The Fifth Floor: Vietnam's matchmakers

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

According to the UN, from 2008-2018 over 18,000 Vietnamese citizens a year married foreigners. The vast majority of them are women, and many find their foreign husbands through special matchmaking agencies. Thoung Lee from BBC Vietnamese has been looking into this profitable and controversial business.

Produced by Caroline Ferguson, Hannah Dean and Alice Gioia.

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:04.0	This is
0:05.0	You're
0:08.0	You're actually
0:09.0	the fifth floor.
0:10.0	The fifth floor de noosos fifth floor in Newseus.
0:14.0	We see me as well.
0:15.0	To me have this fifth floor
0:17.0	fornak and me this obat.
0:21.0	This is the fifth floor at the heart of global storytelling with BBC
0:26.2	journalists from all around the world. I'm your host Parenak Amid. These days it's not unusual for people to marry someone from another country or
0:42.3	culture.
0:43.2	Perhaps you travel for work or study or just move to another country with your family,
0:49.4	meet someone you love and decide to tie the nut. Of course there are barriers like
0:55.3	language, culture and bureaucracy but you know what they say? Love can move
1:01.1	mountains. But sometimes you marry for other reasons like leaving your country for a new life.
1:09.0	According to the UN from 2008 to 2018, over 18,000 Vietnamese citizens a year married foreigners.
1:19.5	The vast majority of them are women, and many of these women find their foreign husbands
1:25.0	through special matchmaking agencies. Companies set up for the sole purpose of
1:31.4	matching young Vietnamese women with foreign men with the intention of getting married.
1:38.0	It's a business which has in the past raised moral concerns for the people involved but it still continues.
1:46.4	My colleague Twon Glee from BBC Vietnamese has been looking into this story.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.