A few years ago, my brother married someone by the name of Vuong Kieu. My mom had mentioned that she had the same name as a character in a famous piece of Vietnamese literature. Intrigued, I hopped onto Google to find out who this other Vuong Kieu was.
“The Tale of Kieu,” written by Nguyen Du, is a story about a beautiful and educated young woman, Vuong Thuy Kieu, whose family falls upon hard times when her father and brother are imprisoned. In order to save her family and get her family members out of jail, she sells herself to a middle-aged man. However, she does not know that he is a pimp, and she ends up as a prostitute, singer, concubine, and servant.1
Nguyen Du wrote this in reference to the cruel injustice under the feudal system after the dethroning of the Le Dynasty.1 Although this story was written over 200 years ago under different circumstances, Kieu’s story is still being repeated again and again. Vietnamese women are sexually exploited, still being sold as “mail order brides” or as prostitutes in brothels.
According to the 2008 Trafficking in Person Report, “Vietnam is a source and destination for men, women, and children trafficked for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Women and children are trafficked to the People’s Republic of China, Cambodia, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Macau for sexual exploitation. Vietnam is a source country for men and women who migrate for work through informal networks and through state-owned and private labor export companies in the construction, fishing, or manufacturing sectors in Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, the PRC, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Western Europe, and the Middle East, but subsequently face conditions of forced labor or debt bondage.”
Currently, there are tens of thousands of Vietnamese women scattered across Asia who are sexually exploited.2 Some of these women are offered arranged marriages but end up in foreign countries as domestic servants or concubines, not knowing their rights nor the country’s language. Others are offered jobs in factories but end up forced in the sex trade as a prostitute. In other extreme cases, rural women leave Vietnam knowing that entering the sex trade will allow them to send remittances home to Vietnam.
In addition to the sexual exploitation, Vietnamese men, women, and children are exploited for their labor. They migrate for informal work in construction, fishing, and manufacturing. These people are exploited for their work in harsh labor conditions, with no pay and in debt bondage. There have been instances where Vietnamese children have been forced into labor in the UK on cannabis farms or in China on farms and factories. 3
At the end of “The Tale of Kieu,” the heroine returns home to find that her former lover had married her sister. This is a tragic ending to Kieu’s life, and in the world today, there are also millions of tragic stories. It’s up to today’s future to try and make a difference for the future of these women, men, and children.
1 http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/swensson/kieu.html
2 http://www.actionaid.org.uk/100191/human_trafficking_in_vietnam.html
3 2008 Trafficking in Person Report
It is unfortunate the many women in these circumstances are expected to make that kind of sacrifice for family. It's not exclusive to Vietnam, this seems to be the case all over the world in poor countries! Luckily there are program like ADAPT and Catalyst to help now.Ps congrats on your first article, Jennie.
Story was very well written! It all comes back to the Tale of Kieu…. kinda allegorical
there are more research on servile marriages in Asia now, exactly about cases like Kieu. i do hope more actions will be done out of these studies too. the country's focus on servile marriages via research is Korea, plus China too.
A sad truth that must be heard and spread!
so tragic:(
Yeah but theres also tons of homeless kids who are kidnapped and gets their eyes picked out and their arms or legs or both chopped off and are sent on streets to beg for money. that's even worse. the girls are mature and older and have a choice…children however, do not and are much more vulnerable.
Hi Jennie,
Thank you for the article. My name is Kim and I work on this exact issue in Vietnam with the Pacific Links Foundation on their ADAPT (An giang/ Dong thap Alliance for the Prevention of Trafficking) Project in Long Xuyen, Vietnam. We are one of the only organizations working directly with the community most at risk along the Vietnam & Cambodian border.
These “sad” events are happening, but we can’t look at them as “helpless victims” they are women who are strong, who do this to support their families, but their pathway is one that endangers their lives and well-being. But they are not helpless.
Best,
Kim
We are doing an adaptation play of this in Houston in September produced by World Wide Stage…
Wow this is a great resource.. I’m enjoying it.. good article
hey where can i read her story?? cant find it in google you must be a good searcher hhehehe
you look like you’re biologically contaminated, and if so, Jennie as your first name is acceptable.
You don’t know the tale of Kieu: Kieu begged her sister to marry her first love and at the end, Kieu married him (though unwillingly) and maintained a platonic marriage with him.
your major gives your intelligence away!