People seem to forget just how rural the Chinese countryside is. Just showing up as a western-looking guy in the right club in Singapore is enough to get marriage offers. I don’t think there’s any evil plan, just some truly desperate women trying to escape their future.
Singapore is an increasingly attractive place for mainland Chinese people to park their money, or attempt to make their fortunes, given the ambivalent-to-hostile attitudes to the PRC in the rest of the world.
Since COVID, Singapore's retail scene has been almost entirely overtaken by Chinese chains. Coffee chains like Luckin Coffee, Chagee, and more are sprouting up everywhere, including in the heartlands. Ma la hotpot/stir fry outlets follow, and then there are the Chinese bubble tea chains like Mixue.
The underbelly is also entirely of mainland Chinese stock. Sex workers, masseuses, and KTV hostesses in Singapore are majority mainland Chinese, who collect tens of thousands a day from men who patronise these establishments.
I suppose it isn't super easy for these women to find Westerners in rural China. Thus, they leave China in look of a future, going to places in Asia where meeting wealthy men is more likely (such as in Singapore).
I presume you are aware of this, but for those who may not be, Singapore is both not China and the polar opposite of rural Chinese countryside. It does, however, have numerous sketchy nightclubs staffed with prostitutes from rural China (and Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam etc) who would dearly love to have a personal ATM.
Also, the reason Singapore doesn't have Bangkok's sexpot image is that these clubs are waaaaaay more expensive, squarely targeted at Chinese speakers (although there is an equivalent Indian scene) and whiteys are a rare sight.
Actually this stereotype is about Chinese women. Thai women aren't that materialistic, and where it is true, it only applies to poor Thai women, who are attracted to the man because he's probably 1,000X richer than her, which would be attractive to a poor woman from anywhere. If a prince from Lichenstein came to rural USA, he'd have no trouble dating.
This thread is bizarre and confusing. There's only been like 5 posts and already people are conflating rural Chinese, Singaporeans, and Thais.
"Thai women aren't that materialistic" is incongruous with the West's image of Thailand as the home of pervasive prostitution, trafficked or otherwise.
It takes only a single documentary to disprove your claim that this is just a stereotype. There are so many about cringe westerners that buy thai wives.
