interracial marriage

[Ian_Lee]

Lucy Liu is not sexy and Jackie Chan is not cool.

And in terms of attractiveness to the other sex, Jackie Chan is much more desirable than Lucy Liu. Jackie has been rumored/witnessed to have numerous affairs that include interracial in nature. In fact, a Japanese female fan committed suicide for Jackie Chan in the '80s after the news leaked out that he got married.

Will any White American guy commit sucide for Lucy if she is known to have been married?

[bhchao]

Not surprisingly most of the men who like Lucy Liu or Zhang Ziyi are Western men. I for one would never go for such women. I'm pretty sure there are many Chinese who do like the latter, but most of her popularity is in the West.

If you read the Chinese Daily News in North America, it is not uncommon to read stories of how many Western men fall head over heals for a Chinese girl on the mainland, and the most valuable commodity in the relationship in the girl's eyes is the foreign passport.

One story I read in the Chinese newspaper tells how one 50-ish American man travels to China, meets an early 20's girl, becomes smitten with her, and takes her to the States with him. Once the girl receives the green card, she files for divorce the next day.

[Ian_Lee]

In Chinese traditional conception, man should be strong in all aspects: body figure, economy, mind and women should marry a man who is stronger in above aspects. When you use this standard to compare Western women / Asian women and Western man / Asian man, it is no hard to understand that Asian man would like to marry Asian woman and Asian woman pretty much prefer Western man.

Does that imply Chinese men are generally weaker in body figure, economy and mind than western men?

Undeniably most Asian men, including Chinese, are generally shorter and less muscular than their western counterparts. But it does not mean that they are less physically fit. And so far I have not met any girls that desire Rambo as her husband.

Regarding economy (I guess Sarah means personal wealth) and mind, most Chinese guys I know are usually more well-off than the American guys (try ask any American guy if they haven't owed tons of personal debt) and more matured in mind.

[kudra]

@ Ian_Lee

But anyway, if a girl don't know how to cook, why would any guy marry her in the first place?

Use your imagination.

Will any White American guy commit sucide for Lucy if she is known to have been married?

I suppose if we are talking about appeal to the mentally disturbed segment of the population, this is a nice simple intuitive measure. Nice work.

[Ian_Lee]

Actually the Chinese girls I know usually don't prefer western guys. The most common reason they cite is that western guys are prone to divorce and uncommitted to long term relationship. Of course, that is a just a stereotype.

[Ian_Lee]

To those who think that Jackie Chan is not desirable by the other sex:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,551388,00.html

He takes time out to meet a group of his notoriously devoted fans, with whom he remains unfailingly gracious. Twice a year he hosts a party for the Jackie Chan International Fan Club. He has to be careful not to reveal too much. In 1985 a Japanese girl threw herself in front of a bullet train after he mentioned in an interview that he was dating someone. A year later another fan arrived at his office, announced her intention of bearing his child and drank a vial of poison.

[Ncao]

If I was a woman or gay I would never considered Jackie Chan as attractive ( there are more attractive Chinese men then him). I don't understand why someone would try to commit suicide over him. I also don't understand why some westerners would think Lucy Liu as attractive.

[Qcash3]

If I was a woman or gay I would never considered Jackie Chan as attractive ( there are more attrctive Chinese men then him). I don't understand why someone would try to commit suicide over him. I also don't understand why some westerners would think Lucy Liu as attractive.

Hmm, obviously you haven't seen Operation Condor . Seriously though, I believe that the two ladies who killed themselves over Jackie Chan were mentally unbalanced. People do things like that in the states, stalking, suicide, etc. but that is because they are a little off. Personally I don't know many western guys who are smitten with Asian women, I have never seen actual evidence of such a stereotype. To be honest the opinion that I have gleamed from my peers is that they are not very fond of Asian women at all, citing that they are not as attractive as other women. I'm viewed as the crazy one for wanting to go to China .

[Ncao]

I seen 2 types of westerners who have Asian fetishes. The geeks and the oldies(who buys the submissive oriental stero-type).

[gato]

o be honest the opinion that I have gleamed from my peers is that they are not very fond of Asian women at all, citing that they are not as attractive as other women.

Well, things might change when you get to college.

Jackie has been rumored/witnessed to have numerous affairs that include interracial in nature. In fact, a Japanese female fan committed suicide for Jackie Chan in the '80s after the news leaked out that he got married.

Chinese with a Japanese is not interracial.

And in terms of attractiveness to the other sex, Jackie Chan is much more desirable than Lucy Liu.

Let's not get carried away with this "Lucy Liu is ugly" business. She's at least above average.

[gato]

The 2000 census may not reflect the reality.

A lot of White American guys mail order Asian brides from Philippines and Thailand. And a lot of American GIs marry Korean girls and bring them back into the country.

But hardly any White American gals do so. So unless there is a detailed breakown in the ethnic cohorts and causes of marriage on the 2000 census, it is inconclusive to say that White guys prefer Chinese girls while White gals shun Chinese guys.

Mail-order brides and GI marriages do exist, but I don't think they can explain the numbers. There are 14 million Asian Americans in the US. About half of them are women. How many of them are mail-order brides or married to GI?

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any direct survey about the "causes" of marriages. However, the phenomenon mentioned in the article is readily visible on the two U.S. coasts.

The closest evidence to what you are asking for the studies of US-raised Asian Americans (defined as either born in the U.S. or immigrated before the age of 13), which show a very high rate of marriage to whites among US-rased Asian Americans. There is a significant rate of marriages to whites among US-raised Asian American men (19% for Chinese American men and 23% for Korean), but it is even higher among Asian American women (30% for Chinese American women and 48% for Korean).

See http://www.asian-nation.org/interracial2.shtml

MARRIAGE PATTERNS AMONG THE 'U.S.-RAISED'

Also notice that there is a signficant disparity between the number of US-raised Asian American men who are married vs. women (89,334 men vs. 95,444 women for Chinese, and 24,522 vs. 34,464 for Korean, 20,963 vs 26,936 for Vietnamese). The men are marrying at a much lower rate than women, regardless of whom they are marrying.

[Ian_Lee]

Gato:

Thanks for the 2nd reference. And exactly the 2nd reference has validated what I said.

Your second source said that 30% of Chinese women have White husbands while 19% of Chinese men have White wives in US.

That figure is in stark contrast to the 2000 census which you cited in the first link that Asian women are 3.08 times more likely to marry a White husband than an Asian guy marrying a White lady in U.S..

Apparently there are more Asian women/ White guy marriage in other ethnic groups among Asian Americans which skewed the statistics in the 2000 census -- while Chinese women are only 11% more likely than Chinese guys to marry a White spouse in U.S. I would say the 11% differential is inconclusive to theorize that Chinese women generally prefer White guys as stereotyped here.

Okay. Jackie Chan's affair was not inter-racial but inter-national.

And for whether Lucy Liu is beautiful or not, it is all subjective. But there are many traditional Chinese criteria to evaluate a beauty. I am afraid Lucy does not fit any one of them.

[sarahkuang]

First, I apologize I missed few words in the above statement. It should be most of young Chinese girl of mainland prefer western man when there is a chance. This is true. I have seen lot of people around me choose foreigners over their Chinese boyfriends.

Undeniably most Asian men, including Chinese, are generally shorter and less muscular than their western counterparts. But it does not mean that they are less physically fit.

In Chinese a girl wouldn't say “ 我有个身材匀称的男朋友” That means nothing. But when she say “我有个身材高大勇猛的男朋友” That is something.

Talking about wealthy, most Chinese believe living oversea is wealthier than in China.

It's because that particular Asian woman is not good enough for Asian man.

You are right. Those fancy about interracial marriage girls aren't good enough.

[bhchao]

Some of the film stars help perpetuate the impression that interracial marriage or dating between Asians and Caucasians/African-Americans is a "cool" phenomenon. Interracial marriage can obviously work, but it's certainly not for everyone. Film stars who engage in this phenomenon with negative results set a bad influence by making others interested in the idea.

For example, Maggie Cheung, Cecilia Cheung, Gong Li, and Zhang Ziyi are all either dating Caucasian or African-American guys. None of these instances look like marriage material. And look what happened to Maggie Cheung's marriage with that French Caucasian guy.

While on the other hand, such classy beauty like Brigitte Lin married a shrewd, smart Hong Kong businessman and she has been a fulltime housewife dedicated to her family ever since.

[Ncao]

Gong Li is with a white guy? I thought she was married to a Singaporean businesman.

[owen]

Film stars who engage in this phenomenon with negative results set a bad influence by making others interested in the idea.

Anyone who looks to film stars to figure out which course to take w.r.t. marriage can be considered vastly mentally deficient.

While on the other hand, such classy beauty like Brigitte Lin married a shrewd, smart Hong Kong businessman and she has been a fulltime housewife dedicated to her

family ever since.

Love those classy, classy gold diggers. I wonder how many call girls this shrewd dude has been through since he said 'i do'.

All these sorts of discussions seem to really bring out the pernicious thoughts; vestiges of what i thought was the past. The 'idea' of marrying inter-racially is neutral. Just like the 'idea' of hiring any given race is. You can discuss generalizations (which can be informative and interesting) but the second you use them to inductively reason your way through a decision, you've put yourself on a slippery slope, the bottom of which is a pretty ignorant existence. (I know most people realize this but frankly, i'm surprised to see more than a couple who don't)

[zixingche]

Has anybody mention social status/position? Whether consciously or not I think it's one of the main reasons for Chinese women marrying white men. I think it would be safe to say that ethnic minorities in the West generally have a lower social status than the white majority, but white men have a high social status in China.

I once heard this from a chinese women "she's not even good looking but she still managed to marry a German guy". I knew a Chinese woman who would only consider marrying a white man or not marrying at all.

[sarahkuang]

Read this, it is from a western woman's piont of view. Sorry, it is in Chinese.

http://blog.worldbizcity.com/?p=5001

[bhchao]

Love those classy, classy gold diggers. I wonder how many call girls this shrewd dude has been through since he said 'i do'.

Owen, don't be jealous. Actually it is widely known in the Chinese community that Brigitte Lin and her husband have genuine affections. Just because a guy is rich doesn't mean a woman is a gold digger. Coincidentally a guy can have the internal qualities that a woman desires while being financially prudent at the same time.

And I have to say that Asian guys have both these qualities more often so than Caucasian men.

[Ian_Lee]

The myth that "Chinese women like to marry White Men" is probably confined to certain nationalities.

Do you ever see any Chinese women boasting that they have a strong and tall boyfriend who is a Serb, Russian or Polish (whom in Chinese eyes are all White)?

The unspoken truth is that Chinese women, especially those from Mainland, want to seek White husbands from Anglo-America and Western Europe because those countries have a long term stable political environment.

Even though there has been relative political stability for almost three decades in China, psychologically many Chinese women still harbor a sense of social uncertainty and attempt to seek a raincheck.

For the same reason, that is why there are so many marriages between Chinese women and Japanese guys registered in Shanghai.