Vietnam's New Trend: Renting Partners to Escape Marriage Pressure
Renting a partner is an unusual way that more and more young people in Vietnam are managing the demands of marriage and beginning a family. Particularly among people who are battling the social and family pressures of settling down, this approach is becoming more and more common. Some young people are paying actors to pretend as their boyfriends or girlfriends during family get-togethers and other functions, instead of nagging about their relationship status nonstop.
Though it sounds strange, the concept is growing rather prevalent in Vietnamese society. Particularly from their parents, young people are under more pressure to get married and have children; this short fix helps to relieve some of the stress while avoiding the commitment of real marriage. With online groups providing services to link clients with persons ready to seem to be in a relationship for a designated period of time, social media channels are significantly helping these arrangements to be possible.
A local news source, VnExpress, claims that the agreements include exact and rigorous guidelines. Romance and physical intimacy have no place here; these are only professional setups. Presenting a content, steady relationship to family members free from the emotional entanglement generally associated with courtship or marriage is the aim. Consider Minh Thu, a thirty-year-old Nam Dinh provincial woman. For a family get-together, she paid a man to pass for her boyfriend. Minh paid several hundred US dollars for the service, and the ceremony went off to delight her parents—who had been worried about her being single for so long.
Marriage is considered as a major turning point in Vietnamese society for the parents as well as for the couple. It's seen as a sign of success in raising children; parents generally urge their adult offspring to settle down fast. Beyond marriage, there is also pressure to establish a family and have grandchildren, which just heightens the tension.
Although renting a spouse might provide a temporary cure, experts advise against it as there are certain risks involved. Researching at the Academy of Journalism and Communication, Nguyen Thanh Nga issues a warning about these setups: they might have emotional repercussions. Should the truth surface, it could sour ties and cause mistrust between parents and children to break out.
Sociologists say this pattern draws attention to a more general problem: inadequate parent-child communication. Sociologist Dr. Pham Thi Thuy notes that many arguments result from parents imposing their own schedules and expectations on the life of their children. She contends that marriage should be a personal decision based on personal objectives and aspirations, not determined by family or society pressure.
Although hiring a partner could offer temporary comfort, it is evident that this tendency reflects deeper, unsolved problems about expectations, communication, and the definition of marriage in Vietnamese society. Though it's only a temporary fix, it suggests the need of more honest dialogues about personal happiness and life decisions instead of merely reaching cultural standards.
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