Transnational marriages in the Sino-Vietnamese border areas of China
Transnational marriages in the Sino-Vietnamese border areas of China have rapidly increased since the re-opening of the border in the 1990s. In the Sino-Vietnamese border areas, the building of intimation relationship is usually between a Chinese man and a Vietnamese woman. Historically, transnational marriages were common due to unclear state and ethnic boundaries in border areas. In the modern era, the formation of transnational marriages here is multifold. Thereinto, imbalanced economic development in border areas of China and Vietnam is one of the most significant incentives. For transnational spouses in the Sino-Vietnamese border areas, Vietnamese wives usually follow their local Chinese husbands and live with their husbands’ families in China's borderlands, usually in villages or small towns. Some of them are officially married and finish the process of registration in the local administration. Yet, the cases of undocumented marriages are still in a huge number. The welfare and conditions of those Vietnamese women who are de facto wives of local Chinese men but unofficially recognized are one of the major concerns researched by many scholars. The option to join an international intimacy, on the one hand, is sometimes voluntary both for Vietnamese women and especially Chinese men in the Sino-Vietnamese border areas. Transnational spouses meet each other either via border trade, arrangement (by family members or relatives), matchmakers/brokers, etc. However, on the other hand, some are forced due to thriving marriage trafficking in the Sino-Vietnamese border areas. Vietnamese women and girls are usually the main targets to be kidnapped and smuggled across the border. They are forced or sold to prostitution or marriage. Trafficked Vietnamese wives are often sold to poorer local Chinese men in small border villages, where some are subject to physical torture and mental abuse. Although relative academic research and data are inadequate, the scholars concerned believe such abuses against trafficked Vietnamese wives remain widespread problems. History Historically, marriages in the mountain area between China and its southern neighbour, Vietnam, had taken place within the ethnic community networks all the time since loosely border control from both states. For a long time, ethnic marriages among ethnically related people but geographically crossing the border have been viewed as customary practice and tolerated. Along with the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the independence of Vietnam (the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam), fixed border boundaries and countries’ relations to some extent restrict the formation of transnational marriage. From the 1950s, China's government approved the transnational marriages among Chinese and Vietnamese due to the good relationship with Vietnam. In 1953, there were 105 Vietnamese wives in 20 border villages of Longzhou County, and in some villages, 36 to 45 percent of marriages were transnational marriages. Following the deteriorating relationship between China and Vietnam in 1979 till the normalization of bilateral relations in 1991, transnational marriages sharply declined during this period. Even though in the turbulent years of the border war, the investigation conducted by scholars found between 1979 and 1985, 122 Vietnamese women crossed the border