The Marmot’s Hole

UPDATE: Welcome to all those coming in from “The Greatest Aspirin.” And thanks to Bluemoon for the link.

ORIGINAL POST: At ZDNet Korea, blogger Bluemoon wrote a very thoughtful piece on Korea’s “international marriage” business (see also Bluemoon’s original blog post here).
It started by pointing to a blog post by a one Chundungsori expressing outrage at an advertisement he saw in, of all places, the Hankyoreh Shinmun. The ad was for an a major event matching unmarried Korean men with Vietnamese girls. Chundungsori wrote that even progressive papers like the Hani were now involved in the selling of human beings in order to generate advertising revenue, and that they should be ashamed of themselves. In particular, he noted, the ad’s descriptions of Vietnamese women made it seem like Korea was a “place swarming with men who wanted sex and housemaids but couldn’t marry.”

The ad commercialized Vietnamese women, describing them in such terms as “they smell very nice,” “they never divorce” and “they have they best bodies in the world.” Bluemoon said that while one could view the descriptions as nothing more than marketing slogans designed to entice men looking to marry Vietnamese brides, others might feel the descriptions went beyond what’s appropriate for an advertisement.
According to National Statistics Office figurers, the number of Koreans marrying foreigners is skyrocketing, going from 12,319 in 2000 to 35,447 in 2004. In particular, international marriages are becoming quite common in rural communities, growing so commonplace that a movie dealing with the issue, “Wedding Campaign,” was recently released.
Unfortunately, there are a significant number of problems resulting from the phenomenon, and in the case of divorce arising from discord owing to cultural differences, there are absolutely no legal mechanisms to protect foreign women, said Bluemoon. Despite this, with the rural population continuing to decrease, rural men are finding it extremely difficult to find brides.
In December 2004, there was much controversy when Yecheon-gun (!), Gyeonsangbuk-do decided to provide 6 million won in financial support to men marrying Vietnamese women (Robert’s note: That decision might indicate how much things in Korea have changed [willingly or otherwise]; Yecheon, along with neighboring Andong, is perhaps the most rigidly conservative Confucian bastion in the entire ROK, and a town that used to take pride in the fact that there were no dweonom [a disparaging term for Chinese] to be found in their community). The town feared that with men finding it increasingly difficult to marry, the base of the agricultural community might collapse. And on Feb. 14, there was a funny-but-not-funny incident in Gimje, Jeollabuk-do in which a retarded man, taking seriously a joke by his older brother that it would take 10 million won to marry a Vietnamese bride, robbed a local agricultural cooperative bank and was arrested.
Despite the international and ethical issues, however, businesses arranging marriages between rural farmers and Vietnamese women are thriving, with tons of ads resulting from a Naver search for “Vietnam marriage.”
Accordingly, problems are arising, such as identity issues of “Kosian” (Korean+Asian) children born of international marriages and post-divorce child-rearing issues. According to a survey body investigating the migrant labor issue, there are many more “actual” marriages between Koreans and immigrants from other Asian countries than “official” international marriages reported after formal marriage procedures.
Bluemoon also pointed to a advertising placard that had made its way around Korean Internetland. The placard, an advertisement for a company specializing in arranged marriages between Korean men and Vietnamese women, highlighted the fact that Vietnamese women “never run away.” Bluemoon pointed out that there needed to be reflection on how international marriage, which is promoted to raise the quality of life for Koreans, has transformed into something similar to the buying and selling of human beings. He noted:

Replace ‘Vietnam’ with ‘Korea’ in that sign, and there wouldn’t be many people laughing.

Just to add a little note here about Bluemoon, he’s the same blogger whose “The Greatest Aspirin” won “Best Korean Blog” in 2004’s Asian Awards Contest. I liked his blog back then, and I like what he’s doing with Iguacu Blog (which uses Tatter Tools, BTW). Clearly a guy who know’s what he’s doing.
On a related (and much happier) note, the Weekly Chosun ran a piece on a young Vietnamese wife who was just made head of the wives’ association of her village in Chungcheongbuk-do. She’s the first foreign wife to earn that honor. Seriously fluffy feel-good stuff as only the Chosun can bring it, but it’s good fluff, nevertheless.