Vietnamese husbands

It's long been a joke in my Vietnamese immigrant family that none of my mother's sisters, all divorced now, would ever want to date or marry a Vietnamese man again. I never really understood why. My mother recently shared an anecdote about a high school friend of hers, a Vietnamese man who lives in Belgium now, that sheds a little light. Lamenting his lack of a wife, this man, now in his 60s, told my mother, who lives in California, “Vietnamese women in California are harsh!” 

“What do you mean,” my mother inquired. “They all want to know if I have a house, if I have a steady job, if I have savings,” he explained. “Well, what are you looking for in a wife,” my mother wanted to know. “Oh, not much,” the man replied. “Just someone to prepare me three meals a day, do my laundry, keep the house clean, and do some errands here and there.” “You expect services from a potential wife,” my mother surmised, “so I’m not surprised that these women you’re approaching want to see if you can provide for them. They’re expected to perform services, so they want to make sure they are compensated by being taken care of financially.” Meanwhile, my mother wanted to know, what did Belgian women expect of the man? “Oh, I doubt any Belgian woman would go out with me,” he said. At least with the Californians he might be able to negotiate, I guess?