Cross-border marriage in China : a case study in Fangzheng

Abstract

Inspired by online debate, this study looks at marginalized women in Fangzheng County, a small town in northeast China, and in particular their migration to Japan through marriages. The purpose of this ethnographic study is to discover their motivations and experiences. The whole process of cross-border marriage will be generally examined through the perspectives of gender, social location and agency, within the theoretical framework of ‘gendered geographic of power’ developed by Pessar and Mahler. The study further explores how gender ideologies and relations are reaffirmed or reconfigured by the process of cross-border marriage.

Three months of ethnographic fieldwork in both Fangzheng and Harbin involved the participation of 18 cross-border brides in semi-structured interviews, as well as the collection of statistics from the Harbin Marriage Registry, which covers marriages in Fangzheng. The historical background and present economic condition of Fangzheng County has generally motivated local residents to engage in migration to Japan. While the strict Japanese immigration policy has both limited the options available to them, it has also helped to form the trend of Chinese brides marrying Japanese husbands in the context of Japanese marriage squeeze in Japanese rural areas. The practice of matchmaking in China has turned into a method for these women to arrange cross-border marriages, either through individual brokers within their social networks or through commercialized matchmaking agencies. As for their motivations for cross-border marriage, this research identifies a diverse set of motivations behind the decisions of these females to marry out to Japan, as opposed to that of a monolithic pursuit of money. Motivations can be categorised according to four types: to explore the outside world; to make a sacrifice for family members; to escape from gender constraints; and to marry for love, motivations that can be defined by the women’s different social locations. Their actual marital lives in Japan can also be understood to involve many limitations, some of which may be classified as oppression. However, the reality is that most of these women will take action to try to resist control, after a period of compromise in the early stage of their migrations.