South Koreans Search Far for Wives

Towards the beginning of the semester, I posted an article that talked about the implications of Hallyu and its impact on the rising status of Korean men; how Korean men, like Korean everything, were being elevated on a pedestal. I found another article that acts as an interesting counterpart to the aforementioned article. This articles gives an interesting glimpse into what is happening in Korea in terms of the marriage market: it is ironic Korean men are highly sought after internationally (or at least in Asia, but with Daniel Kim on ABC’s Lost, the diaspora may be even further spread), but have a hard time finding a local wife at home.

“Despite the obvious pitfalls, South Korean men increasingly are going abroad
to find wives. They have little choice in the matter unless they want to
remain bachelors for life.”

It is interesting to note the reverse-action taking place in this article.

Some thoughts about the article:

1. cultural differences: the problems the Korean man and his Vietnamese wife face stem from their language barrier and complete ignorance of each others’ culture. But I think the larger problem at hand is each person’s unwillingness to make an effort to learn about the other foreign culture. In today’s globalized society, mixed-marriages are extremely common, and cultural differences are starting to be a thing of the past, as information is so readily available and widely accessible. I know a mixed-couple, where the girl is learning Russian for her boyfriend, and the guy is learning Chinese for his girlfriend; but then again they already had English as a common unifying bond, so it’s probably easier on their part than the Korean/Vietnamese couple who have no way of communicating whatsoever.

2. economic implications: The wife shortage is having a devastating effect on the agricultural communities, already threatened by urbanization and free trade. Without wives, young men won't want to stay on the farm. Without wives, there are no babies to replenish the stock of farmers.

It’s just sad to see that the main motivation of marriage is.. for agricultural/economic gains. There’s something very backward/primitiave about that concept; but when your livelihood depends on having babies to work on the farm, things are different. I guess the luxury of being able to choose who you want to marry freely because of love is something society tends to take for granted.

3. cultural globalization in a different form: The marriage market in Asia is becoming rapidly globalized, and just in time for tens of thousands of single-but-looking South Korean men, most of them in the countryside where marriageable women are in scant supply. With little hope of finding wives of their own nationality and producing children to take over the farm, the men are pooling their family's resources to raise up to $20,000 to find a spouse abroad.

4. commercialized arranged marriages/mail-order brides: I feel it’s rather degrading and cheapens the sanctity of marriage; and even if the marriage is successful, the marital bliss is non-exsistant—the relationship after is just an unhappy union of cultural differences and language barriers.

On roads cutting through the fields, marriage brokers advertise their services on billboards. "Vietnamese marriage," reads a billboard in shocking pink on an otherwise quiet country lane.

South Koreans Search Far for Wives
Facing a shortage of prospective rural brides, many men are forced to look
abroad.

By Barbara Demick, L.A Times Staff Writer
September 21, 2006

NAMWON, South Korea — It was the constellation of acne across her cheeks
that made No. 242 stand out from the other young women who were paraded
before him in a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

Jeong Ha-gi, 46, flew to Vietnam on a tour organized for South Korean
bachelors. He was looking for a wife who would be tough enough to withstand
the rigors of life on a rice farm. Trying to distinguish among all the women
with the numbers pinned to their shirts, he decided the one with a bad
complexion might be made of sturdy stuff. They were married three days
later.

Today, they live together in sullen silence, a chasm of cultural differences
between them. She speaks no Korean, he no Vietnamese. They communicate —
barely — with a well-thumbed phrase book. Nguyen Thu Dong, who turned out to
be only 20, doesn't like getting up at 5 a.m. to do the farm chores. She
turns up her nose at kimchi.

"We have a lot of issues between us," said the burly Jeong, who in his
undershirt resembles a Korean version of the young Marlon Brando. "Our age
difference, our culture, our food. But I wanted a wife and she is who I
got."

Despite the obvious pitfalls, South Korean men increasingly are going abroad
to find wives. They have little choice in the matter unless they want to
remain bachelors for life.

The marriage market in Asia is becoming rapidly globalized, and just in time
for tens of thousands of single-but-looking South Korean men, most of them
in the countryside where marriageable women are in scant supply. With little
hope of finding wives of their own nationality and producing children to
take over the farm, the men are pooling their family's resources to raise up
to $20,000 to find a spouse abroad.

The phenomenon has become so widespread that last year 13% of South Korean
marriages were to foreigners. More than a third of the rural men who married
last year have foreign wives, most of them Vietnamese, Chinese and
Philippine. That's a huge change in a country once among the most homogenous
in the world.

To some extent, the globalized marriage market is having a trickle-down
effect, exacerbating the shortage of marriage-age women elsewhere,
particularly China.

"There is a long-standing son preference throughout Asia, but now it is
happening in the context of this 21st century marriage market," said Valerie
M. Hudson, a political scientist and author of "Bare Branches: The Security
Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population."

The preference for sons has translated in South Korea into 113 male births
for every 100 females. Ultrasound became widely available here in the 1980s,
and the first generation screened for gender before birth is now coming of
marriageable age.

But perhaps an even larger factor in the disappearance of young women from
the countryside is their tendency to move to the cities in search of careers
or urban husbands or both.

"South Korean women don't want to live in the countryside. They don't want
to do hard labor, getting their skin brown in the sun. The cities are less
traditional, less patriarchal," said Yang Soon-mi, a social worker with the
Ministry of Agriculture.

The wife shortage is most severe here in the southwestern region of Jeolla,
the traditional heartland of Korea. This is one of the few swaths of South
Korea where the rice paddies have not yet been cemented over for gray slabs
of high-rise apartments. On a hot August day, the air is thick with the
chirping of the cicadas, and red peppers are drying in the sun on the
pavement.

On roads cutting through the fields, marriage brokers advertise their
services on billboards.

"Vietnamese marriage," reads a billboard in shocking pink on an otherwise
quiet country lane.

The wife shortage is having a devastating effect on the agricultural
communities, already threatened by urbanization and free trade. Without
wives, young men won't want to stay on the farm. Without wives, there are no
babies to replenish the stock of farmers.

South Korea and Taiwan are tied for the lowest birthrates in the world, 1.1
per woman, according to a study released last month by the Washington-based
Population Reference Bureau. Unlike China, South Korea does not limit
births, and is in fact offering tax incentives to encourage more children.

Many of the villages around Jeolla are virtual ghost towns, with a sparse
population of elderly residents and hardly a child in sight.

"There are only old people around here," said Le Pho, a 22-year-old
Vietnamese woman who married a South Korean a year ago and is now pregnant.
Her child will be the first born in the village, Seogok-ri, in more than 20
years. Despite a regulation, widely ignored, prohibiting doctors from
divulging the sex of the fetus, Le knows already that she is having a boy.

"My husband and mother-in-law are very happy. They've treated me very well
since they found out the baby is a boy," Le said. "The neighbors too. When
they see my belly, they are amazed."