Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Chinas lonely men are being conned by fake marriages

Transcript

Chinas lonely men are being conned by fake marriages · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: How many women did you meet before you chose your bride?
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Jena Chiaga?
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: How long after that meeting were you married?
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Jo Senstange of Gardina? What father? What's happened? What did Wang?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Wang was lured to Guadjo with a promise he'd find
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: a wife. Instead, he's lost his life savings. There are
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: six other men in the flat, he tells me, all
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: in the same situation, all here to recook money they'd
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: spend on flash marriages.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Chang Jim, you saw that, and also you so and you.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: You got your time, you got and you'll tell you
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: far and you had a daughter on them and send out.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: She him buying.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So this was the day he proposed. Just hours after
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: they met, the glossy photos were turned into an online
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: ad for the matchmaking agency. On paper, she seemed de
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: mirror devoted. He paid her thousands of dollars to be
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: his bride, a long standing Chinese marriage custom. Within weeks,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: she was gone, along with his money.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Jesus doesn't see you.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Are taking you want just as you want. Jesus signed
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: one Tayo sanga ta young Katie Wit.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: How did that feel when you heard the truth about
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the person you'd married?
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Doesn't see you those joas the signs that's why else
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: signs on Josh she would hire to hit yes.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: The good job, and.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: He discovered the flash marriage agency had packed up disappeared.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: We toured a warring of offices trying to find a
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: marriage agency who would talk to us one if they
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: actually agreed. What are your views on the kind of
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: scam marriage markets that?
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: How you go town.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: To it?
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Now that I don't that.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Women across China know that in demand due to a
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: serious gender imbalance. We've come to the countryside to get
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: an idea of the scale of the problem. China is
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: facing a demographic crisis. Up until ten years ago, parents
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: were only allowed to have one child and there was
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: a preference for boys. That has left around thirty million
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: men looking for a wife in this country. That's the
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: equivalent of the entire male population of the UK remaining
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: a bachelor, and that is becoming an issue. The Party
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: is trying to get more people to get married, trying
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: to get more people to have children, but it's having
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: a limited effect. Fewer marriages mean fewer babies, and China's
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: population is now shrinking. In the last three years, the
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: population has fallen by around three million, a downward spiral
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: which could mean the country loses nearly half its people
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: by the end of the century. Back in the city,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: as women become more choosy, the matchmaking industry is booming.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: This was the day Shoe Rouline thought his son had
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: found a good match. Within months, his bride had disappeared,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: along with the money he gave her.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Well, that's that was this woman somewhere to phone. We're
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: dying at Amaya. The womania.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Amo Samada, Yeah, Wang Wang two knows he has a
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: few options. Do you ever hope to get married in
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a different way?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: She knew? What doesn't see how you.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: And I just.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: The's a one of them siswers your male.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: As authorities cracked down on marriage scams, they're also confronting
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: a deeper problem for Beijing. The victims of this fraud
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: are a reminder of a demographic crisis that the Communist
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Party is still struggling to reverse. Laura Beaker, BBC News,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Guajo