Cross-Border Brides:Vietnamese Wives,Chinese Husbands in a Border-Area Fishing Village NGUYEN THI PHUONG CHAM Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences ABSTRACT This article traces the lives of a group of Vietnamese women driven by poverty and loss of marriageability to cross the border into China to marry men from the fishing village of Wanwei.Wanwei's location,only 25 kilometers from the border with Vietnam,enables these women to make fairly regular trips back to their native villages to visit their birth families.Yet,despite the fact that they now live in a designated Jing (eth- nic Vietnamese)village,where a significant proportion of the population shares their ethnicity,their illegal residential status and recent arrival excludes them from the community of villagers who claim descent from Vietnamese immigrants in the sixteenth century.Despite the hardships these women face as a result of continuing poverty,lack of emotional inti- macy in their marriages,and marginal social status,few see themselves as victims of human trafficking.Instead,most take pride in their agency and achievements. KEYWORDS:marriage,Vietnamese wives,Chinese husbands,transna- tional marriage,Wanwei On a July morning in 2004,I did something I had not done before in the five years since I had begun to make annual trips to Wanwei:instead of going through the official border post on land,passport in hand and official docu- ments attesting that I was going on a research trip,I crossed the border ille- 413ùõ÷ ABSTRACT This article traces the lives of a group of Vietnamese women driven by poverty and loss of marriageability to cross the border into China to marry men from the fishing village of Wanwei. Wanwei’s location, only 25 kilometers from the border with Vietnam, enables these women to make fairly regular trips back to their native villages to visit their birth families. Yet, despite the fact that they now live in a designated Jing (eth￾nic Vietnamese) village, where a significant proportion of the population shares their ethnicity, their illegal residential status and recent arrival excludes them from the community of villagers who claim descent from Vietnamese immigrants in the sixteenth century. Despite the hardships these women face as a result of continuing poverty, lack of emotional inti￾macy in their marriages, and marginal social status, few see themselves as victims of human trafficking. Instead, most take pride in their agency and achievements. KEYWORDS: marriage, Vietnamese wives, Chinese husbands, transna￾tional marriage, Wanwei On a July morning in 2004, I did something I had not done before in the five years since I had begun to make annual trips to Wanwei: instead of going through the official border post on land, passport in hand and official docu￾ments attesting that I was going on a research trip, I crossed the border ille￾Cross-Border Brides: Vietnamese Wives, Chinese Husbands in a Border-Area Fishing Village NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG CHÂM Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences