Korean girls not only have to grow up in strict households, but they also often are required to participate in arranged marriages. In the Far East, it is a long tradition that women are arranged to marry men they often dont even know. Sometimes the couple gets to meet and other times they do not. Many Westerners feel these arranged marriages are a disgrace to the act of marriage and of love. However, those who participate respect the tradition and rarely try to refute it. The whole concept of the arranged married is that Asian girls try to marry up and men try to marry beautiful women. For instance, if an Asian girl was considered beautiful, she might be arranged to marry a very successful man. Younger generations dont always understand the appeal here however, as they are more educated and socially uninfluenced. They often fall in love, only to be required by their family to marry in an arranged marriage to someone else. This can break families apart and cause the women or men to be quite unhappy. However, in the Asian society, it is not important that you are in love. What is important is that you can be taken care of and in turn take care of your family. In a culture where love comes far after success, arranged marriages work for the most part. Many times the couple will end up falling in love, and other times Asian girls even go so far to commit suicide before their impending arranged marriage. |
