The New York Times ran a fairly long article yesterday on the phenomena of Korean men importing foreign wives wholesale, and the changes going on in that business. It focuses on the Vietnamese brides, who are now second in number only to China and might in the future become number one. Filipinas no longer so much desired, i guess. This started out a decade ago as a moneymaking “service” by Korean churches, but now hundreds or even thousands of small agencies are doing this “soft human trafficking” as a commercial business, at around 10,000,000 won per bride. Some county governments subsidize the cost for their local farmer bachelors. The article mentions some of the problems that have gone on with this, but in general paints a pretty positive picture, that both sides often end up getting what they want…
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71 Comments
Golly that’s quick. I figured there be several meetings over a few months. (My wife and I spent more time getting a dog. The dog is great, BTW.) Best of luck to the husbands and wives. Be interesting to see Korea 20 years from now when it has a significant population of mixed-ethnicity adults.
i agree with seoulout. the really interesting changes in korea will come when the products of these marriages grow up and take over the country.
even within the time i’ve been here (since ‘99) i’ve noticed more people saying that they actually envy mixed kids, because they tend to have a head start when it comes to second languages. also, i’ve heard the opinion more than once that mixed kids tend to be good looking.
it will also be interesting to see what position these kids will hold within their mothers’ countries. once they’ve got their degrees from Korean univerisities, there is a chance they might be heading back to Vietnam or elsewhere to cash in on their fancy educations from KAIST and language skills. if that’s the case for a large number of them, their effect of Korea may last for less than a generation.
(i really hope that these kids are able to go to school in Korea and feel accepted and are encouraged to do well.)
How muddy will this make the Han River?
Got a kick out of this quote by a Korean husband who now facilitates these tours:
“The women have come out looking their best for you. But don’t expect them to look as pretty as Korean women. There is a big gap in our G.D.P.’s. Don’t be condescending. Don’t lie. If you lie, they’ll find out eventually and feel betrayed and run away.”
Maybe someday when Vietnam’s GDP rises enough, Vietnamese women will be able to afford to “fix” their eyes and noses.
Thanks for the link about the “purity of the Han river”.
Given the concern for racial purity and the North’s need for foreign exchange, why can’t the South and North get together to quietly to arrange for the importation of brides from the North?
The ROK government could quietly subsidize the price, while getting credit for doing something humanitarian; the north could make some more badly needed foreign exchange, while simultaneously getting rid of surplus and/or politically unreliable population.
For that matter,the same thing applies for refugee/ethnic Korean population in Manchuria.
I suppose those of you “in the know” will smile at my question and tell me that political considerations override humanitarian ones. Well, maybe if the US were to leave Korea, this would reduce the political factor to the extent that ideas like mine would become practical.
North Korea isn’t going to attack the south. For God’s sake, let’s get out of there so the Koreans can return to being happy in their insularity, the way they evidently were a hundred plus years ago before the Japanese took over the place.
“i’ve heard the opinion more than once that mixed kids tend to be good looking.”
Well, I heard from a modeling agency that that’s just not true. They are neither better nor worse looking that regular Koreans.
I’ve heard from someone who works for a modeling agency…sorry
Funny. If Norimitsu Onishi had written the same article about the Japanese doing it, would have been about the awful trade that is exploiting women of third world countries.
I’ve never heard that, in the context of language or anything else.
Have heard that, but most often in ref to babies. Have heard the same about how cute Western babies are, but how that changes when the get older.
In Korea, believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.
Koreans remarked to me that jambong ones are “more attractive” but also “less intelligent”. I’d always beg to differ; it can only go up.
@ Paul H, if and when re-unification comes how screwed are Nork men? All the women hightail it south and those men are too poor to import brides from anywhere. Oh, the upheaval!
I’ve heard the mixed kids are good-looking but not happy. That was Sunhee, Cyberia PC Bang, Itaewon, 1998.
“Funny. If Norimitsu Onishi had written the same article about the Japanese doing it, would have been about the awful trade that is exploiting women of third world countries.”
You need to read the article again. It was a negative portrayal of mail order brides trade.
I don’t know how anyone can come off reading that article and think that it’s a favorable view on Korea.
> I don’t know how anyone can come off reading
> that article and think that it’s a favorable
> view on Korea.
As the saying goes, if all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail.
Thanks for the early morning laugh. Given that North Korea needs to build up a population that’s been recently ravaged by famine (they’re encouraging people to have as many children as possible), I’m thinking that North Korea isn’t going to be trading any women down South anytime soon.
This rings a little more true than the North Korea statement, but there are already a huge number of ethnic Koreans of Manchurian origin in South Korea who are treated like second-class citizens… Why increase the number?
Well, maybe if KJI would up and die and allow his regime to collapse… Well, no… Actually, if that happened, China would have a new border along the 38th Parallel in a flash. I’m not going to sidetrack this comment thread with a long discussion about what, exactly, is wrong with your opinion there. Let’s just let it suffice to say that the US presence in South Korea is only a peripheral cause of any tension between the two countries (the primary cause of which is the BIG FUCKING INVASION the North launched against the South some 50 years ago).
I’d disagree that the article paints this as a positive thing - true, both sides are “getting what they want,” but I think Onishi brings out some of the problematic aspects. One of the most interesting angles that I don’t think he focuses enough on is why these guys are reduced to (essentially) buying their brides overseas.
A bit of a shameless plug, but I wrote pretty extensively on this on my blog yesterday after I read this. There’s some interesting articles in The Korean Times about this , too, focusing on how these Southeast Asian women have been objectified in advertising.
I’m really curious to see how (or whether) Korea’s national identity will adjust as the ethnic homogeneity becomes, well, less homogeneous.
North Korea has already “exported” untold thousands of women to China, where they have been gang-pressed into farmer marriages and the sex trade.
* It’s a world-widely accepted notion that the inter-racial breeds have ‘mysterious’ beauty.
Look into Hollywood, the melting pot of all races.
The fact that the notion is fresh to you arises from the fact that you haven’t paid attention to it.
* Sunhee, Cyberia PC Bang, Itaewon, 1998 ?
What’s this?
* “Koreans remarked to me that jambong ones are “more attractive” but also “less intelligent”.”
Oh, god. Who said it?
Is there any data that shows the intelligence gap beween mixed breeds and non-mixed breeds?
If any, isn’t it that quantitatively acquired inteligence data is the result of nurture with small tint of nature?
* Mail-order bride in USA
http://www.uscis.gov/files/art.....endixA.pdf
* Ye, I’ve seen many who envy the mixed kids. Of course, mixed ones between white and Korean, and not other mixed ones.
* I wonder why Koreans bother themselves with marriages which will eventually end up to the tragedy of related two ex-families. Koreans should marry their moms or dads. I heard about a new bride who suicided because her dad was in prison.
* To the lonely solos.
You know the word M.I.L.F.
Google “mothers i’d like to f***” and enjoy your weekend night.
re: the “i’ve heard…” comments
i’ve heard that once one realizes one’s subjective reality is based solely upon generalizations and anecdotal evidence, one often feels like punching oneself in the face.
okay, so that’s more of a hope.
also, apologies to jd, but i found this comment inadvertently hilarious.
“i really hope that these kids are able to go to school in Korea and feel accepted and are encouraged to do well.”
i so want to live on that planet.
“”…Given that North Korea needs to build up a population that’s been recently ravaged by famine (they’re encouraging people to have as many children as possible), I’m thinking that North Korea isn’t going to be trading any women down South anytime soon…”
Well, I was thinking of the thousands of North Korean women who have died due to famine, also the ones who have been sent into political imprisonment camps due to either their own failuare to be sufficiently obeisant to the regime, or that of their families.
Are you saying that average peasant women of child-bearing age up north are being specially screened out for rations, as well as for being kept out of the camps? That’s not the impression I get, of course all I know is what I read in the news.
Seems like a straightforward business proposition, one that would serve a multitude of ends — the South gets racially pure brides and credit for humanitarian rescue of at least some lost souls from the North, the North gets more of the foreign exchange they crave.
With the US gone from the peninsula the two Koreas might be able to make more deals like this, “under the radar”. I meant my suggestion perfectly seriously, in spite of the fact that it makes you guffaw. I don’t think there’s going to be another “big fucking invasion” — as one of your other comments implies, China won’t allow it to happen and the North can’t do it by themselves.
It’s a really complex problem, the lack of women in general combined with most women choosing not to take the “hard” life of living on a farm, when they could find relatively comfortable lives (and husbands, due to the overabundance of men) in the city. Importing wives from abroad helps to solve some of the social problems that would arise in rural areas here. One can only imagine how rural Vietamese men feel.
My farmer friends in Canada face the same struggles–they’d be prime material if they had any other job, but their chosen profession means that most girls prefer to remain “just friends.”
The real problem is going to come when the Chinese get to the point where millions of men are facing forced celibacy–I’ve read some speculation that this could be a major destabilizing factor in Asia over the next few decades. Already when I was in China a few years back, most of my colleagues didn’t marry until their late thirties, and their wives were nearly always much younger than them.
Though I don’t agree with skindleshanks and I think the real problem is the proper distribution and matchmaking of proper singles…….
Wow, I’m eagerly hunting for a Chinese single male. Where can I find one?
I’m an expert in cooking, household chores, gardening, and even farming, not to mention machinery as well as computer; I don’t like citylife and want to dwell in country; I’m the last woman who betrays her husband. Oh, god. But, no Korean single chooses me except one whose life views I don’t like. I must go to China searching for a would-be groom who will opt me.
“To be honest, I don’t know much about Korea except what I’ve seen on television,” Ms. Vien said.
YIKES! Wouldn’t the average Korean Wave viewer believe that a typical Korean woman gets cancer on her 21st birthday, gets disowned by her fiance who then goes blind and becomes a beggar, then falls in love with the poor country boy she ignored in grade school but who was adopted by a rich chaebol family and goes to medical school and discovers a cure for cancer but gets run over by a USFK truck driven by soldiers who are identified with the help of the beggar, who regained his sight suddenly for reasons you’ll have to tune in next week to learn?
‘Maybe someday when Vietnam’s GDP rises enough, Vietnamese women will be able to afford to “fix” their eyes and noses.’
ah, but these fixes don’t seem to bother your brothers. indeed, even with all the whinning about the koreans being the new nazis, they just can’t seem to pull themselves away from the ladies who get all those fixes. you have noticed that, haven’t you? have you also noticed stomach staplings and liposuction?
‘i heard from an ad guy that mixed breeds were not attractive.’
according time magazine, a poll in thailand regarding the best looking actors revealed nine out of the top ten were mixed race. still further, the article pointed out that mixed race children were widely used in advertising because of their looks. of course, all these mixed race children were half white and half asian and not, say, half korean and half thai. btw, someguy, i’m so sorry your people went through genocide.
‘i need to hate somebody!’ paul h
this paul h says he don’t know jack about korea but loves to slam a people he says he doesn’t even know. now, paul is a proud american so, he’s just doing his part to defend his tribe. i understand.
Even by pawi’s standards, that’s some mean gibberish.
Somehow I don’t think that South Korean farmers will be all that amenable to being married to corpses. It may be all ‘cute’ and ‘funny’ when it happens in a Tim Burton movie, but I’m sure the reality is somehow very different.
Hrm… and giving a free pass out of piss-poor conditions to ‘political dissidents’ (i.e. women who beg for seconds in the bread line so that they can feed their children) who happen to be women is really going to keep people in line.
I don’t follow… There’s nothing you’ve said that actually puts forth facts that would tend to support the idea that the US restrains these sorts of deals in the first place. How about establishing something that would tend to show that the US’s presence has any effect on the matter whatsoever before we start speculating about what the end effect of the US’s withdrawal would be.
Word is that China is a pretty good place to look.
On another thread, dot-squiggle-asterisk mentioned that she was studying in China, so I guess she’s already figured that out. From the perspective of Western women, the playing field in China is a bit more level than in Korea.
“Given the concern for racial purity and the North’s need for foreign exchange, why can’t the South and North get together to quietly to arrange for the importation of brides from the North?”
Well, given North Korean propaganda against South Korea, that will never happen. Besides, do you think the North Korean government wants to send thousands of North Korean women to the south where they will innevitably influence their husbands opinion about the human rights situation in North Korea?
Slim,
Makes you wonder about Vietnamese mother-in-laws.
My goodness, I find it remarkably twisted on your part that you would deliberately pretend to misunderstand my meaning and suggest that I’m making a macabre recommendation that ROK citizens who need wives should marry NK female corpses.
(I didn’t get the Tim Burton reference, I have a vague idea he’s some sort of what passes for a “movie star” these days; I suppose I could google and figure it out, but I’ll have to wait until my stomach is empty first).
I’m merely suggesting that since the ROK government and people currently tacitly approve of a thoroughgoing policy of appeasement towards the North, they ought to be getting something for their money. Life is pretty cheap up north, so why not deal for something they really do need (instead of whatever shoddy merchandise is produced in the ROK-subsidized industrial zone).
An organized policy of paying for mail-order brides elsewhere in Asia suggests a certain brisk and practical amorality towards the overall concept of “romance”. So why not apply it in the “homeland” first? “Charity begins at home”, as they say; also, “Korea is one”.
Youse guys here have taught me that at least, even though I’m probably fated to remain an invincibly ignorant “American tribesman”.
How would the US leaving Korea change things? It seems clear to me, even from this distance, that everything that happens in the North and South is viewed through a distorting prism called “America” (”Amerika”, if you prefer pawi).
Get the US out and maybe the two sides will be able to concentrate on what unites them (rather than what divides them). Isn’t that the whole premise for the organizing and funding of a major ministry of the current ROK government?
Hmm, now that I think of it, why can’t thousands of angry single ROK males march on the Ministry of Reunification and demand the immediate “stand-up” of a “mail-order bride” subsection? Sure seems like a good idear to me, as it would be a major practical contribution towards the overall concept of “unification”. Of course, I’m just a good ol’ boy from the American backwoods, lacking in the sophisticated understanding of most others here.
The current US policy vs a vs the two Koreas doesn’t seem to be getting us anywhere (except that it affords both North and South an opportunity to revile the US, in lieu of being forced to deal realistically with what divides them).
From “Polar Star”, by Martin Cruz Smith:
“Murder? said Natasha, with sudden interest. “What did Lenin have to say about murder”?
“Nothing” said Arkady. “But about [a dilemma], he said: ‘First action, then see what happens’”.
(Quote from memory so it may not be exact; regrettably, I don’t have my copy handy).
One thing the article doesn’t mention is that quite a few of the Phillipino brides were Moonies before they came to Korea and met their husbands. My wife’s friend met her husband that way.
PS. Phillipina, right?
‘distorting prism called “America” (”Amerika”, if you prefer pawi).’
i prefer that my country be called america but i wouldn’t mind if people called types like you amerikans. thanks, paul.
btw, i’m proud to be an american. are you?
‘MY PEOPLE WENT THROUGH GENOCIDE!’ roared somenonwhiteguy as he informed pawi that he ain’t no white guy
pss can’t refute my point, cn you, slim? all that plastic surgery don’t see to bother the whinney expat, do it?
skindleshanks,
Wonder no more. China will order its servant, NK, to invade SK to revenge the Korean War. When KJI rules the entire peninsula, there will be massive relocation. Especially, Korean women.
Contrary to what SK think, many SK women will be forced or by choice (China will take all the riches of SK) to move to China where they will marry the Chinese.
Soon it will be South Korean males who will be forced into the life of celibacy. A small price to pay to stablize the region for the Great Chinese Empire. Kneel to the Emperor!
So don’t feel sorry for the Chinese. They will get their fill from Korean women(they are already getting NK women). Just wait about five years and they will get SK women as well.
Pawi — the master! from “Through the Looking Glass”:
‘When I use a word,’ Pawi said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more nor less.’
‘The question is,’ said Paul H., ‘whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.’
‘The question is,’ said Pawi, ‘which is to be master— that’s all.’
SomeGuyinKorea,
I think it’s Filipina, or Pilipina.
By the way, what’s a “Moonie?”
Nevermind the question on “Moonie” definition…I found out.
@Paul H:
i could see where baduk is coming from. if u look at korea’s history under qing dynasty of china, korean has been sending thousands of virgins to china as a “gift” so that china would be nicer to them. when korea was “freed” from china by japan, korean women were forced to be a japanese sex slave. it seems that north korean women are being targeted by chinese no-chong-gak these days.
korea must make wise decisions so that they dont get bullied around by their neighbors.
Pawi, you have the attention span of a newt.
“btw, i’m proud to be an american. are you?”
For the millionth time,I’m not American
Do you have the T-shirt?
Mark, I’m (respectfully) curious why a guy who posts on a Korean blog doesn’t know what a “Moonie” is. Just asking.
Someguy, You are not Korean, ergo you are “American.”
pss can’t refute my point, cn you, slim? all that plastic surgery don’t see to bother the whinney expat, do it?
Define “whinney” for us first, idiot, and then I’ll demolish your so-called point.
I had heard of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church; however, I had never heard of them referred to as “Moonies.” That’s all.
I guess that the Moonies were just a big deal in the news 20 years ago and that you’re younger than I am. There used to be a kind of “red scare” mentality to stories about them. Maybe, too, after a decade in Korea I’m slightly out of touch. Take care.
* Sunhee, Cyberia PC Bang, Itaewon, 1998 ?
What’s this?
●~* it’s where and when I heard it.
In 1998 Sunhee, an employee of the Cyberia internet cafe in Itaewon, said children who are half-Korean and half-white are good-looking but not happy.
Was Sun-Hee a 혼열아 herself?
Aborigine,
Yep…20 years ago, the only thing I knew about Korea or Koreans was that they had a civil war between World War II and Vietnam, and that they would host the Olympics in 1988.
●~* (#22): Your story is so endearing. I’m sure you’ll meet a good guy soon.
Hardy & Tiny (#12, 46): You’re pretty wild, too: name, date, place!
Mark, you hadn’t heard the term “Moonie” or made the connection? Cause it’s a term that was used in the North America a lot back in the 80s. I wouldn’t care, but aren’t you the savvy guy whose avatar (when they’re visible) is a guy with a cup of coffee and the caption, “How about a nice hot steaming cup of …”? I just figured you knew it all! (Semi-seriously.)
Wow, there are more grammatical errors and typos in that comment than you could shake a stick at….
To be blunt, in the ’80s I didn’t give a rat’s ass about Korea. I was focused on the USSR and the Warsaw Pact.
The pot’s brewing!
@ comment #19,
i actually like the use of “i’ve heard” in comments on blogs. it’s usually used as a way to show that the writer is not claiming to be an expert on the subject and is looking for more information. (using the expression implies the question, “what have you heard?”)
if you have something more scientific that you would like to add to the discussion, please feel free to see my “i’ve heard” as a direct invitation to do so.
i look forward to reading what you have heard about korea.
Mark,
The Moonies are big hiters amongst the religious conservatives in Washington. They own the Washington Times and United Press International (UPI). Rev. Moon has been closely linked to George Bush Sr.
Yeah, like the one they’ve made to poke a sharp stick in the eye of the US.
Soon we’re going to see the Bush/Rice or ____/_____ cover of this great song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riVFbbRwaZM
which, of course, is a cover of the same title by Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks (can’t find it on YouTube anymore).
“”YIKES! Wouldn’t the average Korean Wave viewer believe that a typical Korean woman gets cancer on her 21st birthday, gets disowned by her fiance who then goes blind and becomes a beggar, then falls in love with the poor country boy she ignored in grade school but who was adopted by a rich chaebol family and goes to medical school and discovers a cure for cancer but gets run over by a USFK truck driven by soldiers who are identified with the help of the beggar, who regained his sight suddenly for reasons you’ll have to tune in next week to learn?”"
This is hilarious. How DID the beggar get his sight back?? And DAMN those soldiers!
Mark’s Comment #10…an absolute classic.
Going back to the original posting, it makes me wonder even more, “What is globalization?” I thought about it a lot on my recent trifecta trip (Seoul, Taipei, Bangkok).
In Korea, one part of globalization is the Filipina girl working under contract at the Top Hat Club in Anjong-ri (Camp Humphreys). She is not provided with proper winter clothing, and her boss is the same mean lady that I and several old-timers on this blog used to do regularly back in the day. That’s the bad side. Another part is the nice Thai lady I met on the plane from Bangkok to Hong Kong. She was going back to work at the Kia plant in Suwon. Globalization has given her a chance to make a decent living for her family in Thailand. That’s the good side. BTW, it was fun having a convo with her in Korean. There’s something quite enjoyable about speaking Korean with non-Koreans. There’s a whole layer of shit that’s removed in comparison to when one is speaking Korean with a Korean person.
In Taipei, globalization is the suicide barriers at the subway station platforms. Too much of their economy has gone to China. One good thing is Samsung’s excellent work in helping to build those subways. Now, if we’d only let them come to California to do the same so that we could get out of these stinking cars…
Thailand and globalization? I haven’t been able to sort it out nearly a month after being back. Is globalization the cause of economic suffering there, or is it the way out? I can’t tell.
Globalization is a real mother fucker, a schizophrenic Cain and Abel of a beast, something to be repulsed by and thankful for at the same time.
That’s how I felt after reading this article. Globalization is good because a lot of Vietnamese families are going to be provided for. But life could suck greatly for many of these Vietnamese brides. Or maybe not. At any rate, the more of them there are in Korea the better, so as to make it easier for them to visit with each other.
What’s certain is that Korea is changing, like it or not. The Thai lady at the Kia plant is satisfied with her deal. The group of possible Filipinas I saw in Pyongtaek seemed to be doing okay. The guys from Congo at the Seoul Pub were doing just fine at 2:00 a.m.
Also, Korea has changed. Women who can refuse to marry anything less than a good man? Priceless. Sometimes people take a short view of Korea. For me, though, seeing how far they’ve come since 1978 fills me with hope that a similar level of economic justice is not that far away for Thailand, Vietnam, and other noble countries of the region.
Lots of Taiwanese males marrying women from Vietnam as well. They have programs here on cable which are catalog format, showing dozens of girls with a surname and ID number. Then you phone the agency to sign up for a trip there.
I think the reasons are the same as in Korea. Most of these guys are from southern Taiwan and are farmers or blue-collar types that have a difficult time of it in the domestic marriage market.
The white-collar types that choose to marry outside Taiwan typically find someone (or two, or three) in the Mainland while they’re over there working for their Taiwan company. A big problem here are guys having multiple households: a wife and kids in Taiwan and then one or more in the PRC.
Back in the day i remember being on a bus in the vicinity of an American military base and there was a bunch of Korean kids chasing two mixed race children. The Koreans in the bus found this amusing.
Has korea changed in this regard?
Mark said-
I think it’s Filipina, or Pilipina.
It’s a little tricky…should be “Filipino bride” as “Filipino” is an (English) adjective, while “Pilipina” is a (Tagalog) noun meaning female person from the Philippines.
“Filipina” is the Spanish word for “Pilipina”, but appears in English too, as a noun and not an adjective.
“…In Taipei…[as regards globalization]…one good thing is Samsung’s excellent work in helping to build those subways. Now, if we’d only let them come to California to do the same so that we could get out of these stinking cars…..”
You mean all those stinking cars Californians have imported from Asia? The production of which has played a key role for the Japanese (and now the Korean) economies, for the last 30 years or so?
Taiwan is about 13,823 square miles, California is 158,302. That implies (to my limited way of thinking) a need for a certain flexibility in individual transportation for Americans, assuming you of course you want them to have jobs and prosper so they can purchase exported goods from the various Asian tigers.
If they’re notables such as a SuperBowl MVP with a persevering mother they’re chasing them too…with arms full of cash. Though I suspect it’s due to the concern that they look insensitive to the MVP’s woe-is-me-and-my-momma stories. And the ones stuck here can be drafted by the military.
The article partly attributes declining birthrates for women during the 80’s. But I don’t think its the main factor. Its simply that less Korean women get married these days. Some postpone thoughts of marriage till their 30’s and by then, they are not that marketable, due to the male notion which still persists that women over 30 are already ‘old maids’.
Here’s an portion of an article on the subject:
__________________________________________________
Around 40 percent of South Korean women are staying single into their 30s as they increasingly prioritize their education and careers.
Twenty years ago, only 14 percent of women were still single at 30. The 26 percent leap has researchers in a tizzy. “More and more women want late marriages for their self-development,” researcher Chang Hye-kyung said.
And she predicted that the number of unmarried women older than 30 will only continue to climb. “Many women believe the long-standing inequality between husband and wife still exists. They know that marriage is not a compulsory course, but merely a choice.”
Chang added: “Despite the soaring jobless rate, highly educated women don’t want to resort to men.
_________________________________________________
beechtreem,
You brought a good point.
The trouble is Korean women now want American style of life but Korean job market is not big. These women after spending their twenties in starting positions get laid off in early thirties. Then, there is no job for them since they are not willing do menial job or physical labor.
Many of these women go to Australia or the US and sell themselves. Some stay in Korea and lure successful married men.
It is a big unspoken social problem in Korea.
-_-;
Hey, Korea is full of DIVORCED men,and some of them are successful.
●~* ,
Are you saying it’s okay if they are dysfunctional, as long as they are rich? Try if you want. Soon enough, you’ll learn why their first wives divorced them.
I personally don’t see anything fundamentally bad about selling and buying of brides from overseas. Or husbands for that matter. As long as the brides themselves actually WANT to do this, it appears to me that both sides win on this deal. This seems to me like a specialied subset of a labor market, and globalization in labor market is old news. Vietnam apparently has an abundant supply(unmarried women) but less than robust demand (eligible men), which depresses the price (material comfort resulting from marriage). Korean bridal labor market apparently has more robust demand (men who are comparatively more eligible) and they can afford to pay higher price (provide the wives with more material comfort). Simple solution is reached through a globalizing the bridal market place, and both side win out on the deal. (That is, unless, the brides themselves are unwilling. In which case it’ll be human trafficking, which is illegal.)
In an ideal case scenario, a truly efficient global dating market will form, where any eligible single person will be able to seek out potential mates from all corners of the globe (non-geometrically speaking) and possibly form a union. Cultural, linguistic and logistic barriers prevent us from reaching such an utopia anytime soon, but whole bunch of online dating sites and other match-making services are hard at work to dream the impossible dream.
Mr. SomeguyinKorea,
No, I’m not.
Mr. baduk wrote, “Many of these women go to Australia or the US and sell themselves. Some stay in Korea and lure successful married men.”
I just wanted to point out that Korea is full of overwhelmingly more successful male divorcees than successful married men. How could an unmarried marry a divorcee who was forsaken for distaste or may have some characteristic defect.
Mr. danson, good.
I rather doubt that Korea is full of more successful diverces than married men? Anything like proof?
Like ●~* said, getting a successful married man is probably much better than getting a successful divorced man. The fact that he is still married must mean that his character is good, therefore worthy of getting, while for a divorced man, the fact that he is divorced must mean there is something wrong with his character (or why else did his wife leave him?) Never before married bachelors are obviously out of the question because they are neither successful nor married.
RE: bluejives’ comment #70
Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but a married man who has extramarital sexual relations does not have “good character.” Particularly in Korea, where divorce is less acceptable, women over thirty have poor career prospects, and men are favored in custody cases, many wives stay married to philandering, violent men because the alternative - being alone and poor - is even less desirable.