The tragedy of a Vietnamese bride marrying a Taiwanese man in Trang Ha's book

Trang Ha used many true stories that she knew as material for the novel "Strange Husband".

Book Name: Stranger Husband
Author: Trang Ha
Published by Women Publishing House January 2016

The story is about Ngoc - a university graduate with a middle-class family living in Ho Chi Minh City. She loves Dan - a construction worker from the West - without hesitation or calculation. However, the innocence and straightforwardness of the urban girl makes her lover's parents suspect that she is a bad girl. Contrary to her tough appearance, Dan is weak-willed. At the engagement ceremony, Dan's family did not come, causing Ngoc pain and disappointment. The humiliation made her close her eyes and accept Than - a Taiwanese man working in the city.

Most Vietnamese girls go to Taiwan to marry in hopes of changing their lives and sending money back home to their families. Ngoc was different. She was educated, her husband pampered her, and put a lot of money in her savings account. Ngoc's honeymoon quickly ended when she became pregnant. The baby was a boy, while Than only wanted a daughter to bring fortune to her business. Than asked Ngoc to have an abortion, but she insisted on keeping the baby. Storms covered her life from then on.

Book "Strange Husband" - non-fiction novel by Trang Ha.

Ngoc was alone in a foreign land with a growing fetus in her belly and her savings running out. After giving birth, she brought her child back to Vietnam for her parents to take care of. She returned to Taiwan to work, hoping to earn enough money to bring her child to live with her. She wished her child would grow up in a healthy environment, free from discrimination.

Hard work did not help Ngoc overcome the hand of fate. She suffered from postpartum depression and could no longer continue her job as a worker. Her sick child in the countryside and her elderly parents were also sick, forcing Ngoc to work hard to earn money. She wandered everywhere, doing all kinds of jobs, from washing dishes for hire, dressing provocatively to selling betel and areca nuts, massaging, working as a hostess in a karaoke bar... Taiwanese men came and went, leaving her with scars: Nhan Bach Ban was gentle but could not protect Ngoc, Truong Van Huy loved her but with his gangster nature destroyed her soul, Duong Ly Huy was too polite but always kept his distance, making her not dare to touch him... Mr. Lu-A rich, older Taiwanese man pursued Ngoc not necessarily for sex but because he was lonely and needed someone to share his life with. The money he gave Ngoc helped her open a nail salon and earn a living. Thanks to that, Ngoc continued to save money, waiting for the day she could bring her child to Taiwan to live with her.

In a novel of less than 200 pages, Trang Ha depicts the turbulent life of the character Ngoc. In addition, the lives of Vietnamese brides who marry Taiwanese men are also clearly depicted. The author does not go into depth to describe the psychology but lets events and incidents happen one after another. The author explains the misfortune of Vietnamese girls through a detail: "The husband has Taiwanese reasons, the wife has Vietnamese reasons, and therefore, the fault lies in the cultural difference. We have used skewed measures to measure each other's lives...".

In her work, Trang Ha argues that even a good Taiwanese husband and a good Vietnamese wife can still lead to a family tragedy. She calls it the tragedy of foreign marriages. She writes: "You know, husbands who beat their wives are tragic, but pampered wives who paint their nails red, sit in gambling parlors, and wear gold necklaces around their necks are also tragic, even though the wives themselves don't realize it."

Trang Ha calls her work a "non-fiction novel". In the 2000s, Vietnamese girls marrying Taiwanese men was a common phenomenon. According to 2004 data, in Tay Ninh there were up to 10,000 girls married to Taiwanese men. Trang Ha used to be a resident reporter in Taiwan, so she had the opportunity to meet many compatriots there. In the appendix printed at the end of the book, the author states that some of the characters and their stories in the book are real.

According to VNE