Saturday, August 15, 2015

Russian Women Increasingly Marrying Chinese Men, Hong Kong Paper Says



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.



No comments:

Post a Comment