You’ll Get $128,970,000 to Marry This Woman

earning money is tough most of us have to work jobs we don't like just to afford to get by but the road to a prosperous life is sometimes as easy as falling in love sure you'd be called a gold digger but that title wouldn't be entirely accurate if you married this woman turns out you'll be awarded over 100 million dollars to do so and this offer isn't even for an arranged marriage I know what you're thinking well it's the catch well you'll get paid this amount for a very peculiar reason which I'll explain a little later but before I do let's dive into the strange practice of paying for family members to get married let's start by discussing what a bride price is bride price refers to the material wealth the groom or the groom's family gives to the bride's family not the bride herself this is in contrast to dowry which is when the bride's family transfers material wealth or property to the groomer his family bride price has its roots in Mesopotamia and Jewish culture dating back thousands of years in ancient Mesopotamia in Western Asia the Babylonian code of law known as the Code of Hammurabi describes various aspects of a bride price such as the terms for which a refund would be warranted like if the man lived for another wife or if the father doesn't approve of the marriage in this regard it can be viewed as a way to incentivize the bride's family to accept the groom and discourage the groom from being disloyal in the Hebrew Bible there's also a verse for do to Romany discussing the practice it states that a man who has sexual relations with a virgin woman must give 50 shekels of silver to the woman's father and have her as his wife but only if someone catches them together so it's clear the practice has a long history but enough of the past is this practice still a thing in this day and age yes especially in Africa and China bride-price offerings are common in these places but how they do it exactly and in what context largely differs from one another first up Africa in this region there is a great cultural pressure to pay a bride price if you're young man who wants to marry you have to offer some money to the bride's family to do so if you don't have enough money you must promise to pay for it in future installments most of the time the man has to initiate communication with the bride's parents via a middleman who is usually a relative it's disrespectful to approach the parents directly the middleman will convey messages between the two parties as negotiations about the bride price proceed in fact some African men would wait for their sisters and aunts to marry first to offset their bride-price debts as the price can be anywhere from many hundreds to many thousands of dollars the equivalent of many years salary and should he die or become incapacitated his whole family is obligated to pay the debt as it's considered a family debt of honor often marriage comes with even more caveats for instance in the sub-saharan region the groom must not only pay the bride price but he must also have the capacity to marry the bride in a church or civil ceremony otherwise the bride's family won't consider their marriage as valid and in southern Africa there's la bolo a term for bride price paid in the form of cattle goats and sometimes money a man can agree to give his debt over and portions over time so he can marry and pay off the debt as he works and raises a family but it's a troublesome practice as it often leads to crime as desperate young men risk their lives to steal cattle and it also often leaves a person's whole life governed by the money Affairs associated with marriage once a man offers a bride price it becomes hard proof of his willingness to marry the woman this makes it more of a symbolic act that's part of traditional culture rather than a mere purchase in Zimbabwe it's known as Rua and it's more like a way of thinking the woman's family for bringing her up rather than about buying the bride from the bride's family further north and the bride price can be even more expensive for men in the kingdom of Ann Cola and Uganda the bride price is quite steep but not as much as the hundred and twenty eight million offer that I'll get to soon they're expected to not only give cattle but also a house a car and other properties social status matters in just how much a groom should pay education in Uganda is expensive a bride with high educational attainment is expected to receive more how the community views her also affects the price although foreigners believe that this criteria is demeaning to women another important factor that plays a role in the price offered is the socio-economic standing of the groom rich men are known to pay the full amount as a symbol of Honor while others may need to take out loans and pay them within several years imagine going to a bank and telling them you need a loan to pay for your wife in a Western nation they proudly kick you out but for those in Africa who are patient enough they may just marry at a later time and focus first on acquiring more properties but before you start complaining about how bad men have it take note of the women from Equatorial Guinea and you'll see how unfair this tradition can be for women as well this is where the fang people live for this ethnic group divorce is a very very bad idea it is not illegal to have a divorce but there's a looming social stigma to it a woman who chooses to divorce not only has to face this stigma but she must also pay back the bride price even if it's her family who gets it if she can't pay back she sent to prison so here it acts as a way to restrict women's freedom and lowers their social status and whilst it's therefore easy to see why it's illegal outlawing it still isn't enough to stop the practice from continuing for people in Kenya mandatory bribe prices aren't legal but there's a social expectation for men to pay it and unlike in other African regions where it's primarily seen as a symbolic act the bride price in Kenya is a transaction I don't know about you but the whole issue of combining love and money as a sort of transaction really doesn't sound like a good idea for anyone imagine how complicated it would be trying to settle a divorce in court after adultery and a bride price being paid in fact that's why in 2015 the Ugandan Supreme Court outlawed the bride price refund this meant that women who opted for divorce no longer have to pay back what their family's got from the groom and his family the judges claimed that the refund put women in a marketplace and violated their right to divorce but despite this notion of women being sold for marriage the Supreme Court acknowledged that the practice itself is still constitutional now then let me move from Africa to the bride price in China you see it's part of traditional Chinese culture it all starts with T kin where the two families meet to determine the bride price perhaps you could leverage the fact the bride passes wind a little too often or picks her nose as a way to keep the bride price low I don't know if that will help in gaining the family's approval well and you might save some money after that initial discussion there's Gua Dali which happens weeks before the wedding the groom and a matchmaker visit the bride's family to not only give the bride price but also gifts such as jewelry and wedding cakes you might think it's a one-way transaction but the bride actually returns some of the bride price and the gifts as a gesture of goodwill on the wedding day so how much exactly is the bride price in China it usually starts around 10,000 Chinese un are almost $1,500 and balloons in places like Shanghai doesn't reach the infamous 127 million offer no but it's not uncommon for bride prices to be as high as 1 million Chinese un about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars plus grooms in China are often expected to give a car and a house as well if the groom can buy a house he should at least give the bride's family an apartment naturally in hopes of earning back what they paid to the bride's family grooms in China prefer giving the bride price on the 18th of May this is because the wording of the day sounds like I will get rich in Chinese seems insignificant but with the bride price continually increasing in China you can't blame them for trying the fact is that there are more men than women largely because of the one-child policy and the preference to have male children this gender imbalance has forced men to compete with each other for marriage opportunities and if you look at it from the perspective of the bride's family you can't blame them either there's no social safety net in China so the parents have to rely on their family for financial support but because of the one-child policy the bride's parents won't have anyone else once their daughter leaves and moves together with the groom that's why the practice is important for the economic stability of the bride's family now that I've explained how diverse the practice of bribe prices around the world let me reveal why someone offered a hundred and twenty eight million to marry one particular woman this is an unusual story because it's the woman's family who was willing to pay the groom rather than the other way around who was the woman her name is Gigi Chou and she's the daughter of Hong Kong's billionaire tycoon Cecil Chao say song being an attractive young female you may be scratching your head wanting to take him up on his offer but it isn't that simple way back in 2012 her father learned that his 33 year old daughter went to France to marry Sean Young who had been with her for seven years at the time Sean Young pictured here is also female cecil couldn't accept that his daughter was a lesbian as they're clearly still exists the social stigma to homosexuality in china eventually he put up a so-called marriage bounty of five hundred million Hong Kong dollars based on the exchange rate at the time this was equivalent to a whopping sixty four point five 1 million u.s. dollars fast forward to 2014 and no suitor was successful Gigi was adamant that she was indeed a lesbian her father then decided to double the offer this time he was willing to give 1 billion Hong Kong dollars to any man who marries his daughter the exchange rate back then was one Hong Kong dollar two point one to eight US dollar so that 1 billion Hong Kong dollar offer was equivalent to a hundred and twenty eight point nine seven million u.s. dollars the tycoon even told the Malaysian newspaper nan yang sang pal that Gigi was still single as he refuses to believe his daughter married another female moreover he believes that it isn't too late for his daughter to change her mind still no one has completed the challenge of converting her sexual preferences and I don't think anyone will in the end Cecil withdrew his offer after Gigi cinnamon open letter in it she said that she respects her father dearly Gigi saw him as a role model who only wanted what was best for his children however she said that they had different expectations when it came to relationships she had past relationships with men but they were all short-lived but with Shawn gigi was finally happy and comfortable she regrets that Cecil doesn't understand how happy she is with her wife but she believes there is no need for them to approve of each other's relationships with other people she hoped that her father would treat Shawn as a normal dignified human being and lastly she clarified that she wasn't a lesbian because of any shortage of good men in Hong Kong today Gigi Chao is a Chinese LGBT icon praised for highlighting LGBT issues and the largely conservative nation of Hong Kong and although no one got the hundred and twenty eight million dollar offer it only goes to show that he can't put a price on any person and that right to love with anyone they wish so what do you think can you see any benefit to paying a bride price or do you think we should be stricter enforcing the law against it it has complex social and economic implications depending on the society and its prevailing laws and customs that's for sure let me know your thoughts in the comments down below thanks for watching

Channel: BE AMAZED

Views: 496,410

Rating: 4.5111794 out of 5

Keywords: beamazed, be amazed, top 10, marry, marriage, marry this woman, relationship, bride price, bride price in africa, bride price documentary, marriage proposal, relationships, relationships ted talks, how marriage works, why do marriages fail, billionaire, daughter, get rich, rich

Id: L7Ouyksurg8

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 11 2019