Singapore matchmaker ‘preaches the gospel’ in helping Asian men find Vietnamese brides
- Mark Lin has matched some 1,000 couples in 31 years, earning about US$7,500 a time, in a business viewed by some critics as akin to human trafficking
- For Vietnamese women, the appeal of Singapore lies in the prospect of a more materially comfortable life, and stricter laws against domestic abuse
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The matchmaker of Singapore: the Taiwanese man trying to pair Singaporean men to Vietnamese women
For 31 years, True Love Vietnam – based in Orchard Plaza, a shopping centre replete with beauty spas and massage parlours – has specialised in finding Vietnamese partners for single men, mainly from across Asia.
Vietnam’s economy was opening up to foreigners, and as money and culture moved, working-class single men across Asia seized the chance to wed abroad. Vietnam offered a much larger pool of potential wives, allowing men to be choosier in terms of looks, age and even virginity status.
After his first wife left him, Lin ended up a beneficiary of his own service at the age of 55, marrying a Vietnamese woman he believed would make a fine wife but who had not been picked by any of his previous clients.