My wife and I have known an inter racial couple for many years.
Lets call them Don and Leung.
Don, the husband is of anglo heritage, is a professional and a high income earner. This was his second marriage.
He married Leung, a Chinese woman who was close to 20 years his junior. She did not work and apparently attended some college course.
Leung is attractive and very stylish, but I have always felt uncomfortable around her.
They met through some dating service that arranged get togethers between anglo men and chinese women.
When they decided to get married, they flew to China to get approval from Leung's father. Her father asked to see proof of Don's high salary, and only then gave his approval for the marriage to proceed. This emphasis on money was also very much a part of Leung's views on life. Everything revolved around money, and she made it clear that she would not have married Don if he did not make such a high salary.
After the honeymoon period, serious cracks started to appear in this marriage.
Firstly, Leung objected to Don financially supporting his two daughters from his previous marriage. She complained about this bitterly.
Secondly, she refused to allow Don to even see his daughters. Don eventually resorted to secret meetings with his daughters.
Not really what marriage is supposed to be like, is it?
Well, tensions grew in the household, and one day when Leung realised that Don had seen his daughters the previous day, she took a knife from the kitchen and lunged at him.
He had a large cut on his torso.
To top it off, she immediately called the police and alleged that he attempted to hit her.
The end result was that Don was evicted from his house. This was the house that he paid for exclusively, including all the household furniture, give that Leung only owned a car at the time.
This couple has now divorced.
As events unfolded, Leung claimed the bank account of the couple (circa $80,000), and fought bitterly over the house.
She eventually agreed to a 50% spilt on the value of the house, but kept all the furniture and the bank account. Don simply couldn't fight this any longer, and so agreed.
Interestingly, one week after separation, a new man moved in with Leung. He too was an older anglo male. They too are now separated and in legal conflict as well.
When I first met Leung, both Ms B and I agreed that she was a leech, a gold digger. We both approached Don separately and asked him to think through his marriage plans carefully, because leung was making some comments not in keeping with someone who was genuinely in love.
Don listened to know one, but simply wanted to tell us how he could't stop thinking about his lovely Leung.
I mention this because there seems to be a high divorce rate amongst inter racial couples in Australia, especially amongst the Anglo-Chinese variety.
And Don and Leung's situation is mild given what I have recently heard about another couple.
...more on that next.
