The foreign bride business

Hsu Chia-peng (許家鵬), was in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on a trip to seek his future wife -- and was filmed doing so by the documentary-maker Tsai Tsung-lung (蔡崇隆), in a three-part series titled Immigrant Brides (移民新娘).

The marriage broker took him to a small apartment to meet the girls. There were dozens of them waiting to meet this 40-year-old Taiwanese man. They were

dressed in T-shirts, with light make-up and smiles, coming in groups of three to meet with Hsu.

Just like an emperor choosing his concubines, Hsu sat on a sofa as the girls came to sit down. Marriage broker Wu Ling-ming (吳凌銘) gave Hsu a tip to pick the best-looking girls.

"From the first group, you pick a good-looking girl and take her as the standard. In the following groups, you keep the girls who are better looking than her and get rid of the others. And then form a new group for the girls you have kept. And then use the same way to sift out the rest of the girls. This way, you won't miss any good-looking ones and can choose the best," Wu is filmed saying.

Hsu finally picked a girl. But he said he did not like this kind of meeting. He wanted to find the girl in the picture, which the broker Wu had shown him in Taiwan.

Wu later took Hsu to the house of the girl in the picture, the 24-year-old Ah-luan (阿鑾). They briefly met and immediately Wu asked him to give Ah-luan's mom US$600 as the money for engagement.

The next day, Hsu and Ah-luan, accompanied by Wu, went on a day trip rowing on the Mekong river. Hsu placed his arm on Ah-luan's shoulder. He had decided to marry her.

The third day, they had a simple wedding. And the fourth day Wu and Hsu had a celebration for "closing the deal." Hsu, just married, seemed very happy and got drunk that night.

"Wedding through matchmaking may not be the best way, but it is the most economical and time-saving method," Wu said.

The fourth day, the newly-wed couple went to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh City for the official paper work and interviews -- where there were dozens of other couples like Hsu and Ah-luan.

In another of the segments from the film trilogy by the

documentary-maker, Hsu is shown working as a chef at a high-class hotel.

Because of his long working hours and shy personality, he has no time to make girlfriends. So he pays broker Wu NT$250,000 for his imported bride and is shown bringing her back to his apartment in Hsihchih, Taipei County.

According to Wu Chien-kuo (吳建國), director of the Taipei Economic Office, every year, 10,000 Vietnamese women go to the office to get their marriage registered. The National Police Administration said the number of foreign wives from South East Asia has reached 87,000. More than half this number are Vietnamese women.

If overseas wives from China are included in the statistics, the number of overseas wives is estimated to be more than 230,000. This is close to the number of foreign workers in Taiwan and the population of Aboriginal people.

"The government and the whole of society has not yet faced up to the existence of these people. These women have been stereotyped as ignorant and menial. And they are seen as only functional in [terms of their] housework and [giving birth], in order to carry on the family's name for the husbands," filmmaker Tsai said.

"On the other hand, Taiwanese husbands are stereotyped as either physically or intellectually disabled, of low moral standards, or chauvinist pigs."