The Curse of the Cheekbones

Yesterday I went to a wedding reception - a very different affair from one in England! First of all, I didn't know the bride or the groom, but apparently the groom's father works in the administration department at the college so that's how I got my invite. It is normal here to invite 200-400 people to a wedding reception, and although all invites to married couples include both partners, only one ever goes, it is the unwritten rule! (Otherwise it would be 400 - 800 people!).
It also only lasted a hour. We went to the hall and waited until we had six people so that we could then go to a table and eat. About eight dishes were placed in front of us and we ate, and various people came round so we stood up and toasted about fifteen times, as is the custom. We then ate an orange, drank some green tea and left.

There was a woman who was sitting at my table who is a music teacher at the college. I think that she is strikingly beautiful yet she does not have the same characteristics of a typical Vietnamese woman. She has these amazing cheekbones and wonderful bone structure, and reminds me of a Thai woman. I commented to my friend about how beautiful I thought this woman was, and my friend agreed. However, she told me that most people don't like her looks and apparently she had had great difficulty in getting married. She is married now, but didn't marry until she was in her thirties (a big no-no here!) and her husband is apparently not a good husband and unemployed. My friend then went on to say that unfortunately she could expect no better, so naturally I asked her to explain as it didn't make sense to me. It's all down to her cheek bones, as the Vietnamese believe that anyone who marries a woman with high, pronounced cheekbones will die young. I think the tragedy is that anyone with these beautiful cheekbones must have such a difficult life due to this stupid superstition. Maybe there should be a way for these women to emigrate as I'm sure most modelling agencies would snap them up!