“Isn’t it high time you got married?” “When are you planning to get married? “Do you have a boyfriend?” Every person she meets asks Phuong variations of these questions when she returns from Hanoi to her native place in northern Thanh Hoa Province for the Lunar New Year holiday (Tet). Phuong, 35, also receives a lot of advice to get married soon, and is tired of such conversations. The questions and suggestions “are repeated so often that I can’t enjoy the gathering,” Phuong said. “When people keep asking me these questions again and again, I feel hurt and disrespected,” she added. It is normal in Vietnamese culture to ask personal questions, and they are not considered intrusive, usually. However, women have to bear the added brunt of being considered “on the shelf” if they are in their mid-twenties and are yet to get married. At this stage, parents, relatives and even friends get anxious, prone to prodding single women to get hitched soon, even if they are interested in doing so. For people like Phuong, it has gone too far. Phuong said she no longer feels like meeting anyone during the new-year celebration. The Lunar New Year is the most important holiday of the year in Vietnam when millions of people return to their hometown to reunite with their families. It is an occasion eagerly awaited by everyone, but single women like Phuong do not look forward to being bombarded with the same questions, year after year, time after time…. [Read full story]
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