Blind Mountain
I had a vague awareness that this sort of thing still happened in China, but I had no idea how prevalent it was, and this movie made it painfully clear what a brutal practice it is.
A young woman, recently graduated from college but unable to find work, is offered a job foraging for medicinal herbs in the countryside. The man who offers her the job drives her out to a remote village in the mountains of Shaanxi and when they arrive, they have a little banquet. The next morning, the girl wakes in a room alone with no recollection of the prior night, but her ID and money are missing. She steps outside and is greeted by an elderly couple. When she asks where her things are and where the man who brought her there has gone, she is told that she is their son's new bride, and she may not leave. They keep a constant eye on her, the only road out of the village is guarded, and she can find no sympathy from the other villagers, many of whom have kidnapped their own wives. Even if she managed to run away, she cannot hitch a ride because she has no money. She is raped by her "husband" and forced to bear him a son and work on his farm for the rest of her life, and whenever she protests, she is brutally beaten.
This happens to tens of thousands of women in China every year. Why so many? Because the "one-child policy" has made it so that 117 men are born for every 100 women--and given the size of China's population, that means millions of desperate bachelors. If for no other reason than to stop the bridal slave trade, China's birth control policy must be abolished.
Read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Mountain
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/01/content_465222.htm
A young woman, recently graduated from college but unable to find work, is offered a job foraging for medicinal herbs in the countryside. The man who offers her the job drives her out to a remote village in the mountains of Shaanxi and when they arrive, they have a little banquet. The next morning, the girl wakes in a room alone with no recollection of the prior night, but her ID and money are missing. She steps outside and is greeted by an elderly couple. When she asks where her things are and where the man who brought her there has gone, she is told that she is their son's new bride, and she may not leave. They keep a constant eye on her, the only road out of the village is guarded, and she can find no sympathy from the other villagers, many of whom have kidnapped their own wives. Even if she managed to run away, she cannot hitch a ride because she has no money. She is raped by her "husband" and forced to bear him a son and work on his farm for the rest of her life, and whenever she protests, she is brutally beaten.
This happens to tens of thousands of women in China every year. Why so many? Because the "one-child policy" has made it so that 117 men are born for every 100 women--and given the size of China's population, that means millions of desperate bachelors. If for no other reason than to stop the bridal slave trade, China's birth control policy must be abolished.
Read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Mountain
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/01/content_465222.htm