Vietnamese Brides in Taiwan on a Lesser Wedlock: Improvising a Bride for the son at the Expenses of

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Vietnamese Brides in Taiwan on a Lesser Wedlock
Improvising a Bride for the son at the Expenses
of the Grandchildren ?

• Michael S. Chen Doris Y. Lin
• International Workshop
• on the
• Changing Asian Family
• A Support System With Holes?
• Asia Research Institute
• Department of Sociology
• National University of Singapore
• May 24-26, 2004

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Significance of the Issue

• An issue of historic significance
• Literally puts a new face on Taiwan
• And changes the definition of Taiwanese
  forever.

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• Introduction

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Women Should Have No Resistance to the Fate

• A woman is like a seed of some humble plant
  drifting in the air, and, wherever she settles,
  she takes roots, grows up, extends family
  lineages. (?????????,????,??????)
• A Taiwanese analogy for the fate of women.

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Women Should Follow Her Man Wherever (Whatever)
He Turns

• Marrying a chicken, and you follow the
  chicken, marrying a dog, and you follow the dog.
  (???????????)
  
• A Taiwanese teaching
• for womens attitude toward marriages.

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An Analogy that Foretold the Fate of Women of
Different Origins

• Ironically, it is exactly the will to go against
  the grains on the part of the Taiwanese women
  that caused the phenomenon of the foreign
  brides in general or of the Vietnamese brides in
  particular.

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Interracial Marriages in Taiwanin Historical
Perspective

• As a society of immigrants, men from China often
  came single (lo-han-jiau, ???, man of age without
  a wife) and then married the native women.
• Therefore, many of the Taiwanese are offsprings
  of foreign brides in some sense.
• Yet, the woman-ancestors names are often not
  written at all in the family book. (Can find the
  male ancestors, cant find the female ancestors.
  ?????????)

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The Multi-faceted Nature of the Issue

• A matter of the globalization of everything
• Thesis of central-peripheral -- an extension of
  the marriage gradients to a macro level
• Tacit efforts towards a new national identity.

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Purposes of this Article

• To analyze (anatomize) the Received Views of
  the issue in question
• As an effort to partially demystify the Received
  Views, to weigh the pros cons of the
  phenomenon in terms of intergenerational
  accounting
• To propose policy recommendations in the light of
  the intergenerational accounting.

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An Analysis of the Received Views
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A Quantitative Profile

• By early this year, there were 304,924 foreign
  brides, including 197, 127 (64.65) from
  Mainland and 107,797 (35.35) from all the other
  countries, and those from Vietnam made up 2/3 of
  this group.
• Of all the marriages in 2002, 12 were
  cross-national
• One out of 8 babies was born by the foreign
  brides
• School pupils from the cross-national marriages
  will quadruple in 6 years.

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An Alleged Qualitative Profile

• Most men marrying foreign women were either
  physically or mentally handicapped.
• The single most important purpose of improvising
  a foreign bride was to keep the incense burning
  and candles lighting (????)
• Children from the cross-national marriages were
  retarded in mental development
• Domestic violence was rampant, and the brides
  always had a secret plan of running away or apt
  to be spoiled if allowed to go out freely and
  establish her own social network.

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A lousy suitor not necessarily makes a lousy
husband. the Authors
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The Received Views

• Foreign brides are slaves of the modern time.
• The problems of international marriages are a
  consequence of the morbid worldwide marriage
  market.
• Interracial marriages caused more problems than
  solved.

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An Anatomy of the Received Views

• A paradigm of Central vs. Peripheral that
  extended the thesis of marriage gradient and
  implies that the women married to Taiwan were of
  lower education and socio-economic status
• Media coverage perpetuated the miserable image
  and stigma of the cross-national marriages.
• Low-key for the successful marriages, widespread
  for the failed ones.

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Compromising the Received Views

• Elements of the received views could be true,
  yet not sufficient evidence to support
• Nationwide surveys have yet to come out, and many
  surveys were limited in certain senses
• Whether the problems are socio-economic in nature
  or specifically cross-national is in doubt
• The trend moved so fast that its hard to hang a
  moniker on the problem. (More and more
  white-collar professional men are seeking
  cross-national marriages. So do the women, only
  less conspicuously.)

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• Tai-Viet Marriages
• in Perspective
• And at Work

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Factors Conducive to Tai-Viet Marriages

• Economic contrast which allowed the marriage
  gradients to take effect
• Southward policy, proposed in 1993, facilitated
  closer relationships between two nations, and
  extended the social network for Taiwanese to get
  the access to the Vietnamese society, in the wake
  of getting into Vietnams economy
• Policy against marriages with the Mainland China
  women made room for women from other countries
• Vietnamese women, diligent, tender and with
  similar cultural background, own the good
  qualities becoming of a good Taiwanese daughter
  in law.

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Tai-Viet Marriages at Work

• Marriages of love Romances in the office
• Marriages through social networks Being fixed up
  by friends or relatives
• Marriages through brokers service provided at a
  fee there are promoting signs and ads everywhere
  in Taiwan, particularly in the countryside.

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Accounting Tai-Viet Marriages
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A Profile of the stakeholders in the Tai-Viet
Marriages the First Generation

• The first generation particularly the
  grandmother, who usually masterminds the
  marriage, mainly for keeping the incense burning
  and candles lighting, could be unable to give
  thorough consideration for the grandchildren.
  For instance, could get torn between giving
  better opportunities to the bride (better for
  the grandchildren) and preventing the bride from
  being spoiled
• Often the key for the quality of the marriage.

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A Profile of the stakeholders in the Tai-Viet
Marriages the Second Generation

• The husband more often than not happy with the
  marriage possibly the net-gainer
• The bride
• Seeking for a better future could gain in
  economic security (on Maslows hierarchy of the
  Needs),
• Yet fate still uncertain, at the mercy of factors
  mostly out of her hand.

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A Profile of the stakeholders in the Tai-Viet
Marriages the Third Generation

• Could be the victim of the stigma, if not the
  real problems
• More difficulties to cope with, yet could be a
  blessing in disguise.

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• Policy and Measures Revisited and Recommended

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Policies and Measures Revisited

• Assistance in adaptation to a new life
• Medical care
• Employment assurance
• Promotion of education and culture
• Assistance in nurturing the children
• Personal security protection .

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Policy Recommendations based on Intergenerational
Accounting

• Making the training programs compulsory for the
  bride,
• Courses beneficial for the bride, and therefore
  for the children
• Programs give the opportunity for the bride more
  time out side of the family
• Only happy mothers can make happy children.
• Making the training programs compulsory for the
  husband, too, for a better husband and father
• Providing employment opportunity economic
  security is the single most important factor for
  a happy marriage
• Re-calibrating the nature of the phenomenon of
  the foreign brides
• Media balancing the picture with more successful
  stories
• Academia conducting thorough surveys to profile
  the nature of the problems.

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• Concluding Remarks

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Food for Thought

• Lacking support of solid evidence, the received
  views are not to be aptly received
• A new national identity is in the making?
• What would happen to the men in Taiwan without
  the cross-national marriages?
• What has happened to the disadvantaged women in
  Taiwan with the prosperous market of
  inter-racial marriages?

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Its most beautiful to have dreams in a row, as
promising hopes will be in the tow.
(????,????) President Chen Shui Bean
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