Young women queue for chance to snag a foreign husband - SPECIAL REPORTS - VietNamNet 10-07-18 12:47 AM

ABOUT US | VIETNAMESE | RSS

Sunday, 18 July, 2010, 0:29 (GMT +7)

Home Special Reports Vietnam In Photos What’s On Vietnam Reference Search

Politics Business Society Arts & Entertainment Travel Education Science & Technology Environment Sports World News

,
Young women queue for chance to snag a foreign TOP STORIES

Senior architect suspects Hanoi

husband plan’s feasibility
Last update 10:00, Tuesday, 13/04/2010 (GMT+7)
,
VietNamNet Bridge – Though it’s illegal, ‘marriage brokers’ are doing a thriving business finding High production costs cause
Vietnamese brides for lonesome Korean men, according to an investigation by VNExpress online Vietnam’s sugar to fail in its home
newspaper. market

Underground marriage ring foiled at Tan Son Nhat Many US investment projects are
Korean daily draws ire for bride article still just on paper
Backlash against Chosun bride story

A golden era for Saigon’s ‘vehicle

keepers’

Vietnamese American bank robber

arrested in Vietnam

.
LATEST NEWS

MOST READ

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT IN BRIEF 24/4

POLITICS IN BRIEF 24/4

SPORTS IN BRIEF 24/4

Quick moves to control pig disease outbreak

Mozart-Beethoven music released in Vietnam

State art troupes face hard times

Prostitution: Should Vietnam fight it or

recognize it as ‘honest work’?
SOCIETY IN BRIEF 24/4
Korean “grooms” at a “bride choosing” site in Haiphong.
Workers refuse low-paying factory jobs
.

Whirlwind ‘courtships’

A small van pulled up to the door of a hotel in a beach resort town near Haiphong City late in
March. A woman shouted out “The grooms are coming, grooms are coming!” Four Korean men
in black suits got out of the car and entered the hotel to choose their future wives from among
nearly 100 excited Vietnamese girls.

Meanwhile, the young women hurriedly prepared for the selection in the hotel’s ballroom,
touching up their makeup, checking their appearance in a mirror. They were mainly farm girls
and industrial zone workers who had been recruited by marriage brokers.

Among them was a small woman wearing plastic sandals, with long hair and an innocent
smile. She said she is a farm girl and she doesn’t know how to make up her face. “I’ve taken a
day off from weeding my field today to attend this selection, hoping to change my life. It is very

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/reports/201004/Young-women-queue-for-chance-to-snag-a-foreign-husband-904016/ Page 1 of 7
Young women queue for chance to snag a foreign husband - SPECIAL REPORTS - VietNamNet 10-07-18 12:47 AM

hard to live as a farmer,” she said, stroking her hair with scratched hands.

The Korean men weren’t scheduled to arrive until ten a.m., but from nine a.m. on the 100
square meter room was packed. Girls grouped up to exchange what they’d heard about the life
of Vietnamese brides in South Korea.

“Someone told me that Hoa, who was selected at this very hotel last year, is very happy now,” a
young woman said. “Does she send gifts and money to her family monthly?” An older woman
who is a marriage broker answered her. “Hoa sent over $2000 to her parents this Tet holiday.
Her family has recently received an electric rice cooker and irons.”

Mai from Ha Nam province told a reporter that successful “candidates” typically take part in three
rounds of selection. In the first round, marriage brokers take photographs or film them, and
collect their phone numbers and some personal information. The young women sign an
agreement allowing brokers to post their pictures on the Internet.

Girl awaiting for their turn.

In the second round, would-be Korean grooms see the “candidates” in person and ask them
questions about their work, education, family, hobbies and, of course, “why do you want to
marry a Korean man?” From among several dozens of young women, each Korean man will
choose four or five for the final round.

Many women have participated in a dozens of these selection events but they have not been
“chosen” yet. They said the bride selections are as difficult as university entrance exams.

Bao, the chief broker, announced “Girls of 25-35, please come here. Here’s a groom who is 48
years old. His home is 250 kilometers from Seoul. His wife died one year ago. He has two
children but they are already married. His monthly income is around 40 million dong ($2000). He
doesn’t need a pretty girl but only one who loves him. . . .”

Seeing some shy girls who were participating for the first time, Bao called out “Hey, you in the
violet blouse girl, do you want to marry a Korean husband or not? Why do you hesitate? Come
here to try your luck!”

Many of the candidates thought that it would be easy for them to be selected by this tall man
with a leaden complexion, but one by one the girls left the interview room after several minutes.

“He is old and does farmwork but he is very scrawny. If I had known it would be like this, I
would not have come here but instead I would have taken part in a selection in Thuy Nguyen
district,” said a girl named Giang, 28.

Giang has attended several selections and she knows how to smoothly answer the personal

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/reports/201004/Young-women-queue-for-chance-to-snag-a-foreign-husband-904016/ Page 2 of 7
Young women queue for chance to snag a foreign husband - SPECIAL REPORTS - VietNamNet 10-07-18 12:47 AM

questions she is asked. Even so, every time she’s been rejected, and doesn’t know why.

At 1.30pm, 20 of the young women were chosen for the third round and finally, four of them --
Thuy, Hoa, Le and Phuong – had been accepted as brides.

Why do girls choose Korean men?

A “bride selection” held at a hotel in Haiphong.

If at first they fail, many girls clamor to participate in other selections. The brokers organize
them very often in Do Son, Thuy Nguyen or downtown Haiphong.

The home of a broker named Madam That in Lap Le commune, Thuy Nguyen district, is one of
the biggest bride selecting “centres” in Haiphong. One day nearly 100 young women gathered
there for a selection of Korean men. They whispered that the men they saw that day were good-
looking but old .

Overhearing such comments, a broker said: “You are foolish. Why do you pine for young men
who live in cities? Old and ugly men will pamper you.”

Le Khac Dung, the head of Pha Le commune, also in Thuy Nguyen district, said that nearly 400
local girls have married foreigners in the last five years, accounting for 70 percent of the total
marriages in the commune.

He said the local authorities know about illegal marriage brokers but commune-level
governments don’t have the power to deal with this.

There are hundreds of reasons for Vietnamese girls to marry Korean men but they all admit that
it is a lot like gambling.

Thuy’s story

Receiving a red rose from one of the Korean grooms, Thuy’s eyes brimmed with tears. Other
girls congratulated Thuy but they still wondered whether Thuy would be happy in South Korea.
In a short interview, this chubby girl had learned only that her future husband is a 38 year-old
farmer.

“That’s good enough for me! My eight month-old daughter will stay with my mother, at least for
now. I will work out other things later,” Thuy said.

Thuy was born in a poor family in Kien Thuy district. She got married at 19, but discovered that
her husband was a drug addict when their daughter was several months old. After the husband
was sent to a rehabilitation centre, she divorced him.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/reports/201004/Young-women-queue-for-chance-to-snag-a-foreign-husband-904016/ Page 3 of 7
Young women queue for chance to snag a foreign husband - SPECIAL REPORTS - VietNamNet 10-07-18 12:47 AM

Soon afterward, Thuy began attending the ‘selections.’ Before the Tet holiday, a Korean
electrician chose her but when she was about to leave Vietnam, that 37-year-old man found out
that she had been married and had a baby, so he canceled the marriage.

Thuy said brokers all recommend that the girls tell the Korean grooms that they are single, but
Thuy had cried out, missing her baby, during a three day tour to Cat Ba Island with her ‘fiance.’

Phuong’s story

A Korean man talks with his future wife (in yellow) at a selection in Do Son,
Haiphong.

Phuong, 32, is from Hai Duong province, between Hanoi and Haiphong. She is divorced with two
sons. Phuong has participated in many selections, hoping to escape from her current life and
prove to her former husband that she can marry another man.

She said that marrying a Korean man is like gambling because the brides don’t know anything
about their future husbands and their families.

Phuong has a junior high school education. She was married over ten years ago and she had to
suffer frequent beatings by her drunken husband. At last she divorced him and takes care of
one of her two sons.

“Farmwork is very hard work, and I can’t earn enough to live on. I wish to find a good husband
to support my son,” she said.

Hao’s story

It’s not just unfortunate women but also young girls, even high-school students, who flock to the
bride selections. Many people were surprised to see a young girl named Hao at a selection in
Thuy Nguyen district because this girl had been chosen by a Korean man at a selection in Do
Son several days earlier. The future husband was introduced as a businessman from Seoul.
However, Hao didn’t want to marry this 37-year-old man because, though he seemed gentle, he
is not rich.

“I’m young and I have a lot of opportunities. If I marry a foreign man, it will be one who is able
to assist my family,” she said. Hao is a student at a colleage in Haiphong.

This nimble girl said that she has attended many selections to gain experience. If she meets a
rich man, she is ready to quit school to follow her husband.

Girls like Hao are typically escorted by their mothers or elder sisters at selections. Hao’s mother

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/reports/201004/Young-women-queue-for-chance-to-snag-a-foreign-husband-904016/ Page 4 of 7
Young women queue for chance to snag a foreign husband - SPECIAL REPORTS - VietNamNet 10-07-18 12:47 AM

said her family is not poor and Hao could work as an accountant in Haiphong after graduation
but the family wants their daughter go to Korea.

At a selection in early March, Hao passed nearly 100 candidates to enter the final round.
However, the Korean grooms didn’t meet her standards: none was sufficiently tall, handsome,
not very old, and rich.

While many girls want to marry a Korean husband, some Vietnamese brides have been
disillusioned and returned home.

Mai’s story

Seeing her friends marrying foreign men, Mai, a tailor, decided to participate in the selections.
She married to a 42-year-old Korean man, who was introduced as the owner of a dairy farm.
Mai’s parents sold all their valuable assets to amass 30 million dong to pay for brokers. Before
going to Korea, Mai told her parents that she would soon send money to help them.

But after three days in Korea, Mai knew that she was cheated because the man she met in
Vietnam is not her husband in Korea. Mai found a way to phone home to tell her family tearfully
about her life as a virtual prisoner. The family asked Hwang, the Korean husband of Mai’s
cousin, and the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea to assist Mai.

Now back home, Mai works as a hairdresser, earning money to pay her family’s debt of four
years ago.

For many brides, there’s no happy ending

According to the General Statistical Office, nearly 32,000 Vietnamese women married foreign
men, mainly Taiwanese and Koreans, from 2007 to 2009.

Dr. Le Thi Quy, director of the Centre for Gender Research and Development, who has studied
marriages between Vietnamese women and foreigners, said that cases like Mai’s are not rare.
“Only some of them are lucky to have good husbands. Many of their marriages are tragic. Some
are tricked into marriage with disabled or mentally ill people. Some have become victims of
domestic violence,” Quy said.

Source: VNE

Please send us your comments and feedback:

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/reports/201004/Young-women-queue-for-chance-to-snag-a-foreign-husband-904016/ Page 5 of 7