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:
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.