Jodi over at the Asia Pages noted the big shitstorm the Chosun Ilbo seems to have caused in Vietnam by running a piece on Vietnamese women marrying Korean men that women’s groups in the Southeast Asian nation found terribly offensive. The Chosun seems to have removed the photos from the Korean version of the piece, although the English version still has them up. That first picture’s caption—at least in the Korean version—apparently started off with, “Korean princes, won’t you take us home?”
Anyway, according to Yonhap, once reports of the Chosun piece hit papers in Vietnam, local women’s groups were outraged and local papers were running articles slamming Korea—Yonhap quoted one Vietnamese woman who had married a European (apparently not Gary Glitter) as having written in one Ho Chi Min City paper, “How lucky I am not to have married a Korean.” Locals were upset that Korean men coming to Vietnam to find brides were “commercializing” Vietnamese women, and in particular, women’s groups were outraged that marriage brokers, which are reportedly illegal in Vietnam, were operating in the country to arrange marriages between Vietnamese women and Korean men.
The Vietnam Women Union chief Ha Thi Khiet was especially pissed:
After hearing the news, I decided to skip a government session on Wednesday and chaired an extraordinary meeting with union leaders to discuss the matter. All of us were angry.
We have thus decided to send a letter, probably on Thursday, to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, the Korean Ministry of Gender Equality, the Korean Women Association and other non-governmental organizations to ask them to intervene and quickly solve the matter.
We will also send a letter to the Chosun newspaper, demanding an explanation and apology to Vietnamese women.
We will also instruct the Ho Chi Minh City Women Union and other local unions to propagate, solve and prevent matchmaking companies in Vietnam from sending more women abroad for marriage.
We will cooperate with the General Department of Police to intensify our efforts in routing out those matchmaking companies which are illegal under Vietnamese laws.
By late 2005, there emerged several matchmaking companies sending women to South Korea. We have considered this a grave issue as Vietnamese women’s dignity and self-respect were at stake.
An attache at the Korean embassy in Hanoi has apologized for the article, as has the journalist who penned it.
Groups also protested the piece in Seoul. Interestingly enough, one of the things that irked some people was the fact that in the problematic photo, the Korea man’s face cannot be seem, but you can clearly see the faces of all the Vietnamese women.
This mess was probably something that was bound to happen—almost two months ago, one Korean blogger wrote into ZDNet Korea to complain about the way in which marriage brokers were blatantly commercializing Vietnamese women in their advertisements.
Another interesting thing to note is that Vietnam isn’t the only country bitching about Korean men marrying/disrespecting their women. As noted before here, some Mongolians are reportedly upset about their women become the “slaves” of Korean husbands. Then there was MBC’s report about anti-Korean sentiment in Mongolia, which is at least in part due to perceived disrespect for the flower of Mongolian womanhood, including these photos (NOT work safe) that sparked considerable resentment.
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The fairly explicit equivalence between Mongolian gilrs and yaks on the steppe drawn by the Korean
pornophotographer is despicable. The Mongolians and Vietnamese might find it cold comfort, but maybe somoene should tell them that Korean men treat their own women just as bad – which is one reason there are so many for us.“The union will intensify its propaganda [discouraging women from marrying abroad] towards all women across the country in the near future.”
Huh?
I don’t think the Vietnamese government cares nor has a clue as what the problem is. It took foreign civic groups (in Korea) to make them aware what has been going on in their country for decades – a result of communisim’s failure to provide their people with basic nescessities.
Hearing the bigger picture does change things for me in my opinion.
First of all, I want to add that I do find the entire practice disgusting, yet the fact that it is so well publicized in Korea–along with matchmaking contact phone numbers visibly being displayed, at least on fliers in my neighborhood–made me assume that such services were not necessarily illegal in Vietnam (although I guess I’m not surprised to hear that they are.)
I falsly believed that if such businesses were illegal, they wouldn’t be so public about it all over here…that they would try to keep in “underground” and that the government wouldn’t be actively sponsoring such marriages.
Secondly, the English version doesn’t seem to be a thorough translation of the Korean one. I must say, I didn’t take great offense to the English article (even the photos) however had the story and the captions been translated accurately, I think I would have been outraged if it says what they claim it says.
I do however, still stand by my opinion that this is not Korea’s fault alone. The Vietnamese government is very much equally at fault here and while the Korean diplomats and journalist did the proper thing of apologizing, I still feel putting all the blame on them is terribly unfair.
Vietnam could easily solve this problem if it gave a damn. Clearly the officials over there don’t.
A poor girl, who can barely eat, finds a husband and happiness. Why is this a crime? Some Koreans make great husbands. Do not stereotype a Korean male, just to prop up your image.
Korean girls are marrying foreigners(with money) and some do not marry at all since they prefer their freedom more than traditional marriage and family. They have become westernized.
So Korean males are heading toward VietNam. What is wrong with that? Is this prostitution? No. It is honorable institution of marriage.
And, many VietNamese women find happiness in Korea. Better living conditions and better opportunities. A great success story for all.
VietNam should welcome these men who are looking for wives. Nationalism should take a back seat to personal happiness. Freedom to choose!
Vietnam could have avoided this subservient stance, if and when they chose to accept US “help”, instead of fighting like ants against the US military forces, burrowing holes everywhere, mixing up with the jungle terrain, etc.
It’s the same price the Eastern European girls are paying. Communism was the opium for the masses.
If Russia had any money, these countries should look into filing some kind of mass class action lawsuit.
Not that it will ever work, but some might say they want to sue the US for money. Which I think is ridiculous. More good than bad done, in all circumstances I can think of. Iraqis should try to compare Vietnam and South Korea. If they could actually think that way.
If Kim Jung Il was a good and at heart a kind leader, he would allow North Korean women to marry South Korean men and live in South Korea, instead of keeping low weight birth babies in special wards to die, and hide them from the foreign press.
I wish death upon Kim Jung Il. He deserves the fate of a public lynching by the masses. It’s a dream but I hope it comes true.
I don’t understand the Chinese or the Vietnamese, who keep up Mao and Ho Chi Minh on god status, when they clearly broke off from their views and went free market.
It bothered me, too, Koreans seeking Vietnamese women.
I just read the Korean version of the article. I don’t know whether the Chosun’s edited the article following the protests, but the article simply describes what a South Korean man would go through should he decide to marry a Vietnamese woman through a match-making/marriage agency. This type of marriage practice is terrible, but the journalist shouldn’t have to apologize for the article if the current version is what was initially published.
That said, I believe the S. Korean gov’t will find little reason to crack down on this practice. These women most likely come live in S. Korea, and many of them will have babies with their S. Korean husbands. These babies will in all likelihood grow up in the S. Korean education system brainwashed by the ‘minjok’ ideology, while physically they will look quite similar to Koreans. Basically, considering less S. Korean women are willing to have babies these days, don’t expect the S. Korean gov’t to focus too much on this issue of illegal marriages. Tackling the low birthrate is an urgent issue for the S. Korean gov’t which has been willing to pay its citizens to have more babies.
I’m NOT justifying the practice nor am I agreeing with it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the S. Korean gov’t approaches this issue as I mentioned above.
“I don’t understand the Chinese or the Vietnamese, who keep up Mao and Ho Chi Minh on god status, when they clearly broke off from their views and went free market.”
You obviously show your lack of understanding Chinese history. The administration that went free market was that of Deng Xiao Peng. Deng Xiao Peng was Mao’s political enemy. During the last years of Mao’s reign, Deng Xiao Peng was a fugitive wanted by Chinese law. After Mao’s death, Deng staged a come back and rewrote China’s constitution – among them, implementing a 2 term limit on China’s presidency.
There is a delicate balance of the reformers and hardliner within the Communist Party. There is no question that Mao’s apparent “adoration” even by the reformers is to balance this power. However, I have little doubt that upon reunification with the other China in Taiwan province, that that figure on Tiananmen Square will then be Sun Yat Sen. Sun Yat Sen is considered the father of Modern China, a fact widely accepted in mainland, taiwan, macao and hong kong.
mahathir fan, even though Sun Yat Sen worked with Chiang Kai Shek?
and I do admit that I know nothing or not much about recent Chinese history regarding Deng being a political fugitive.
you seem to be right about Sun Yat Sen, Mahathir_fan, sorry about my ignorance.
Deng was a prisoner in the mid-70s until Mao died, not a ‘fugitive’, right?
“mahathir fan, even though Sun Yat Sen worked with Chiang Kai Shek?”
Sure. The Communists were all originally members of KuoMinTang. But later, Chiang Kai Shek decided to kill them all. Some escaped and thereafter formed a separate group from Kuo Min Tang.
But it won the sympathy of Sun Yat Sen’s wife, Soong Qing Ling. Soong Qing Ling felt it was wrong to execute the communists for their beliefs. She sided with them and after WWII, she stayed on in Mainland China to help them found the PRC.
It is interesting to note that her younger sister, Soong May Ling is Chiang Kai Shek’s wife.
To clarify some things mahathir_fan has said about Chinese history:
Deng Xiao Peng was Mao’s political enemy. During the last years of Mao’s reign, Deng Xiao Peng was a fugitive wanted by Chinese law.
This is not correct. As sanshinseon pointed out, Deng was imprisoned by Mao’s supporters during the Cultural Revolution. However, Deng’s imprisonment involved being shipped to a reform-through-labor camp, which was rather minor compared to the treatment of his mentor Liu Shaoqi, who died in prison under mysterious circumstances. In fact, Liu was Mao’s main enemy, and Deng was his his chief lieutenant. Deng survived in part because most of Mao’s (and therefore, the Gang of Four’s) ire was directed at Liu, though Premier Zhou Enlai also played a role in keeping Deng safe from danger. Deng was returned to a position in the government in 1973, and he rather easily overthrew Mao’s handpicked successor Hua Guofeng in a comparatively bloodless two-year power struggle following Mao’s death in 1976.
Sure. The Communists were all originally members of KuoMinTang. But later, Chiang Kai Shek decided to kill them all. Some escaped and thereafter formed a separate group from Kuo Min Tang.
This is also not correct. Following the New Culture Movement, which introduced foreign political ideologies to China, the Communists had emerged as a separate and distinct political faction before they worked with the Nationalists. It was at Moscow’s urging that the Communists joined the KMT, with the hope that the Communists could subvert the Nationalists from within. However, the Chinese Communists proved too independent for the Soviet agents to control, and Chiang Kai-shek, too, had decided that the Nationalists, which came under his control after Dr. Sun died in the mid-1920s, would have nothing to do with the Communists, and so he began a campaign to annihilate them after he completed the Northern Expedition in the late 1920s. The Communists did not “escape,” but rather, abandoned the Soviet plans for them to infiltrate the Nationalists, and focused on developing rural collectives and drawing support from the peasants. In turn, the were nearly crushed by the Nationalist encirclement campaigns, which ended in the Long March.
I really don’t see anything wrong with women marrying up – in economic terms – this is simply what they’ve done throughout recorded history. I understand that the Vietnamese are up in arms because they see the potential marriage pool getting reduced. The Korean outrage is described as a discomfort with the idea of somehow “exploiting” Vietnamese women. But I wonder if this is simply cover for their greater discomfort with the idea of sullying “pure” “Korean” bloodlines with Vietnamese bloodlines. My impression from many Korean participants in English language forums is that if you were to put forced abortion for mixed-marriage babies to a referendum vote in South Korea, you could conceivably get a majority for it. The caveat is that South Korean politicians probably wouldn’t come out with something like that, since they presumably feel the need to command respect around the world.
“My impression from many Korean participants in English language forums is that if you were to put forced abortion for mixed-marriage babies to a referendum vote in South Korea, you could conceivably get a majority for it.”
Whoa, Zhang Fei. It’s the NorKs who kill the babies of North Korean mothers and Chinese fathers. South Koreans can be extreme about their “danil minjok” ideal, but they’re not Nazis. Seriously. Whatever hardships mixed-race Koreans of various backgrounds experience in South Korea cannot compare to imprisonment and murder.
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