The lonely Chinese men being conned by fake brides
At 37, Wang Zhuang had almost given up hope of finding a wife, until he saw the glossy matchmaking adverts. They promised he wouldn't have
At 37, Wang Zhuang had almost given up hope of finding a wife, until he saw the glossy matchmaking adverts. They promised he wouldn't have to waste years on building a relationship that had no future. They offered to introduce him to a demure, devoted woman. "The matchmakers said that girls from Guizhou are frugal," Wang says. "They told me they are good at running a household, able to do housework, and their families are very poor, so after marrying into your family, they would settle down and live a life with you." So Wang travelled to Guiyang, a city in the southwestern province of Guizhou, in the hope of finding his soulmate.
He thought he had, when he was matched with a woman who seemed to tick every box. They had only met a few times before they married. Then, almost as quickly as his new life had begun, it was over. "My whole family has been thrown into chaos," he says, shaking his head. He is still picking up the pieces more than a year after he discovered that everything he had been told by his wife was a lie.
She was a former karaoke hostess who'd been married three times, had three children, a serious sexually transmitted disease and was deeply in debt. She had even lied about her age. He is fighting for a divorce and cannot return home to his old life - at least until he can recoup some of his life savings, which he says he paid to the agency within hours of being introduced to several potential matches.
"My parents blame me. I have insomnia and anxiety. I can't focus on work."
The BriefWire