How China’s massive gender imbalance drives surge in Southeast Asian women sold into marriage

Beijing’s decades-long one-child policy has left a shortfall of nearly 33 million women in China, with the same number of men facing life on the shelf

Largely driven by poverty, tens of thousands of young Cambodian, Vietnamese, Laos and Myanmar women marry Chinese men each year

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Tens of thousands of young Cambodian, Vietnamese, Laos and Myanmar women marry Chinese men each year. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:31pm, 11 Dec 2018Updated: 8:56am, 12 Dec 2018

Everyone did well from Nary’s marriage to a Chinese man, except the young Cambodian bride herself, who returned home from the six-year ordeal destitute, humiliated and with little prospect of seeing her son again.

Her brother ran away with US$3,000 after cajoling the then 17-year-old to leave Cambodia to marry. Brokers split the remaining US$7,000 paid by her Chinese husband, who got himself a longed-for heir.

But her wedding to a stranger thousands of miles from home, in a language she could not understand, was ill-fated from the start.

“It was not a special day for me,” she said.

‘Nary’ at her family home in Phnom Penh. Photo: AFP

Nary is one of tens of thousands of young Cambodian, Vietnamese, Laos and Myanmar women – and girls – who marry Chinese men each year, plugging a gender gap incubated by Beijing’s three-decade-long one-child policy.

While the policy has ended, a shortfall of about 33 million women has left the same number of men facing life on the shelf.

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