Taiwanese  LOVE   or  MONEY ?  
                                     
marriage,
sex, divorce, love styles in Taiwan
                    
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  click:     Love OR. Money    divorce rate     SEX     8 love styles     Chinese version ()

New York Times (2024-12-8):
Influential Taiwanese romance novelist Chiung Yao helped shape the idea of romantic love there for generations; In Chiung Yao's (1938-2024) novels, love transcends everything else. It's worth giving up one's family, career, social status, even — literally — one's limbs (in novel "一簾幽夢", 1973) Radio Free Asia (2024-12-5): Chiung Yao offered a glimpse of a romantic world in which dreams of love were the main point of being alive.   A professor at Fudan University of China said that Qiong "portrayed pure, sincere, passionate, gentle, and firm love. It was a beautiful belief that coexisted with life".   China's Global Times (2024-12-6, 2024-12-4):  Several generations on both sides of the Taiwan Straits have been influenced by Qiong Yao (Chiung Yao), who is dubbed " a cultural symbol of an era" by The Global Times.   Radio Free Asia (Washington D.C.) Chiung Yao's work was "hugely influential";  Chiung said she always believe in love and idealism.  New York Times:  "Believing in love was Chiung Yao's lifelong mission".   Both her first love and first husband are poor intellectuals.   (BBC, 2024-12-4: Top Chinese language novelist,  arguably the world's most popular Chinese language romance novelist.  AFP, 2024-12-4: wildly popular in the Chinese-speaking world  )

 

However, young adults in today's Taiwan are, mostly,  no longer "Chinese Romeo and Juliet".   

 

marriage for LOVE or for money ??
USA Taiwan
Pew Research Org., 2019-2-13, 2013-2-13: Love tops the list of Americans' reasons to marry Americans ( 88% Americans and  93% married people) are more inclined to choose "love" as a reason for marriage than any other factor. (pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/02/13/love-and-marriage/) Business Insider (businessinsider.com/love-and-money-what-statistics-say-2012-2) ForbesWoman survey  found "most marry more for love than for money "  An American Express survey found that only 43 percent of the general population talked money before marriage.  In MarketWatch (2019-2-14), Randy Kessler , author of a book about divorce says:  "people marry more for romance than for finance. However, for a second or third marriage, people may be looking for financial security".   CNA, Taiwan (台灣中央社), China News (中新網) reported:  65% Taiwanese chose "bread" (moneyinstead of "love", and 44% admitted they dream all the time to marry a rich guy so as not to work for living. (news.sina.com.cn/o/2010-08-14/144117964604s.shtml)  Washington Post, 1-2-2017:  ..."83 percent chose bread over romance" (when it comes to Taiwan independence or reunification

 
How was Taiwanese marriage for money over love ?

 

South China Morning Post (2024-8-6) : Taiwan has one of the highest divorce rates in Asia.   United Daily (Taiwan, 2023-12-17): The divorce rate is rising steadily.  34.75 % divorced within five years of their marriage. 

 

New York Times,  2021-11-18 ("What makes people happy" ): Most world people in a Pew Research Center survey said that family made them the happiest, such as the Australians (56%), New Zealanders (55%), Americans (49%), English(46%), Swedish, Italians, Canadians etc ranked family first, their percentages are about 3-4 times of that (15%) of Taiwanese, the % in Singapore and Japan is about 2 times of that in Taiwan.  Taiwanese ranked "Material well-being" (  US Google AI Overview, 2025-1-3 :  a person's standard of living, which includes their financial situation, the ability to afford necessities, and their satisfaction with their material conditions ) above family.

According to Wikipedia (2022-7-11, 2022-1-23, 2021-11-28): The number of crude Divorce Rate in Taiwan is higher than that in most countries of Asia & Pacific, such as Vietnam, Mongolia, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, S. Korea, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand,  etc. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_demography ).   Mainland China's divorce rate was worse than Taiwan's.  Telegraph (UK, telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8714097/China-tries-to-stop-women-marrying-for-money-rather-than-love.html) reported that in mainland China, "Most pretty girls now try to trade on their beauty. It is an unhealthy trend", With divorce rates soaring, and widespread worries about a new culture of hyper-materialism, the Chinese government is now trying to stop women marrying for money.p

 

 

 

Pic.:  No.1 "Taiwanese love or money" on Yandex of Russia, 2025-2-14, 2025-1-23, 2025-1-1, 2024-12-25, 2024-12-24, 2024-8-8, 2024-3-17, 2024-2-14, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-11, 2023-9-9, 2023-8-8, 2023-6-22, 2023-3-29, 2023-2-14, 2023-1-21, 2023-1-1, 2022-12-24, 2022-11-29, 2022-11-1, 2022-10-10, 2022-9-26, 2022-9-18, 2022-9-9, 2022-8-16,2022-7-18, 2022-7-4, No.1 "Taiwanese love or money" on Yandex,  2022-5-27, 2022-5-19, 2022-5-14, 2022-4-26, 2022-4-16, 2022-4-12,  2022-3-31, 2022-3-17, 2022-3-8, 2022-2-28, 2022-2-14, 2022-2-2, 2022-2-1, 2022-1-29,  2022-1-25, 2022-1-22, 2022-1-20, 2022-1-18, 2022-1-14, 2022-1-12, 2022-1-11, 2022-1-10, 2022-1-9, 2022-1-8
 

 

 

 

PIC. : The sites-group ranks No.1 "Taiwanese love or money" on US Yahoo, 2025-2-14, 2025-1-23, 2025-1-1, 2024-12-25, 2024-12-24, 2024-8-20, 2024-3-17, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-11, 2023-9-9, 2023-9-3, 2023-8-8, 2023-6-22, 2023-2-14, 2023-1-21, 2023-1-1, 2022-12-24, 2022-11-29, 2022-10-30, 2022-10-10, 2022-10-1, 2022-9-5, 2022-8-16, 2022-7-24, 2022-7-18, 2022-7-1, 2022-6-22, 2022-6-1, 2022-5-19, 2022-4-26, 2022-4-16, 2022-4-9, 2022-3-31, 2022-3-17, 2022-3-12, 2022-3-8, 2022-2-28, 2022-2-21, 2022-2-20; No.1"Taiwanese marry for love or money", 2024-12-25, 2022-10-30, 2022-7-1; No.2 "Taiwanese love" on US Yahoo, 2022-4-26, 2022-4-16, 2022-4-9, 2022-3-31, 2022-3-29, 2022-3-28

 

South China Morning Post (2024-8-6) :  According to Taiwan's SETN TV news report, a Taiwanese wife kept demanding cash from her husband each time he wanted sex; Before the husband filed for divorce, the wife promised to work on their relationship, so he registered their property in her name.   Yamada Masahiro, a Japanese professor specializing in family sociology and gender issues says that in Asia, people place less importance on love. They tend to believe in money more than love.  (A Sociological Look at Japan and Taiwan, Jul. 1, 2022).

 

 
 


pic.: No.1 "Taiwanese love or money" on Microsoft Bing, 2025-2-14, 2025-1-1, 2024-12-25, 2024-12-24, 2024-2-14, 2024-1-1, 2023-6-22, 2023-2-14, 2022-8-19, 2022-7-24, 2022-6-22, 2022-5-19, 2022-5-7, 2022-4-8, 2022-4-3, 2022-3-28, 2022-3-20, 2022-3-19

 

pic.: No.1 "Taiwanese marry for love or money" on Yandex, 2025-2-14

 

   
No.1 "Taiwanese love" on Yandex , 2025-2-14, 2025-1-1, 2024-12-24
, 2024-2-14, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-11, 2023-9-9, 2023-8-8, 2023-6-6, 2023-4-30

 


Pic.: No.1 "Taiwanese love or money" on US Google, 2024-3-17, 2024-2-14, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-11, 2023-9-9, 2023-9-3, 2023-8-8, 2023-6-22, 2023-6-6
 


 

 


PIC. : "Taiwanese love" ranks No.1 on  Yandex , 2025-2-14, 2025-1-1, 2024-12-25, 2024-12-24, 2024-8-8, 2024-3-17, 2024-2-14, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-11, 2023-9-9, 2023-9-3, 2023-6-6, 2023-4-30
(Chinese version)

 

 



pic.:   No.1 "Taiwanese love" on Microsoft Bing, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-11, 2023-9-9, 2023-8-8, 2023-7-8, 2023-4-30, 2023-3-29, 2023-2-14, 2023-1-21, 2023-1-1, 2022-12-24, 2022-7-24, 2022-6-22, 2022-4-26, 2022-4-16, 2022-4-9, 2022-4-3, 2022-3-31, 2022-3-29, 2022-3-28; No.2 "Taiwanese love" on Microsoft Bing at 2022-12-14, 2022-11-29,2022-11-1, 2022-10-21,2022-10-11, 2022-9-18, 2022-9-9, 2022-8-16, 2022-7-18, 2022-7-1, 2022-5-31; No.1 "Taiwanese love or money" on Bing, 2022-8-19, 2022-8-10; No.1 "Taiwanese love or money" on Ecosia of Germany, 2022-10-30, 2022-8-19

 

 



          

 


No.1 "Taiwanese love" on Yandex , 2025-2-14

 

 

 

 

 


pic.:
No.1  "Taiwanese  love or money" on Yahoo Japan, 2024-3-17, 2024-2-14, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-11, 2023-9-9, 2023-8-8, 2023-6-22, 2023-4-30, 2023-2-14, 2023-1-16, 2023-1-1, 2022-12-24, 2022-12-14, 2022-12-11, 2022-9-8; No.1  "Taiwanese marry for love or money" on Yahoo Japan (largest search engine in Japan), 2022-12-14;  No.1 "Taiwan love or money", 2022-6-2; No.1 "Taiwanese marry for love or money", "Taiwanese marriage for love or money" ,  2022-5-19, 2022-4-9; No.2 at 2023-2-14, 2022-7-22, 2022-7-7, 2022-6-17, 2022-6-7

 

marriage for LOVE
or for money ??

 

 Taiwanese girls
exchange
their bodies
for living resource
 and certain personality
 

   Marrying for LOVE  or Money

Abby Rodman, a psychotherapist said in MarketWatch (2019):“Marrying for love is the only good reason to marry. The beauty is most of us (Americans) have the freedom to do that".  
 

Are Taiwanese poor so as to choose money over love ?  According to Credit Suisse, Research Institute (2023), Taiwanese' "Median wealth per adult", USD 108,250, is higher than Americans' USD107,740 (ubs.com/global/en/family-office-uhnw/reports/global-wealth-report-2023.html);  In Sept., 2022, Taiwanese USD 113,940, Americans USD93,270 (credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/global-wealth-report.html).  In June 2021, Taiwanese USD 93,044, Americans USD79,274  On the report of IMF (International Monetary Fund , 2022,  2021), GDP per capita (PPP) of Taiwan is higher than that of Canada.  imf.org/external/datamapper/PPPPC@WEO/POL/GRC/ITA   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita )  Allianz Global Wealth Report (Oct. 12, 2022 allianz.com/content/dam/onemarketing/azcom/Allianz_com/economic-research/publications/specials/en/2022/october/12-10-2022-GlobalWealthReport.pdf) : With net financial assets per capita of 138,220 euros (US$134,364), Taiwan ranked first in Asia, and higher than Canada.   Furthermore, the percentage of college degree Taiwanese is more than that of Americans.   But a study (2021-10-21, cardus.ca/research/family/reports/for-love-or-money/) found only 3.7% young adult Canadians aged 25~34 who are married or intend to marry choose legal protection/financial security.

Or Taiwanese are lazy ? greedy?  or social value systems, culture, national policy, women rights status ... made them to choose all those bourgeois things     ?  ......

An academic paper of National Chung-Hsing University ( 中興大學, July 2018,  "Flows between the Mainstream and the verge - transmutation of the sex industry in Taichung", 劉育民, 吳政憲教授 ) pointed out: marriage in today's Taiwan, to some degree, retains the logic of exchange in ancient China -  women trade their bodies for living resource and certain personality (某種程度"保留了古老的交換邏輯" ―― 女人以"身體換取生存資源與一定人格"...).  US Google AI Overview 2025-1-10: particularly among younger generations (in Taiwan)... in the societal pressure to find a partner with a good income.

By contrast, CNN, 2016-10-7 (edition.cnn.com/2016/10/07/health/infidelity-breadwinners-cheat-husband-wife/index.html) reported that in the US in four out of 10 households with children, women are the sole or primary breadwinners, based on a 2013 report by the Pew Research Center... more and more women become the sole or primary breadwinners ...
 

A very famous Chinese writer, Eileen Chang (張愛玲), has a saying : "Marrying for financial security is nothing but being a prostitute for long term".  However,  <the China Times >, Taiwan, Oct. 30, 2010 :   "Sneering at the poor instead of the prostitutes" (笑貧不笑娼) is Taiwan's social value system .  The Liberty Times, 2015-5-15 ,  talk.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/1318118   "Welcome to the times"  "Laughing at the poor instead of the prostitutes" 
 

The 'gold-diggers' or pretty swindlers back to the future to barter with the rich guys each takes what he/she needs and gains what he/she worths  huge money or a green-card (permanent residency in the US worths about USD 1 ~ 1.5+ millions)......  Those "high-end" materialistic girls at heart are similar to "low-end" mail-order brides Wikipedia (2021-12-21, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail-order_bride) "Motivations and stories" reported that most of Asian mail-order brides come from 5 countries including Taiwan.   They are sleeping with 'a carefully calculated set of venal choices'.
 

Medium (US, 2017) said "Often, people who do not marry for love are judged for their decision".   Daily Mail (UK), 2021-10-21: A British woman is accused of 'teaching her daughters to be gold diggers' after admitting she'll advise them that wealth and earning potential is more important than marrying for love... some took it as far as comparing it to 'sex work'.  
 

Money matters in marriage But money can't buy you love (Wall Street Journal at 2020-11-21, Brigham Young University, 2012).   Friedrich Engels (German philosopher, critic of political economy) : marriages based on love are moral  New York Times, 2014-3-9: "In the days of old, the economic basis of marriage was made explicit... Now it has been replaced by romantic love".    Pew research Center, 2013-2-13: Americans believe that love is the main foundation of marriage. (pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/02/13/love-and-marriage/ Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, 2016-6-10: "marriage is regarded as strictly for those who've declared their romantic love"'。 People's Daily online (China), 2012-10-29: According to mainstream values, true love is a precondition for good marriages...money marriage is the "hell of soul" worse than the "tomb of love".   Rodman (MarketWatch, 2019):  "when life gets tough — and it always does — it's the love that will sustain you, not the cash". 

 

 

  Taiwanese females like to marry a rich guy  Apple Daily (蘋果日報),  2015.1.26 

ideal monthly income (NT$) girls in
Northern TW
girls in
middle of TW
girls in
Southern TW
a stable job 15% 26% 26%
20,000~30,000 3% 8% 11%
30,000~50,000 13% 21% 26%
50,000~70,000 48% 31% 27%
70,000~100,000 14% 11% 8%
100,000 (about USD3,300)~above 7% 3% 2%

 

Voice of America (2022-4-1): Recent university graduates make an average of around US$1,000 a month (median should be lower).   Survey shows young Taiwanese lack savings, are highly indebted.    TwReporter.org (2018-5-25): The median monthly salary of 2016 of all age groups is NT$33,502. (about US$1,100; young people's should be lower 

***   ***   ***   ***
Housing is another important factor of marriage;  Economist (2025-1-30): In Taipei, median house prices are 16 times the median income, this is higher than New York, London.  
Bloomberg (2024-1-11): It costs 16 years of annual income to afford a home in Taipei — one of the highest such ratios globally.      ETtoday (2022-1-31, Taiwan): Inability to afford a house is young people's main reason to say no to marriage.  UDN editorial (Taiwan 經濟日報, 2023-5-20) reported same thing. 

***   ***   ***   ***

United Daily (聯合報,  2023-12-17): 80% of Taiwanese girls aged 25-29 are unmarried, according to government's statistics.

By contrast, 32% of girls aged 18 to 29 in the United States are single, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey.
Renting a house should be a better choice than marrying money.  According to Finance Yahoo (Dec. 30, 2020), renting in Taiwan is much cheaper than that in the US.

 

 

 

 

 

 




pic. left:
No.1 "Taiwanese love or money" on Duckduckgo, 2025-2-14, 2025-1-1, 2024-12-24, 2024-8-20, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-11, 2023-6-22, 2022-11-29, 2022-10-30, 2022-10-1, 2022-9-5, 2022-8-16, 2022-7-18, 2022-7-7,  2022-6-16, 2022-5-19, 2022-4-26, 2022-4-9, 2022-3-28, 2022-3-17, 2022-3-12;
pic. : No.1 "Taiwanese love or money" on AOL, 2025-2-14, 2025-1-1, 2024-12-24, 2024-8-20, 2024-1-1, 2023-11-11, 2023-6-22, 2023-1-16, 2023-1-1, 2022-11-29, 2022-10-30, 2022-10-1,2022-9-5, 2022-8-16, 2022-7-18, 2022-6-16, 2022-5-19, 2022-4-26, 2022-4-16, 2022-4-9, 2022-4-1, 2022-3-28,  2022-3-20, 2022-3-12;
No. 2
"Taiwanese love" on AOL, 2022-4-26, 2022-4-6, 2022-3-28

 

without bread,
love might
 starve to illness;

without love,
bread
becomes
difficult to swallow;


without extreme luck,
you won't have
plenty of both

 


Debts might bring unhappiness to marriage, but a research
( 2014 ) in Emory University found that wealthier couples don't necessarily last longer than those who earn less, and the more you spend on a wedding ceremony, the shorter the marriage.  Many marriages of the celebrities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China are short -  such as Alexander、Leehom Wang (王力宏): 8 years˴ Barbie Hsu(大S) 10 yrs.˴  Gillian Chung (阿嬌, 鍾欣潼1 yr.˴ Huang Xiao Ming (黄晓明) 5+ yrs.˴ Cynthia Wu (Shin Kong Life Insurance  vice president)   Jhih-Yan Lin (Hua Nan Financial Holdings  Vice President ) 2 yrs. ˴ Chang Chia-Chen (甄珍) Patrick Tse Ka Yuk (謝賢) 2 yrs. ˴   Chin Han  (秦漢 Sun Siang-chong) ,  Shao Chiao-Ying  9 yrs. ˴  Stella Chang (張清芳) 15 yrs.˴ Steven Liu (劉家昌) Chiang Ching (江青) 4 years ˴ Steven Liu (劉家昌) Chang Chia-Chen (甄珍) 9 years ˴ Winnie Ho (何妤玟) 8 yrs. ˴Belle Yu (于美人)15 yrs.˴ Fukuhara Ai (福原愛