In the countryside of China, there have been three decades of sex-selective sex abortions as part of the one-child policy, which ended in 2015 and has caused a huge shortage of females. With the rapid growth of China’s economy, which primarily occurs in urban areas, more and more women have left the poor countryside for urban areas to find work and a better lifestyle.
Rural Chinese men aren’t the only ones trying to find love. Men who have divorced across China might end up being involuntary bachelors for a different reason: They can’t finance another marriage. In China, the groom’s family is expected to purchase a home for the newlyweds and offer the bride’s family the wedding dowry, which is typically $20,000.
Like women all over the world, Chinese women also get married later.
In the process, more and increasing numbers of Chinese men are searching abroad for partners. The majority of them seem to be focused on Vietnam.
Relations across borders
The amount of international weddings in China is not easy to determine because some brides from abroad are brought into China illegally and thus are not registered with the authorities.
However, figures by Xinhua News Agency indicate that there are more than 100,000 Vietnamese women in China who are married to Chinese men. This is far more than the case of foreign ladies from other nations who are engaged to Chinese men. It is estimated that 7700 brides who marry in China are from Cambodia, for instance.
My research has shown it is the case that Vietnamese women typically meet their Chinese husbands through any of the four methods.
Many cross-cultural connections start when Chinese men get married when they work in Vietnam. Vietnam and China have a 1,500-mile border that is mostly unprotected and has no significant natural barriers. Both countries have developed close economic ties thanks to an agreement on a free trade agreement that has been in effect since the year 2010.
Single Chinese males tend to be more likely than their married counterparts to travel abroad, According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics. The religious, linguistic, and cultural affinities that exist in China and Vietnam can aid these international connections.
In certain border areas in China, more than 50 percent of marriages between Chinese and Vietnamese start with connections between the two nations. The citizens of border areas from both countries do not require passports to travel across the border.
The women and men who are in this relationship have a good relationship prior to the day they tie the knot. My research has found that their marriages typically go well.
Chen Shih Mei-ying, who is originally from Vietnam, is seen together with her Taiwanese husband, Lin Wen Jui, in their restaurant in Taipei on July 1, 2008. AP Photo/Wally Santana
The marriage business
At the very least, five percent of couples’ marriages featuring Chinese males or Vietnamese women wives were taken to China. They are typically women who are poor women and girls who are enticed to China, usually through a family member or friend, and lured by the promise of lucrative jobs.
In the United States, they are typically initially sold to prostitutes in the big cities. After a few months or even years of forced sex, They are then sold again to older, poor Chinese men seeking wives. The men are usually aware that the brides they choose to marry are victims of trafficking, according to a 2014 study.
Others Chinese bachelors make use of professionals to connect with ViOtherse ladies, an illegal but growing industry within China. On average, a marriage broker earns $4000 from every transaction, according to The Chinese publication China Reform.
There aren’t any official figures for this type of business, so it’s difficult to determine the number of Chinese-Vietnamese weddings that begin with brokers who are paid. However, the results of a study show that in the border regions, about 10% of marriages between Chinese and Vietnamese are conducted on the Internet. This percentage could be much higher in the inland areas because single Chinese men in other areas have fewer opportunities to connect with Vietnamese women directly.
