Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 15 – Vladimir
Putin’s “turn to Asia” is taking on an unexpected and for some in his country
an unwelcome aspect: Ever more Russian women are marrying Chinese men, the
result of the very different gender imbalances in the two countries, according
to a Hong Kong newspaper.
Because of the super-high mortality
rates among Russian men, there are more Russian women in the prime marriage
age cohort than Russian men; and because of Beijing’s one child policy, there
are more Chinese men than Chinese women in the same age range. Thus, one might
predict that the two would come together.
But for ethnic and even racial
reasons, this is a trend that few Russian sources want to discuss and even
fewer Russians want to acknowledge, given what it may mean for the future of
the much smaller Russian ethnos and for Russian control of territories east of
the Urals Mountains.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Chinese
sites report on this subject far more than do Russian ones. One, in January
2015, gave no overall figures but said Chinese-Russian intermarriage is “much
greater than anyone could have supposed” (russian.china.org.cn/exclusive/txt/2015-01/05/content_34476900.htm).
That
report added that “according to data for 2004 through 2012, the number of
Chinese men who married Russian women is almost twice as large as the number of
Chinese women who chose to marry Russian men.” (See “Three Troubling but Illuminating
Statistics from Eurasia” at windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2015/01/three-troubling-but-illuminating.html.)
The new report on this subject this
week comes from Hong Kong’s “Wenhuebao” paper (info.wenweipo.com/index.php?action-viewnews-itemid-74155; translated into Russia at inosmi.ru/fareast/20150812/229591489.html. It has since been picked up by various Russian
outlets such as centrasia.ru/news.php?st=1439415060).
Entitled
“Where can Chinese Men Find a Wife? Russian Beauties are a Good Choice,” the
article says that Chinese men have “every chance” to find a wife in Russia
because “there are few men in that country” and more than half of the women
work. Consequently, many would like to marry and have children.
“In
the [Russian] Far East, the number of Russian-Chinese marriages is much greater
than you can imagine,” the paper tells its reader. “Many [Russian] girls from
this region think that only in China will it be possible for them to find
happiness.” Thus, it says, “it is obvious that Russian girls very much need
Chinese men.”
Not
long ago, the Hong Kong paper continues, mainland Chinese media interviewed
Sasha Fey, a girl from Russia who while a student at Moscow State did an
internship on Hainan Island. In the course of that, the paper says, she “fell
in love not only with the traditional culture of the country but also with a
Chinese boy!”
She
got to know him because she wanted to improve her Chinese, but she fell in love
with him when this “Chinese knight” came to her aid during a typhoon. His behavior
and that of the other Chinese men she met convinced her, she told the Chinese
newspaper, that Chinese men are very “sympathetic.”
According
to Sasha, “Russian-Chinese marriages are enjoying ever greater popularity.” Most
of them are between Chinese men and Russian women, she says, largely because
Chinese men are more polite and romantic and because they are less chauvinist
about other peoples than are Russian men.
Perhaps
more immediately important is the fact that “Chinese rarely drink hard alcohol,
and this for us Russian girls,” Sasha continued, “is very important because so
many families in Russia have been destroyed as a result of this.”
The
Hong Kong paper surveyed possibilities of Chinese men in a variety of other
countries and places around the world.
With regard to Ukraine, it said there were so many beautiful women that
Chinese men would have difficulty choosing; and with regard to Africa, it urged
Chinese men not to delay seeking a partner for life.
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