 05 2009]
- Comments
By Xia Yubing (xiayubing@globaltimes.com.cn)
Vietnamese groom and bride ready to ride in Hoa Lu, Ninh Binh Province. Photos: AFP
Mandopop culture stereotypes the Vietnamese women as a sexy and gentle Maggie Q, actress Christy Chung or the women in the Mekong River-based romantic story L'Amant by Marguerite Duras.
Offscreen, marrying a Vietnamese virgin for bargain prices is a rising and popular trend in rural China and when it comes to the real deal, some Chinese men are getting burnt by beautiful swindlers into cheap-and-chic marriages.
As Wuhan-based Chutian Metropolis Daily reported, nine Chinese men in the Dabie Mountains of Hubei Province "lost" their wives in early October. The brides to which they had been introduced in August and September escaped together with goods and property worth 180,000 yuan ($26,352): an organized crime, police concluded.
Although the con stories are everyday news and the scams well discussed on the Internet, the popularity of Asian matchmaking agencies, their websites and their virgin brides continues undiminished.
The situation in Taiwan used to be much more severe, according to a scholar who has studied immigration issues and specializes in Asian bride-trafficking.
"The purchase of Vietnamese brides already had formed a market," Han Jialing, a professor at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences told the Global Times. "Women have been sold to Taiwan, South Korea and other places for decades recently."
Chinese mainland men are also known throughout Asia for growing richer, resulting in multinational matchmaking agencies that target new wealth.
"Now the problem in Taiwan is getting better," Han said. "At least the advertising is not as undisguised as it used to be.
"We cannot just sit back and watch things deteriorate in the Chinese mainland."
