"As long as 160,000, legal and compliant, go back and make your neighbors jealous and envious. A few days ago, some media reported that some users on some social platforms claimed that the "one-stop" service of 160,000 yuan could enable a Chinese bachelor to successfully find a foreign girl to marry, with photos of different girls.
Transnational marriage, which was originally a positive term symbolizing the freedom of marriage, but with the intervention of intermediaries and money transactions, this kind of marriage relationship with foreign marriages has gradually been stigmatized, and even cast an "illegal" shadow -
Recently, a foreign-related marriage fraud case in Zhuzhou City has aroused the attention of the majority of netizens. In order to let his son, who was burned by the fire and has not yet married a wife, marry a bride, his father was gullible and trusted the Internet intermediary, and was finally defrauded of 120,000 yuan.
In the Internet era, is it reliable to be "matched" by short videos? Today's Women's Daily/Fengwang reporter will take you to find out.
Story 1: The "intermediary matchmaker" on the video platform found him a "foreign wife"
Chen Jintao's marriage is a knot in the hearts of his parents - at the age of 37, he has been on a blind date many times in his hometown in Xiangxi. The two elder brothers in the family are married, his parents don't have much savings, and his salary is not high.
In order to let Chen Jintao get married as soon as possible, his parents searched for relatives and neighbors, and kept giving him blind dates, but Chen Jintao felt that there was little hope. Many blind dates have been fruitless, and the family is a little discouraged.
Once, Chen Jintao swiped the content of transnational marriage and love on a short video. "Brides from Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal and other countries are virtuous and considerate, and they have successfully married foreign daughters-in-law. Similar copywriting filled the front page of Chen Jintao's account, making him start to be excited about marrying a foreign bride. "I have also brushed up on some short wedding videos of 'Chinese marrying Southeast Asian brides', as well as many successful cases, which makes me think that transnational marriage is feasible." ”
To this end, he discussed with his family and found an agent on the Internet to introduce a foreign girl. "My family has never been abroad in their lives, but seeing that I have been on blind dates many times without results, I agree to give it a try. ”
So, Chen Jintao contacted a blogger who posted information about transnational marriage intermediaries on the short video platform, and after adding WeChat, the other party sent him many "successful cases" that he had matched, including wedding videos and coded wedding photos of both men and women. When Chen Jintao proposed that he wanted to find a girl to marry, and he didn't care which country it was, the agent sent some photos and profiles of the girl. Among the four or five girls, Chen Jintao picked the Vietnamese girl Xiaomei at a glance.
Seeing Chen Jintao's heartbeat, the intermediary told him that as long as he paid a deposit of 20,000 yuan first, he could wait until he got married to make up the remaining "intermediary fees". In Chen Jintao's view, compared with domestic marriage, the "cost performance" of transnational marriage seems to be higher, so he happily gave the money to the intermediary and waited to fly to Vietnam to get engaged to Xiaomei.
In 2023, Chen Jintao took his family to Xiaomei's house in Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam. "After the meeting, both of our families agreed to get married, and our family also bought gold bracelets, gold earrings and gold necklaces for the woman in accordance with Chinese customs, and gave the woman's family 136,000 yuan in bride price. ”
"At that time, Xiaomei and I lived together, and we couldn't communicate because of the language barrier, so we used gestures and translation software to communicate. When going out with Xiaomei, Chen Jintao will always hold Xiaomei's hand tightly.
When the intermediary saw that the media was successful, he asked Chen Jintao to pay 50,000 yuan for the "blind date balance". "I thought at the time, I was almost settled with Xiaomei, there should be no more mistakes, and I said it before, so I gritted my teeth and gave it. Thinking that everything was arranged, Chen Jintao returned to China, ready to celebrate the wedding, however, Xiaomei never appeared again.
At this time, Chen Jintao reacted, because of the language barrier, he had not known each other for a long time, except for Xiaomei's "family" and address, he knew almost nothing about Xiaomei. "I went to the intermediary to discuss the explanation, but I found that WeChat had been blocked, and the other party's short video homepage had disappeared. ”
"After I found out that I had been deceived, I reported the case as soon as possible, and I also added a lot of rights groups. But Chen Jintao told reporters that such situations are often difficult to detect because of cross-border crossings, or it is difficult for criminals to be brought to justice. And after he shared his story in various group chats, he found out that it was not the first time that the so-called intermediary and "Xiaomei" had done this kind of thing, she had married someone else in other provinces and then fled, "It turns out that I am not the only one who has been deceived because I want to marry a foreign bride."
Story 2: The Lao bride introduced by a relative disappeared just after her honeymoon
Liu Yongjun, 43 years old this year, is a native of Dong'an County, Yongzhou City, and he never thought that Xiaoli, the foreign bride he finally married back home, would disappear just after her honeymoon!
At the beginning, Liu Yongjun's purpose of wanting to find a foreign bride was very simple - after his divorce, he had been in love many times but always ended up in nothing, and as he grew older, he no longer had much hope for love, and just wanted to find someone to live and have children. "Some of the men in our town have also married wives from Vietnam and Myanmar, and they are doing well. I wondered if I could find one too. ”
Last year, through a relative's introduction, he met Xiaoli, a Laotian girl. "The introduction process was a bit tortuous, my cousin's friend also married a Lao wife and had settled in China, so I asked her to find a friend who is still living in Laos and introduced Xiaoli from the same village. ”
Xiaoli is 34 years old, speaks Chinese and already has a child of her own in her hometown in Laos. However, Liu Yongjun, who is in a hurry to get married, doesn't care about this. He believes that as long as the woman is willing to go back to China with him and live a good life with him. Through several months of chatting on WeChat, Xiaoli also revealed her willingness to have further contact with him. In order to get along with Xiaoli, Liu Yongjun deliberately flew to Laos several times.
As soon as they met, Xiaoli's attitude towards Liu Yongjun was a little cold. "When I was at her house, I always went out with my friends and didn't bring me with me on the pretext of hot weather and girls. Later, at Liu Yongjun's strong request, Xiaoli took him to meet her friends. "They like to drink, and when they get up, they will cuddle and hug, which I can't accept. ”
As a result, Liu Yongjun was a little disheartened, he felt that Xiaoli "didn't care about herself at all". Just as he was about to leave, things took a turn for the worse. Xiaoli began to take the initiative, not only took him to meet his relatives and friends, but also said to him: "Will you marry me? ”
Liu Yongjun agreed. He lived in Laos for a month, received a marriage certificate with Xiaoli locally, gave Xiaoli's family a "dowry" of 80,000 yuan, and held a wedding ceremony. After that, Liu Yongjun took Xiaoli back to Yongzhou.
Liu Yongjun's family conditions are good, relying on decoration, he bought a house in the city a few years ago with full money. Not long after getting married, I bought a car at her request. "For more than two months, the two of them have lived quite peacefully. But one day in July, Xiaoli suddenly ran away, and the surveillance left from home showed that she packed her package unhurriedly and went out without looking back.
"I really want to know why she's running. For this reason, he asked all the relatives and friends around him and the people he introduced to him at that time, but there was no news of Xiaoli. "Is it because we don't have a deep emotional foundation?" So, he bought another ticket and rushed to Xiaoli's house, but Xiaoli was long gone.
On the way to travel many times, Liu Yongjun began to review his relationship with Xiaoli, and felt that he had been deceived into marriage, so he posted a video post of "Looking for a wife" on social platforms, but there were no clues. "Now that I have no money and money, I can't go through the divorce procedures and can't remarry, this foreign bride can make me miserable!"
On the short video APP, a series of videos of transnational matchmaking released by a "matchmaker" anchor.
Testimonial: More and more Chinese men are looking for a bride in Southeast Asia
Zhou Nan is the owner of a visa agency in Guangxi, and the reason why he is engaged in this business is because he married a Vietnamese wife. "We knew each other by ourselves, free love, and she came to Guangxi to work at that time. Coupled with the wedding venue, banquet and other expenses, Zhou Nan spent 30,000 yuan, and did not give a bride price, so he married his wife home.
From 2023 onwards, Zhou Nan has been posting videos on Douyin and Kuaishou platforms about Vietnamese wedding contracts and how to avoid being scammed. "It is obvious that in recent years, more and more Chinese men want to come to Southeast Asian countries to find brides. "Usually in one day, Zhou Nan can receive more than ten inquiries, sometimes send more than a dozen single certificates to Vietnam at a time, and help customers sort out materials is often busy until midnight.
Zhou Nan introduced that in the past few years, with the end of the epidemic, the ports between China and neighboring countries have resumed customs clearance, and the team of people who go abroad to find wives has also been "growing". "Most of them go to Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, because their faces, cultures, and habits are similar to those in China. ”
Taking Vietnam as an example, most of the Chinese men who found Zhou Nan to help him apply for a marriage visa were in their 30s. "And most of the reasons why they want to find foreign brides are because they can't find a suitable one in China, and they and their parents are anxious. Therefore, they look abroad in the hope of finding a satisfactory daughter-in-law, but the reality is not always as expected.
Zhou Nan has also encountered situations where he has begun to prepare for a wedding sign, but he is still deceived and stranded abroad. "When the man went to the Vietnamese woman's house to get along, the woman took all the cash and mobile phone chargers, and he didn't even have the money to go home, so he could only come to me for help. ”
"When you go abroad to find a partner, don't have too good ideas. Zhou Nan told reporters that most stable transnational marriages must first have a certain emotional foundation, and secondly, the man's economic conditions should be better. "For example, having a car, a house, a deposit, good health, appearance or anything is not so important, generally like this, the bride will not leave easily. Zhou Nan suggested that if the economic conditions are relatively poor, it is better not to consider finding a foreign bride. "When the bride comes to a foreign country and sees that the situation is not as expected, she must not want to live with the man. ”
"Most of my clients here are men from rural areas and second- and third-tier cities in Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and other places. Jiang Hongyan, the head of a visa agency in Yunnan, told reporters that in order to avoid risks, the standard for her agency to apply for marriage visas is: men and women must have met, get along, have a certain understanding of each other, and the woman must be able to speak Mandarin. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have taken orders. ”
There is also true love in transnational romances
"In fact, most of the transnational marriages that can come to me are because the marriage has already been decided, and most of them do not have money transactions, and the relationship is more stable. Zhou Nan told reporters that he usually asks as much as possible about how the husband and wife know and get along, so as to prevent anyone from being deceived. "Generally speaking, if you need to spend hundreds of thousands, don't believe it if you ask the intermediary to introduce it, and don't hold the attitude of 'superior' and 'marriage is a sale'. ”
Although there are endless scams in transnational marriages, Zhou Nan still witnesses a lot of true love.
Once, Zhou Nan received a Chinese and Vietnamese couple who were separated by the epidemic. "They are in free love, and the woman has also come to China to study. "At the end of March 2020, China gradually stopped all foreign-related visa processing, and the girl could not come to China to live with the man.
But they didn't give up on the relationship, and they got their marriage certificate shortly after Vietnam opened the country the year before last. Therefore, Zhou Nan summed up the experience of transnational marriage happiness: not because of high cost performance and low cost of marriage, but because both parties treat each other sincerely.
"Last year, there was war in Myanmar, but I still received a lot of requests from multinational couples to get married. According to the services provided by Jiang Hongyan's company, the company will accompany the whole process when handling the relevant documents. "During that time, my phone was almost bombarded with crazy questions, asking if my wife was safe. ”
"In the past, many women on the Myanmar border did not understand China's foreign-related marriage laws, and men were reluctant to spend energy to get a marriage certificate. Jiang Hongyan told reporters that this has also led to many Sino-Burmese transnational marriages, which exist in the form of "de facto marriages", where both men and women are not registered, live together in the name of husband and wife for a long time, and have children.
However, as legal awareness is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, more and more multinational couples are looking for Jiang Hongyan to help reapply for marriage certificates and passports. "I had a couple in their 50s who had just gotten their marriage license. ”
(In order to protect privacy, the names of the parties in the article have been changed)
Survey: Transnational marriage has a large demand and has become an industrial chain
Going to less developed countries to find a marriage partner is becoming a realistic action for some domestic men.
On April 16, a reporter from Today's Women's Daily/Fengwang searched on platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou with keywords such as "transnational marriage" and "transnational bride". Below some videos sharing the lives of transnational couples, similar comments such as "help introduce one", "how much did it cost", "I want to find one too" and so on are not uncommon.
"Myanmar girls come to China to find their husbands in a group ......" On the Kuaishou platform, some bloggers with ID format of nationality + name often post videos with similar copywriting, and the video is the picture of some foreign girls, and in the blogger's personal profile, they often leave their WeChat contact information.
According to Chinese law, any foreign-related marriage agency is illegal, and the General Office of the State Council clearly pointed out in Document No. 104 of 1994 "Notice on Strengthening the Administration of Foreign-related Marriage Introduction" that the establishment of foreign-related marriage agency is strictly prohibited, and no domestic marriage agency or any other unit shall engage in foreign-related marriage introduction business, and no individual shall engage in foreign-related marriage introduction activities by deception or for the purpose of profit.
However, on social platforms, some bloggers will also act as "middlemen" to introduce transnational marriages and loves, some directly named after "intermediaries", and some attract attention by posting videos of travel, weddings, and experiences of marrying transnational wives in Southeast Asia, and earn intermediary fees on the grounds of helping to introduce Southeast Asian brides. What's more, some bloggers will clearly mark the price of brides from different countries in their videos.
According to relevant media disclosures, marriage and love matters in Nepal and other countries have been refined into a "seven-step wife" The process and services include: confirming that a man is looking for a Nepalese bride, sending photos for the man to see, arranging a video blind date after fanciing the woman, a brief understanding between the two parties and confirming that the man can be arranged to go to Nepal, and the office staff will follow up the arrangement throughout the process after the man gets off the plane (follow the arrangement of the Nepalese staff); arrange the return to China after receiving the marriage certificate and holding the wedding; after all the procedures are completed, the return service will be completed; and regular follow-up visits.
Reminder: If you encounter a marriage scam, you can report it to protect your rights
Xiao Mingjie (Lawyer of Hunan Tiandiren Law Firm)
Finding a partner in some underdeveloped areas has greater legal risks. First, they may be defrauded of property by intermediaries or "brides"; second, if a foreign woman who has been trafficked in is involved in a monetary transaction, it will be a violation of Article 241 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China to buy a trafficked woman or child; and third, if you want to divorce but cannot find a woman after a transnational marriage is concluded, there will be difficulties in serving it by the court and a long time for divorce proceedings.
If you have already encountered the situation of being deceived by an "intermediary" or "bride", you can report the case to the public security to protect your rights. Where intermediaries, matchmakers, and "brides" obtain property by deception by fabricating facts, they may be guilty of the crime of fraud under Article 266 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China. If the intermediary or matchmaker is unwilling to refund the money, he can file a lawsuit with the court. According to Article 1 of the Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening the Administration of Foreign-related Marriage Introductions (Guo Ban Fa [1994] No. 104), no individual may engage in or covertly engage in foreign-related marriage introduction activities by deception or for the purpose of profit. According to Article 1024 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, arranged marriages, buying and selling marriages and other acts that interfere with the freedom of marriage are prohibited. The court may find that the intermediary agreement is invalid and require the intermediary or matchmaker to refund the amount (the specific amount of the refund will be considered according to the actual circumstances of the case).
Marriage is not a sale. If you want to go to an underdeveloped country or region for a blind date or get married, you should apply for entry and exit documents. Before marrying a foreign woman, it is necessary to clearly understand her identity information and marital status, and avoid bigamy, fraudulent marriage, or trafficking. If you go on a blind date through an intermediary or matchmaker, you need to keep communication records or form a written agreement through chat tools such as WeChat, and pay the intermediary fee through transfer to avoid the lack of evidence after the dispute arises later.
Voice: The mismatch between supply and demand between local single men and women has led to the rapid growth of cross-border marriages
Wang Li (Teacher, School of Philosophy and History and Culture, Biquan College, Xiangtan University)
In the national marriage market, women continue to flow out with the pace of education and migrant work, and the supply and demand of marriage resources in the local marriage circle are misaligned, and those regions and individuals who are at a disadvantage in the competition have become "marriage depressions". As a result, transnational brides become a sub-optimal option for solving problems such as getting married and having children. Women in less developed countries, on the other hand, seek transnational integration to improve their personal and family lives out of their desire for a happy life.
After getting married, most brides will try to adapt to life in rural China, and in some areas where there are many transnational brides, they will form a social circle with the same group and carry out social interaction and mutual assistance with a higher frequency. But at the same time, multinational brides involve complex population management challenges. Some international brides face the problem of being repatriated at any time without a household registration, and do not have access to formal Chinese healthcare, education and other social protections.
On the other hand, transnational marriages also give rise to illegal and criminal acts such as marriage fraud and human trafficking in practice, and face certain risks. First of all, they face differences in language, customs, lifestyle, geography and climate, etc., and they face more run-ins in their de facto married life. Once the run-in is unsuccessful and the marriage is unhappy, the bride may "run away".
Second, some informal transnational marriage intermediaries take advantage of the psychological and relative information limitations of some men who are eager to find a partner to carry out joint deception, resulting in the man's family being empty of money and running out of savings.
Finally, transnational marriages and families also face the problem of social adaptation of offspring.
In this regard, it is necessary to touch the "root cause" of the disease through comprehensive measures. Men in the marriage market should strengthen their self-cultivation, continue to improve their education level, economic income ability and personal charm, do not completely hope for transnational marriage, and at the same time, improve the ability to obtain information and screen information in the marriage market, understand the relevant laws and regulations, and avoid encountering marriage fraud because of impatience or information blockage.
In places where transnational marriage phenomena and intermediaries are concentrated, relevant departments and social welfare organizations may organize and carry out relevant legal popularization and education efforts to reduce scams caused by information asymmetry. In addition, it is also necessary to effectively alleviate the problem of "difficulty in marrying" for some low-income youth. The state and society should increase social support for relevant groups, and introduce some targeted measures to alleviate the imbalance in the gender structure and the high bride price.
Editor's note: Transnational marriage and love should be cautious and precautionary, and there should also be tolerance and love
The anxiety of singleness and the pressure of survival have made more and more people set their sights on transnational matchmaking, and more and more advanced network methods and deception have made these people become lambs waiting to be slaughtered. When marriage becomes a "sale" measured and traded in money, what is obtained is not happiness, but a huge rift in life.
Here, we would like to remind: transnational marriage and love should be cautious, understand the relevant laws and policies, and be more vigilant when encountering online matchmaking, and do not fall into the trap of online marriage fraud.
It is true that everyone has the right to find happiness. Although there are scams in transnational marriage, there will also be true feelings between people. Finding a foreign partner who has been cheated on should not be considered "self-inflicted" or ridiculed, nor should foreign brides who are supposed to live a stable and good life be stigmatized.
Text: Today's Women's Daily/Fengwang reporter Zhou Yating
Editor: Peng Chen, Yiren
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