From Bangkok Post
SAPA (VIETNAM) – Dating is never easy but finding the perfect partner when you live in a tiny, remote village in the Vietnamese mountains is almost impossible. The solution? A love market.
Traditional Hmong musician Giang A Vang (left) and his wife Vang Thi Xo perform a love dance in the northwestern mountainous town of Sapa. For generations, young people from the patchwork of ethnic minority groups in northern Vietnam have gone to the local town of Sapa on a Saturday night to find their future spouse. Vang, 50, said he first visited the “love market” three decades ago, and for the next few weeks he came back to meet his sweetheart Vang Thi Xo and play music together as part of a Hmong courtship ritual — him on a traditional violin and she playing a leaf. (AFP photo)
For generations, young people from the patchwork of ethnic minority groups in northern Vietnam have gone to the local town of Sapa on a Saturday night to find their future spouse.
“It was so exciting. I wanted to see if I would meet any nice girls,” traditional Hmong musician Giang A Vang, 50, said of his first visit to the love market three decades ago.
One girl in particular stood out from the crowd.
“When I saw her for the first time I was playing my violin. I asked her if she liked it, if she liked me. I was a little nervous,” he said.
Fortunately, his affections were returned. For the next few weeks, he came back to the market to meet his sweetheart Vang Thi Xo and play music together as part of a Hmong courtship ritual — him on a traditional violin and she playing a leaf.
The Hmong play a leaf — usually a banana leaf — by curling it up and positioning it in the mouth so it vibrates when blown to make a loud, high pitched sound.
The pair soon married and have been together ever since.
“I was a very lucky man to meet her in the market, but I think she was lucky to meet me too!” Vang said.
In recent years, Sapa has become a hugely popular tourist destination, with foreign and Vietnamese visitors flocking to the picturesque town, famed for its terraced rice paddies and stunning scenery.
Sapa is the main attraction of Lao Cai province, which received 1.2 million tourists in 2013, up from just 360,000 in 2003, according to official figures.
While this influx has brought a measure of prosperity and development, it also has negatively affected local customs and traditions, Vang Thi Xo said.
“The love market is very special for me as it was how I could meet a good husband like him,” she said.
“Now I don’t like it, as people are playing music just for fun, for the tourists to get money, and we are losing part of our culture.”
– From leaves to phones –
As more young people attend schools or work in Sapa for tourism they do not really need the love market or arranged marriages, which were also once traditional in the area, said musician Vang.
“They might meet a boyfriend or girlfriend in the village, or in town… they choose for themselves,” he said.
“I want my children to find their own husband and wife — it is better that way.”
Sapa does not have an airport and the area is only reachable from the capital Hanoi either by an overnight train or a long drive. But its remoteness has not deterred tourists.
Read the full article from Bangkok Post.
