While migration that results in the mixing of individuals and groups of differing cultural patterning has happened across the span of human history, recent decades have witnessed a rapid increase in such mixing. The end of the Cold War, increased global economic integration, the growth in national and international transportation networks, and the rise of global communication technologies have all led to an integrated and "flattened" world whereby citizenship in one nation no longer either limits or enhances an individual's opportunities (Friedman, 2007). Knowledge of what is moral, ethical, and religious is not gained solely through the teachings and examples of community leaders, but is now discoverable by individuals through the internet and a website that could come from anywhere (Roy, 2006). Therefore, today's young person is not limited to pursue only those opportunities found in his or her community or nearby urban center, but can see, imagine, and pursue opportunities wherever they may be found across the globe.
Transnational or cross-border marriage is one way increasing numbers of people pursue individual opportunities. While in the recent past a woman growing up in rural China may have entered into an arranged marriage with a man living in the village next door (A. Wolf, 1968), today she has other opportunities. She may move to coastal China, work and support herself in a factory, and marry someone of her own choosing, choose to delay marriage, or not marry at all (Chang, 2009). A Vietnamese woman through family connections may arrange marriage with an ethnic Vietnamese man living in the United States (Thai, 2008), or she may contact a marriage "broker" and consent to marry a man who has paid a fee to the broker to come to Vietnam from Taiwan in order to meet and choose a suitable spouse (Wang, 2007). Likewise, a woman living in China can find a website that offers her contact information about men living in North America, and then exchange emails with one or more such men, and may eventually decide to marry one of them (Constable, 2003). Thus, while women of previous generations were limited by their geography, educational attainment, and family's economic support, today's women have far more opportunities. Through both interpersonal contacts and mediated ones, e.g., television, telephone, and the internet, they can imagine, gain knowledge of, and pursue opportunities of life and marriage in lands far from home.
Greater individual opportunity and movement across borders in the pursuit thereof, however, do not come without challenges. The woman who engages in cross border marriage may find that the life she imagined is not the reality she faces. Her husband may be much older (Wang & Chang, 2002), may be divorced with children from a previous marriage, or may be financially less well off (Tien & Wang, 2006). Likewise some of the women who choose marriage as a path to advance their lives may engage in "other" activities, such as prostitution (Hirsch, 2007). However, as claimed by Hsia (2007), the social "problems" of cross border marriages are often over-reported by the media and lead to inaccurate stereotypes.
While the phenomenon of cross border migration for the purpose of marriage presents challenges in such areas as education (Chung, 2005; Hsia, 2003), health (Yang & Wang, 2003), and family policies (Hsia, 2001), at its root are perceptions of cultural similarities and/or differences. Beliefs and practices involving pregnancy and birth, the care of young children, the management of money, the education of oneself and one's child, language and socialization, can and do vary across cultures (Deloache & Gottlieb, 2000; Harkness & Super, 1996; Ochs & Schieffelin, 1984). These may lead to intra-familial conflicts even when members share the same cultural understandings (Sandel, 2004). Yet as claimed by Hall (1976), cultural differences are more apparent in intercultural encounters when two or more people of different cultures interact.
Therefore, the phenomenon of cross border marriage and families in Taiwan presents an opportunity to study cultural interaction. This paper explores how culture serves as both an explanatory model of action and a model for how to act in certain situations (Geertz, 1973).
It begins by situating cross border marriages today as a practice and belief system with historical precedents, i.e., the "minor marriages" of the recent past (adopting and raising a girl who will later marry her adoptive brother). Then it considers the conditions that undergird the rapid growth of cross border marriages that bloomed in the 1990s. The paper then presents data collected from a ten-month study carried out in Taiwan from 2007-2008 involving ethnographic observations of women, men, and community elders across a number of communities in Taiwan, and in-depth interviews with 92 participants. These data show the reasons individuals invoke for constituting cross border marriages, the challenges they face, and how they invoke cultural categories to challenge perceptions and misperceptions of such marriages. In sum, these ways of looking at marriage help us understand the interrelationship between individual actions and cultural categories.
Minor Marriages of Taiwan's Recent Past: Girls Marrying their Brothers
Prior to the 1600s when Taiwan was populated predominantly by aboriginal tribes, marriage was primarily uxorilocal: Property was handed down from mother to daughter and the son would "marry into" his wife's home; this was practiced in aboriginal communities of the coastal plain up through the twentieth century (Brown, 2004). Following the 1600s, however, as increasing numbers of settlers from China's nearby provinces of Fujian and Guangdong came to settle on Taiwan's western plains, the change in population was accompanied by changes in marriage practices as Chinese preferred virilocal (property and family name passed from father to son) over uxorilocal marriage, although the latter form did not cease completely. Furthermore, virilocal marriage included two types, so-called major marriage (da hun [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), and minor marriage (xiao hun [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). The former was preferred and involved "marrying in" a daughter-in-law from another family, paying a bride price, and carrying out the associated public rituals when the young woman was pubescent and old enough to produce children. The latter was less preferred, but in some areas of Taiwan more commonly practiced, and involved adopting in a "daughter" from another family when she was very young, and then raising her until she was old enough to marry her "brother," a girl referred to as a tongyangxi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or sim-pua (A. Wolf, 1968). This form of marriage was not unique to Taiwan but found across many of the provinces of China and did not cease entirely until the middle part of the twentieth century (Chuang & Wolf, 1995; A.Wolf, 1968).
While minor marriage as a practice declined dramatically and ended by the 1960s (A. Wolf, 1968), it is useful to consider the factors that supported this past type as it bears similarities with present day cross border marriages. Minor marriage was most remarkable because it sanctioned an incestuous relationship between a "sister" and her foster brother, and in the process overcame the inclination "not to mate and marry" (A. Wolf, 1968, p. 873). The traditional explanation for minor marriage was economic (Levy, 1949). In the 1950s and early 1960s A. Wolf (1968) found "the average farm family spends a minimum of six month's gross income" (p. 867) on a major marriage, paying for such expensive items as the wedding feast, gifts, and the dowry given to the bride's family. To adopt a girl as a child requires no initial expense and her wedding may cost no more than a few dollars. Yet upon closer examination, this explanation is insufficient. Rates of minor marriage were actually higher in the more prosperous northern part of Taiwan than less prosperous central and southern regions (Chuang & Wolf, 1995). Conditions of a "hot marriage market" motivated the rise in minor marriages (Chuang & Wolf, 1995). As Taiwan's northern economy developed there was an in-migration of young males to work in factories and other markets; this resulted in a sex imbalance ratio in the population of more males than females. The accompanying rise in income led families to compete for fewer and fewer eligible females, eventually leading families to bring in child brides or sim-pua to ensure that their sons would have mates to carry on the family line.
The degree of control exercised by Chinese parents over their children and the importance of the mother-in- law and daughter-in-law relationship also favored minor marriages (A. Wolf, 1968; M. Wolf 1972/1987). In a major marriage it was expected that after marriage the mother-in-law would instruct her daughter-in-law, and that such instruction was often done in a severe manner. The mother-in-law often felt threatened by her daughter-in-law's relationship with her son (A. Wolf, 1968), through which the mother gained prestige, honor, and control in her family and community (M. Wolf, 1972/1987). In contrast, a daughter-in-law obtained through minor marriage would not have to be trained nor compete for her brother/husband's affection. From the mother-in-law's point of view a sim-pua was preferable to "bringing in" an "untrained" woman at the time of marriage.
Despite the above noted "advantages," the practice of minor marriage ended by the 1960s. As increasing numbers of men and women refused to marry their foster siblings, parents came to the conclusion that it was disadvantageous to raise a sim-pua, only to have this arrangement rejected when children were of marriageable age (A. Wolf, 1968). In succeeding decades nearly all marriages were of the "major type." Yet the 1990s witnessed the rapid increase in a new type of marriage.
Cross Border Marriages of Taiwan's Present
During the decades of the 1950s-1970s there were some cross border marriages, such as those with Japanese nationals, reflecting historic ties with that nation, and others with American service men stationed in Taiwan during the Vietnam War. Yet these were few as Taiwan was relatively poor, ruled under martial law, and travel was restricted both in and out of the island. By the 1980s Taiwan's economy was on the upswing; many students traveled to the U.S. for advanced study; and in 1987 martial law was finally lifted. With wages rising, Taiwanese capital began flowing into recently opened markets in China's cities such as Shenzhen and the growing economies of Southeast Asia (Hsia, 2004; Wang & Chang, 2002). Taiwanese businesses also pushed the ROC government to import foreign laborers to be hired at lower wages and work in Taiwan's factories and burgeoning construction projects (Lu, 2000). This was followed by a demand to import women to work as domestic helpers in the homes of middle and upper income Taiwanese families, which was met by bringing in women primarily from the Philippines and Indonesia (Young, 2004). Thus, Taiwan quickly changed from being a place relatively closed off to contact with nearby lands, to one that saw increasing numbers of foreign laborers coming, and increasing numbers of Taiwanese venture capitalists and tourists going.
While the government took an active role in promoting and regulating economic migration, it did not promote nor plan for migration through marriage, believing that it would be a temporary "fad" (Hsia, 2007). It began with a "wave" of Indonesian Hakka Chinese women who came to marry local Hakka Taiwanese men and soon became a visible presence in such Hakka communities as Meinung (Hsia, 2003; 2004). The phenomenon quickly spread to other populations, including the majority of Hoklo (Taiwanese speaking) men who preferred to marry women from mainland China or Vietnam (Wang & Chang, 2002). By the mid 1990s and lasting until the middle years of the 2000s, registered marriages in Taiwan involving a foreign born spouse (including those from the Chinese mainland) annually exceeded 20 percent, with the overwhelming majority being marriages between Taiwanese men and foreign born women (Sandel & Liang, 2010). Likewise, births of children born to a foreign born mother (including those from China, Hong Kong, and Macau, and counted as foreign until Taiwan ROC citizenship has been attained) ranged from 10 to 15 percent (Ministry of the Interior, 2011a). Since 2004 the percent of marriages involving a spouse from Mainland China and/or Southeast Asia has declined, yet the percentage has held steady between 15 and 19 until 2009, the last year data are available (Ministry of the Interior, 2011b).
What factors account for the rise in cross border marriages? These can be broadly categorized as economic, demographic, and cultural; they resemble in kind and substance those that formerly supported the practice of minor marriage (sim-pua).
The late 1980s marked a transition in Taiwan's economy from one built upon labor-intensive manufacturing, competitive due to the low cost of labor, and protective of its local markets, most notably agriculture, to one that grew through manufacturing in computers and other high technology products, was increasingly dependent upon service industries, and less protective of its local markets and agriculture (Huang, 1993). This meant that while Taiwan's overall economy continued to grow through the 1990s (six percent average annual growth) and 2000s (four percent), the kinds of industries and occupations that supported Taiwan's less skilled labor force were in less demand and not as productive (Wu, 2007). Many small and medium sized manufacturers either imported foreign laborers whom they hired at lower wages, or shut down locally and reinvested their operations in China or Southeast Asia. One example can serve to illustrate this point. From the mid 1970s to mid 1980s Taiwan ranked as the world's largest exporter of shoes with most going to the U.S. and Europe (Hsing, 1999). But by the late 1990s most manufacturing ceased and moved to factories in China and Vietnam. My spouse worked for many years in the shoe business and the local manufacturing plant where she used to work ceased production in 1999 as it moved its factories to Vietnam and Dongguan, China. This process was repeated across a range of industries and resulted in the rapid decline of Taiwan's labor-intensive manufacturing.
Agricultural production faced a different challenge. Ever since the "land to the tiller" reform of the 1950s (Wang, 1999), Taiwan's agriculture was protected and provided a source of stable income for its many small farmers (Huang, 1993). Yet over the decades income from agriculture did not keep pace with manufacturing. Then when Taiwan entered the WTO in 2001, it was required to substantially lower tariffs on imported agricultural products, including the main staple of rice (Huang, 2001). The impact was felt immediately at the local level. I visited Taiwan the summers of 2002 and 2004 and spent time in rural areas both in central and eastern Taiwan. There was a noticeable decrease in the amount of land devoted to rice cultivation in the places I visited. In response to this decline, both national and local governments began to promote "agricultural tourism" during those years. When living in Taiwan from 2007-2008 I visited many small towns which held annual "festivals" that promoted agriculture, such as those for the strawberry picking season, lotus blossoms, or various kinds of flowers. The sum impact of these changes was that Taiwan's rural areas became economically less attractive while low-skilled workers who engaged in agriculture or manufacturing saw wages decrease and jobs decline.
Another way of understanding Taiwan's economic conditions of recent decades is to see it in comparison with the economies of neighboring lands. As argued by Hsia (2004), when Taiwanese men are viewed as members of a regional "marriage market," even those with locally low incomes are at the higher end of the scale. And as explained by Tien and Wang (2006), Taiwanese families tend to pool their wealth; when men are searching for spouses they may have substantial family economic resources to pay for such items as a dowry, car, house, and/or other possessions often considered prerequisites for marriage. Thus, economic conditions work on the one hand to dampen prospects of marriage between Taiwan's working class males and local females, while on the other raising marriage prospects between Taiwanese males and cross border females.
Concomitant with changes to Taiwan's economic structure have come demographic ones. While the sex ratio did not change appreciably, what changed were the kinds of educational and economic opportunities available to women. In the past when families were poor and resources limited, families pooled their resources to allow a son to advance to the highest level of education possible. Older siblings and/or daughters might not study past the mandatory six or later nine years of education (M. Wolf, 1972/1987). Family size was large, meaning that parents had to spread resources among many children. Yet by the decades of the 1980s and 1990s family size decreased as economic conditions improved across all levels of society (Rubinstein, 1999). Therefore, girls began to receive as much educational support as boys. Furthermore, upon completion of schooling it was expected that girls would work; and with more education came greater career opportunities for women, which usually were better in Taiwan's cities. The result was that Taiwan's women could choose to remain single if they chose, or could marry men who had better incomes and lived in cities. Therefore, men with low skills and/or who lived in rural areas had fewer opportunities to find suitable spouses.
Demographic conditions outside Taiwan in the nearby "marriage markets" of Mainland China and Southeast Asia also fostered the development of Taiwan's cross border marriages. In Vietnam, the effects of past wars and the out-migration of men in search of better opportunities in the U. S. and other lands by the 1990s led to a sex imbalance ratio of more young women than men (Thai, 2008). One result of this was an increase in marriages between Vietnamese men living in the U.S. with women in Vietnam (Thai, 2008). This also helped facilitate the rise of "brokered" marriages involving Taiwanese men and Vietnamese women (Wang & Chang, 2002). The situation in Mainland China was different as eligible women did not outnumber eligible men; instead, the cultural preference of males over females, the one child policy, and the availability of abortion to affect sex selection has resulted in a population of youths with more males than females (Chu, 2001). Yet in the nearby coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, the rapid growth of factory jobs has led to the opposite phenomenon as many factories prefer to hire young females (Chang, 2009). Therefore, regions of China closest to Taiwan have demographic conditions that favor Taiwan's demand for female spouses.
Finally, cultural beliefs about gender and marriage have affected the marriage market. The phrase "Zhong nan qing nu" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] literally "heavy son light daughter" or favoring sons over daughters, is often heard to explain practices and beliefs concerning the relative value of sons versus daughters. According to traditional Chinese cultural practice, a son is more valuable than a daughter: the son and his descendants will carry on ancestral worship; the son inherits the family's property; the son's status as member of the family does not change at marriage as he will qu ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) or "marry in" a daughter-in-law. In my research (Sandel, 2000; 2004; 2010) I have heard many middle aged and older women, when talking about the past, utter this phrase to explain why, when compared with their brothers, they had fewer educational opportunities and less support from their natal families. Yet less support also means fewer obligations. While a son (and his future wife) is expected to support his parents, a daughter may have no obligation to her natal family.
By the late 1980s Taiwan underwent rapid transformation on many levels, including greater political liberalization, a changing economy, and increased cross border movement of peoples. This changing economy meant that young women, who were more educated than previous generations of women and had greater economic opportunities, were less controllable by their parents and less dependent upon a future husband for financial support. Phrases that emerged in the 1990s and 2000s to describe this new kind of woman include "nu qiang ren" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or "super woman" and "dushen guizu" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or "single noble." Such a woman most likely lives in a city, has money, clothes, enjoys eating well, might have a boyfriend, is not interested in marriage, and certainly not interested in marriage with a "traditional" man who lives in an extended family in the countryside.
Men who live in rural areas and/or support themselves in low-skilled jobs such as farming, manufacturing, or small businesses, find it increasingly difficult to attract prospective mates. While this may be due to decreased wages, as explained by Tien and Wang (2006), the greater issues are cultural. They found some of the men who marry Vietnamese wives own businesses and are quite wealthy. Yet both they, and less wealthy men, share in the belief that today's Taiwanese women are not "traditional"; such women are not attracted to them and are hard to "raise" (yang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] care for). One man explained, "In actuality Taiwanese men all feel in their hearts that it is hard to raise [yang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]] a Taiwanese wife; and now Taiwanese women don't need a man to raise [yang] them. So now [they] think that to marry a foreign bride and raise [yang] her is better" (author's translation, p. 16). It is not that such men do not have enough money to marry a Taiwanese woman, rather they believe that economically they are of the class that has "no money" and that "no money" means they cannot "raise" a Taiwanese wife; therefore they must marry a "waiji laopo" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (foreign wife) (author's translation, p. 17)
While others have written about perceptions of "waiji xinniang" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or "foreign brides" from these women's point of view (see Hsia, 2004; Sandel & Liang, 2010; Wang, 2007), Tien and Wang's (2006) study is perhaps best at explaining cultural understandings that motivate Taiwanese men's interest in such spouses. They believe today's Taiwanese women are not "traditional" like women of the past; women from the relatively poorer countries of Southeast Asia and provinces of China are "traditional" as we see uttered by one man: "They [Vietnamese brides] are more traditional, because they come from a farming society, just like that of my mother, or your [researcher's] mother, just like the environment of past generations, traditional, who care for the home" (author's translation, p. 17). Such beliefs are promoted by professional marriage "brokers" that operate in Vietnam and elsewhere, as they advertise that Vietnamese women are more "traditional" and hence, preferable to "strong" Taiwanese women (Tien & Wang, 2006; Wang & Chang, 2002). Taiwanese men may also be pushed into marriage by family members and friends, like one who said: "In actuality I originally really did not want to marry. But every time my mother would talk about this [she] would be really worried, and tears would fall. She would then say go and marry a Vietnamese [bride] and see how it goes. Just at that time a friend wanted to go and marry [a Vietnamese bride]. And so we went together" (author's translation, Tien & Wang, 2006, p. 18).
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the perception is that foreign spouses are more "controllable" and that this is a virtue in a woman. For instance, Wang and Chang (2002) found that only one- quarter of the women in Vietnam recruited by marriage brokers are ethnic Chinese. When asked to explain why they do not recruit more ethnic Chinese women, it was explained "[I]f a girl can speak Mandarin, she might demand too much money or property from her future partner, thus scaring away customers and spoiling deals (p. 104). That is, the ability to speak Mandarin means that a woman can have a voice to make arrangements that contrast with the broker's and/or potential husband's interest in contracting a marriage at the best (lowest) price. The issue of control also impacts how Taiwanese men interact with their foreign born spouses after marriage. Tien and Wang (2006) explain that many men are afraid that their wives may be influenced by what is "bad" in Taiwanese society and then inclined to "run away." One man explained that he buys all the household items and will not let his wife buy things on her own, explaining: "I want to first help her as a filter ... If [she] is outside [the home] she'll meet those women who are bad and that's not acceptable" (author's translation, p. 28). Another man said it is better to marry a woman from Vietnam. A woman from China can read and understand Chinese. Thus, when in Taiwan "she doesn't need to depend upon you [husband]. And in this place there are more problems." In contrast, a woman from Vietnam can neither read nor understand Chinese and in this situation she "can only depend upon you [husband]. And she won't run away" (author's translation, p. 28). Therefore, the foreign born spouse is preferable because she is more dependent upon her husband and less likely to "run away."
In sum, we find economic, demographic, and cultural factors working in concert to increase Taiwanese men's interest in contracting marriages with cross border spouses. The changing economy means that many farming and working class men in Taiwan believe they are unattractive to Taiwan's educated "city" women; yet in an economy that is not limited to the island's borders, their relatively greater wealth puts them in position to "marry down" a woman from Southeast Asia or Mainland China. The demographics of the marriage market also favor cross border marriages as places like Vietnam and China's coastal provinces have a greater number of young females than males. Finally, cultural beliefs about marriage, gender, and control impact the decision to enter into cross border marriages. These are similar in kind to those that supported the practice of "minor marriage" in Taiwan's past. In the past it was changing economic and demographic conditions that led to a "hot marriage market," and that combined with the high degree of control parents had over their children's marriage options resulted in greater numbers of minor marriages (Chuang & Wolf, 1995). In the present we see changing economic and demographic conditions placing Taiwan in a "regional marriage market," that combines with cultural perceptions that a local Taiwanese woman is hard to "raise," while a foreign born woman is more "traditional" and easier to control, and these lead to the rise of cross border marriages.
Motivations for Cross Border Marriages: Cultural or Individual?
In the following I present results from a study of women, men, and other family members of cross border marriages from communities across Taiwan. As reported elsewhere (Sandel & Liang, 2010), the study lasted for nearly a year from 2007-2008. In-depth interviews were conducted with 92 participants including 39 women who came to Taiwan from China (provinces of Hainan Island, Guangdong, Fujian, Sichuan) or Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines) in a cross border marriage, 7 Taiwanese male spouses, 11 other family members, 30 educators, and 5 foreign born male spouses. Interviews were conducted across a range of communities, from Yilan, Keelung, Hsinchu, and Taipei in the north, to Changhua and Yunlin counties in the center and south. Most participants lived in rural areas and worked in such occupations as farming, factories, or ran family- owned shops and stores. A number of women and grandparents were engaged primarily in household chores such as childcare, cooking, and cleaning. Educators included primary school (grades 1-6) teachers and administrators, and provided a broader, community- wide understanding of cross border families and their children. Finally, a few male spouses from Europe, and the United States also participated in interviews. Questions were developed from previous work in intercultural communication by Kim (2001) and Kramer (2003), and a number of studies of cross border marriages in Taiwan (e.g, Chen et al., 2005; Hsia, 2007; Hwang & Chang, 2003; Kung, 2006; Wang & Chang, 2002). Interviews probed adjustment challenges involving language, education, and health, communication with Taiwanese family members, co-ethnics from land of origin, changes in the sense of self-identity and the identity of their child (or children), and overall satisfaction. Finally, at the end of each interview participants were asked if they would advise someone else they knew to enter into a cross border marriage and express any other thoughts. (See Appendix for a list of interview questions.)
Most interviews were conducted in Mandarin Chinese or Taiwanese (also called Hoklo, Tai-gi, Minnanhua) by the author, and a few in English, in participants' homes, friend's homes, or places of work. (Students at National Chiao Tung University independently conducted 11 interviews, and one student assisted the author with making contacts and conducting interviews at one research site.) These were transcribed verbatim by students at National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Field notes of each interview were also recorded, documenting how each participant was contacted, the participants involved with each interview, the setting, and tone of the interview, following from interviewing procedures as discussed by Briggs (1986) and Miller et al. (2002). Transcripts and field notes came to hundreds of double-spaced pages. Each was then read through carefully by the author, and notes and excerpts of original text pasted into Excel files (with separate pages for each category of participant) for the purpose of coding and finding themes both across and within each transcript. Research assistants at the University of Oklahoma and National Chiao Tung University helped by checking transcripts and codes. Furthermore, Chung-Hui Liang, a colleague at National Chiao Tung University, also consulted on the project by discussing findings and analyses. Finally, excerpts presented in this paper were translated into English by the author. (Those interested in seeing transcripts or excerpts in the original languages may contact the author.)
In the following I present findings as they illumine cultural and individual reasons that support why people have entered into cross border marriages, as well as some of the challenges and perceptions about these marriages. I begin by narrating the stories of cross border marriages of three families, which while unique, are illustrative in a broader sense of the motivations and paths taken to enter into these marriages.
Mr. Chiu: A Family Decision
Mr. Chiu (all participants are referred to by pseudonyms) was 36 years old at the time of the interview. (The difference in age between Mr. Chiu and his Vietnamese born spouse was three and a half years, which was less than most. On average husbands were seven years older than their wives, with a few twenty or more years older.) He had not previously been married. He explained--or rather his younger brother and other family members mostly explained, for reasons discussed later--that his marriage was a family decision. Mr. Chiu's father said that instead of going through a "marriage broker" that would have charged them 300,000 NT (about 9,400 USD), the marriage was arranged by themselves, through a "friend" who charged them only 120,000 NT (3,800 USD). Thus, instead of the broker making all the contacts and arrangements "we went there [to Vietnam] by ourselves, and had to gather our own information." The match was facilitated by Ms. Chiu's younger cousin who had previously married another man in the same village and made the introductions for this couple. (Ostensibly this cousin was hired as the "matchmaker." We met other women whose marriages were arranged in such fashion through a family member; such activity can be quite profitable.)
While speaking with Mr. Chiu I was surprised to learn that he spoke Mandarin poorly (like others in the community he spoke Taiwanese fluently) and had completed only the mandatory and minimum 9 years of education. He worked in a local food processing plant. Since his speech was slurred and unclear, I initially thought he may have been impaired by alcohol. However, the only beverage consumed at the time was tea. Later when speaking with his younger brother (who spoke Mandarin fluently and answered many of the questions), he said that there was nothing unusual in how his older brother spoke. Perhaps this older brother had a mild learning disability or speech impediment, which may explain why he had little formal education. (None of the other men married to foreign spouses we met spoke like this. Some were highly successful, articulate, and owned profitable businesses.)
When talking about Ms. Chiu's adjustment to Taiwan (she was interviewed earlier in the evening but not present during this subsequent interview), family members talked about her in objectifying language, not referring to her by name. The above discussion of how the marriage was "paid for" and arranged is one example. Another is Ms. Chiu's adjustment to life in Taiwan. When asked about such issues as language and food and if it was difficult for her to adjust, Mr. Chiu responded, "No. Comparatively no problem." His brother then explained, "Because her younger sister came earlier [for marriage]. Therefore, [she] lives in this neighborhood. So if there is any [issue] they sisters will talk. So in terms of adjustment there is comparatively no problem." (Ms. Chiu in her interview said that it was her younger cousin who came to Taiwan earlier, and not her sister. It is common for a cousin to be referred to or addressed as a sister or brother.) Then it was asked if in addition to communicating with her sister, Ms. Chiu developed relationships with other Vietnamese women. Mr. Chiu's brother responded, "Yes. With many others, [who live] in the neighborhood." This was then qualified with the following explanation, "[Their relationships] are correct and normal [zhengchang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]]. We here are mostly all right, comparatively plain and pure and more correct and normal; they [Vietnam-born spouses] are not like those [others] who will form their own group [bu hui xiang youde hui jiehe yiqun [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]; they are all firmly established [guding foreigners."
The difficulty in translating the above passage is one indication of the cultural richness of this excerpt. Such terms as zhengchang, a combination of "correct" and "normal," and guding, "firm" and "fixed" are hard to render directly into English. Contrasting them with unknown other women who form their own group "yiqun" is noteworthy as it calls attention to women who seemingly are suspect as they gather together and form a group at the expense of integrating with local residents. (The implication is that a Vietnamese born woman cannot both form firm friendships with other expatriates and be well integrated into the local Taiwanese community.) Therefore we see in this passage, in a manner similar to racist talk and ideology in the United States, that while Vietnamese women may be a problem group elsewhere (yiqun), those whom the speaker knows and interacts with on a daily basis in this community are the right kind (zhengchang) of people. Yet they are also the eternal "foreigner" who cannot be seen--at least in the present time--as non-foreign.
As we consider the above story we see how culture is invoked explicitly and implicitly to describe this marriage. First, the decision to marry and the resources required were the result of a joint effort by Mr. Chiu, his father, brother, and the Vietnamese cousin of his bride- to-be. This follows from the traditional pattern of marriages arranged and paid for by Chinese parents, not young adults. Next, the fact that the Chiu family sought a Vietnamese bride was perhaps based upon their familiarity with the "cousin" who lived in their community, and the unstated assumption that such women are more traditional and willing to live in this rural village. Thus Mr. Chiu's brother described the Vietnamese women in his village as "correct and normal ... comparatively plain and pure." Yet this belief is undercut by the fear that such women may form their own group and engage in behaviors that are like those of unnamed others. Therefore we see evidence that these women are perceived as constituting a dual-edged cultural category of women with both positive--"plain and pure"--and negative--uncontrollable others--qualities.
Ms. Xu: Do you want to know the real story?
In another community in central Taiwan I was introduced to a woman from China's Fujian Province who had lived in Taiwan for 9 years and had a daughter with her Taiwanese husband. When we first met, and before I received consent to turn on the recorder, she said she could tell me the truth about her marriage or make something up. She asked me which story I wanted to hear. I was taken aback and said she could tell me whichever story she wanted. She proceeded to tell me what I believe to be the "real" story.
Ms. Xu explained that life in China as a single person was "not bad" as she, and presumably her family, owned a factory. But at the time she thought, "I was getting older" (she was 31 years old at the time) "And I thought to come to Taiwan to see, exactly what kind of place Taiwan is. And marriage was the only way I could come here.... So I then arranged a fake marriage." "Really?" I asked. She replied, "Yes. I spent 80,000 RMB." (At the time 80,000 was the equivalent of about 10,000 USD, a large sum of money.) This money was given to a "marriage broker" who arranged the marriage visa for her and found a Taiwanese "spouse." But then, after coming to Taiwan she discovered that the man she intended to marry in a fake marriage was single, and "He looked very agreeable [zhongyi de [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], or to like the other person], and then both sides were very agreeable and then [we decided to] get married directly, and not make it a fake marriage." But she still had to pay the broker 80,000 Chinese Yuan.
At the time of the interview Ms. Xu had a daughter with her husband and was quite settled in the community and satisfied with her life. When she first arrived there were not many others like her and few available to help. But now she enjoys meeting other women from China who have recently come because of marriage, and helps them with their adjustment issues:
[There are] many [women] here in this area. And sometimes there is quarreling or something in their family. And so a few of us [women who have lived in Taiwan longer] will go out with them to a coffee shop to chat, and talk about these things and how they should be handled better.... Because there are some ways you want to handle the situation. It's not that just anyone can run away, you can do whatever you want. Right.?. If they bully you too much of course you can fight back.... You can't let people pressure you to death.... This is because like most of us who have come here in this way you have to wait eight years until you can get an ID [Taiwan, ROC citizenship].... And then if you don't have an ID you don't count as a Taiwanese person.... Because they have that way of looking at you.
What is remarkable about Ms. Xu's story is the degree to which she presents herself as taking charge of the situation. The common perception is that in most cross border marriages women have little agency and/or control; yet at every step of this journey Ms. Xu was in charge. She was not forced to leave a difficult life in China to enter this marriage. Rather she felt that she was getting older and that marriage was the only means for her to come to Taiwan and see what life was like. She paid the broker's fee for the marriage, not her spouse. And it was her decision to turn what she intended to be a fake marriage into a real one, because she decided that this man was "agreeable" to her. Now that she is settled in her marriage and has knowledge and experience, she is in a position to help other women who are like her former self. (She explained that to Taiwanese, women from China are seen as waiji [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or foreign.) When women suffer from family quarrels or other pressures, she will go out with them, listen to their stories, and then explain how to handle the situation. But to handle does not mean simply to accept whatever happens, as in some situations it is necessary to "fight back" and not "let people pressure you to death." However, she recognizes that women who have come to Taiwan for the purpose of marriage are in a precarious situation: without an ID card, which takes eight years to acquire, a woman does not have the full rights and protection of the law to stay in Taiwan. (This applies only to women from China. Those from Southeast Asia may obtain ROC citizenship after two years, a discrepancy that bothers many women from China.) Yet despite these challenges, Ms. Xu presents herself as a woman in charge of her life who is capable of handling any challenge that comes her way, and enjoys helping others like herself.
As we consider Ms. Xu's story it seems almost the opposite of the previous one told by the Chiu family. It was individual initiative, her financial resources, the desire to try something new, even illegal, that led Ms. Xu to Taiwan. She was not the one being controlled; rather she was the one controlling life's path. Her story does not sound like the traditional, cultural script for a woman who is waiting for a man to tell her what to do. Indeed, this same sense of a woman's individual agency runs through her current task in life, which is to help other women who like herself have come from China to Taiwan for marriage, and find that the stresses of family life--quarreling and pressure--are unwelcome. Yet she recognizes limits to personal agency claiming that a woman is limited in her rights before she receives a Taiwan identity card, and "It's not that just anyone can run away." Seen from this angle culture appears to be a barrier that an ambitious woman learns to navigate over, through, and around.
Ms. Lin: It would be Better if I Married to Here
The third and final account is illustrative of another motive for entering into a cross border marriage, one that appears to be more "typical." Ms. Lin, a 23 year old woman from Cambodia, who at the time of the interview had lived in Taiwan with her husband for nearly four years, told us that it was economic hardship in Cambodia, and a sense that her life would not improve that led to her decision to marry. Like Mr. Chiu, who was aided by his family members, Ms. Lin's family in Cambodia encouraged her to marry. She explained that before she left Cambodia she was the oldest of three sisters, living with and supporting her mother (there was no mention of her father who presumably was either dead or not supporting the family). Her two younger sisters were in school and both took English and Chinese lessons at private "cram schools" which cost $50 USD per month. She worked to support her sisters and mother, and earned $350 USD per month, which was enough. But to earn this sum she worked three different jobs and slept only three hours per night. Given these conditions, she was persuaded to make a change in her life through marriage:
It was my relative. He told me, I had not thought of coming here [to Taiwan] by marriage. It was that he told me, because he saw that it was really difficult for me, [it would be] better, better if I married to here. I said, "Marry over there? I'd better think about it." And so I thought and thought, "My younger sister is old enough now, and soon she'll be able to care for my mother by herself. [So] I can leave my mother."
For Ms. Lin coming to Taiwan was a means of escaping the insufferable hard work and poverty of life in Cambodia. She is now quite satisfied with her life in Taiwan and that she had enough money to send some to her sisters and mother in Cambodia.
This does not mean, however, that life in Taiwan is easy. She lives with her husband and father-in-law who operate a small farm growing crops and raising livestock, does the cooking and cleaning, and assists with a range of farm chores. Yet comparatively life is better now. Her only disappointment is that after nearly four years of her marriage she does not yet have a baby, and many people look at her in an accusatory manner as if there is something wrong with her marriage. When asked at the end of the interview if there was anything else she wanted to say, Ms. Lin replied with conviction from the heart:
There's something I want to say. I've come to Taiwan and all I want is for the people of Taiwan to care for those of us foreigners who have married to here. Don't say, ah, "You've come here just because you want our money. You want to become a daughter-in-law; you want to become a wife. You must definitely want to do something." These are not the kinds of things that I want. Rather, I just hope that a husband is a little nicer to his wife, and a wife a little nicer to her husband, and that they have better communication. These are not great demands. Ah, some people will say that I've been here so many years and haven't given birth, "What are you doing here?" I know that my husband says not to pay any attention to them. But I don't want to pay attention to them, but in my heart I feel really sad.
Ms. Lin is aware of the misperceptions people in Taiwan have of those like herself who come to Taiwan for marriage, assuming that any woman who does this must have some ulterior motive and be untrustworthy. In her defense Ms. Lin frames her wants as not unreasonable: All she wants is for others to see them as a married couple, and that husband and wife treat each other better. She is also hurt by those who see her barrenness as a sign of some fault or problem in the marriage. These are things that hurt and trouble her.
This final account has features of the most "typical" story of cross border marriage: a hard-pressed woman living in an impoverished country sees marriage to a man in Taiwan as a way out. After arriving in Taiwan her ambitions are rather "simple" and "traditional"--to support her husband and have a baby. She sees married life in Taiwan as a way to earn money that she can send to her mother and sisters in Cambodia. Thus, she is the "good wife," "good daughter," and "good daughter-in-law," all recognizably positive cultural traits. Yet ironically it is Ms. Lin who is most "traditional" and most strongly feels the disapprobation of others. Others perceive her to be a "foreigner" who has "come here just because you want our money" and does not have a child, a threat to the culturally proscribed roles of wife, mother, and daughter-in-law. In her response to these perceptions she has affinities with Ms. Xu who through her actions fights against cultural categories.
Understanding Cultural and Individual
I began this paper by situating cross border marriage as a phenomenon linked to the forces of globalization. With the advent of global communication technologies, air travel, and open borders, finding eligible spouses and constituting marriages is not a local, but regional and transnational matter. Yet as demonstrated in both the literature of past and present marriages and findings from this study, not all is new. There are many features of today's cross border marriages which share affinities with minor marriages of Taiwan's recent past: a changing economic structure, demographic sex-imbalance pressures, and cultural understandings of the "good spouse" all play a role in marriage formation. Just as Chinese parents of the recent past believed that raising a sim-pua to be a daughter/daughter-in-law was good because she would be obedient and controllable, so do Taiwanese men and their family members look to women in Southeast Asia and the provinces of China as good spouses/daughters- in-law today because they are perceived to be more traditional and controllable than local, Taiwan born women. This leads us to then consider why we find such similarities, and what implications there are for understanding how culture impacts individual actions.
To explain the culture of Taiwan's cross border marriages I find it helpful to see this through the lens of two scholars, Geertz (1973) and Constable (2003). Geertz claims that culture is public, symbolic, and systematic. It is public to the extent that human behavior is what is done in a place--the village market or family home. It is symbolic to the extent that it points to something: by praying in a certain way one is displaying an identity that is visibly Buddhist or Muslim or Christian. It is systematic as behaviors follow a recognizable and orderly sequence of events. For instance a marriage begins with discussions between interested parties, followed by an agreement to set dates, then an engagement and exchange of gifts, next a wedding ceremony and celebration, and finally (in the presumed order of things) a consummation. A change in the sequence of any of these events is problematic and may mean that the marriage agreement is broken and/or not recognized as valid. Culture then does two things: (1) it explains what a certain sequence of behaviors means, and (2) it provides a model for how to act in certain situations. Thus, when you see a man and woman wearing a certain style of dress--suit and wedding dress, and acting in a certain way--posing for pictures, walking together--you recognize them as "getting married." Likewise when planning a wedding as a participant, family member, or guest, culture serves as a set of known rules and procedures that one follows to make the wedding work. Finally, if the wedding follows an unexpected sequence of events, or perhaps the participants are markedly different, culture serves as a mental guide for evaluating the wedding as "good" or "beautiful" or a "problem."
This then leads to Constable's (2003) contribution to an understanding of culture. For while Geertz (1973) helps us understand culture as human behavior that follows a recognizable sequence in a familiar situation, it does not help us understand how novelty arises. In her work Constable (2003) studied a kind of behavior that is novel and similar in kind to the study at hand: cross border marriages involving Asian women and North American men. She claims that such marriages are impacted by transnationalism, the mediated imaginings of people, places, ideas, objects, and desires that go "across, between, and beyond national boundaries" (p. 216). These imaginings affect what individuals living in one country or region think about those living elsewhere. Thus, western men may think that Asian women are docile and complacent, while Asian women may think American men are wealthy and modern. These imaginings are then "transformed into ideas about real people and places" (p. 216) and may be acted upon as transnational relationships are pursued that lead to marriage. The case of transnational or cross border marriages must involve more than observable behaviors close at hand as they involve people unknown to each other building relationships at a distance. Culture, therefore, is both public, symbolic behavior and mediated imaginings of other people and places.
When we apply these understandings of culture to the case of Taiwan's cross border marriages we see evidence of both at work. For instance, Ms. Lin spoke with conviction about her desire that others in the community see her marriage not as indexing a relationship built upon the wrong reasons--monetary gain. Rather, she wants others to see her marriage as the pursuit of the same desires and wants of everyone else. Implicit in her comments is the sense that community members see her marriage as a public act (Geertz, 1973), that departs from what is culturally acceptable and "good"; she acts against this by wanting to reframe the definition of a good marriage so that it includes her own. Likewise, what is implied in Mr. Chiu and his family's comments about the Vietnamese women in their community is the belief that "their women" behave in accord with acceptable standards, yet there exist other women in other communities who do not. Thus, they perpetuate negative beliefs about Vietnamese women married to Taiwanese men elsewhere, while excepting such beliefs when they apply to women they know personally. Culture serves to both include and exclude people in problematic ways.
To understand Ms. Xu's story, however, requires an understanding of culture as transnational imaginings. As Ms. Xu was living in China's Fujian Province she imagined a different life if she were to move to Taiwan, and acted upon this by using marriage as a means to cross the border. Likewise it was Ms. Lin's relative in Cambodia who imagined that by marrying a Taiwanese man and moving there, Ms. Lin could live a better life. Finally, Mr. Chiu and his family combined both their transnational imaginings of the suitability of a Vietnamese woman as a spouse and daughter-in-law, with their personal knowledge of a woman close at hand and already living in their village, to act upon this and go to Vietnam to arrange the marriage.
Then what is individual? Like culture, which is situated and evaluated locally, individual is evaluated against the rules of culture and is situated in one's own person or other known persons. Individual is a voice and position that may be invoked to defend oneself or condemn others. Ms. Lin wants to be seen by others not as a scheming "foreign spouse" but as an individual with modest desires just like everyone else. Mr. Chiu and his family see his wife and other known Vietnamese women as individuals who act properly and unlike suspect other Vietnamese spouses. Ms. Xu perhaps best demonstrates the voice of the individual who pursues her own personal ambitions, and even tries to help others like herself to "fight back" and not "let people pressure you to death." That is, while she is aware of limits linked to governmental procedures and cultural understandings of what is right behavior, she is not bound by them. Indeed, at the end of the interview she asked me about America as she wanted to know if life was better there and if I could help her move. She was looking ahead, imagining a place where life could be better, and hoping to continue on an ambitious life's journey after having already made one major step leaving her home, with cultural understanding and individual ambition serving as her guide.
Author's Note
I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright, Taiwan) for a grant awarded to me. I would also like to thank National Chiao Tung University for hosting me and providing a financial grant to my friend and colleague, Chung-Hui Liang, to assist with this research. A heartfelt thanks to the following students of National Chiao Tung University for their help transcribing interviews: Chang Ya-ching [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Su Jyun-wei [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Liu Shu-yu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Lin Chi-wen [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and Hou Patricia Hsiao-ying [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. Thanks to Connie Liu of the University of Oklahoma for her help with data analysis and coding. Finally, I thank all the many friends and families in Taiwan who willingly gave of their time to participate in this research.
Appendix
A Partial Listing of Interview Questions of Foreign Born Spouses Contact the Author for the Complete List in English and Chinese
Personal Experience
1. Where were you born and where did you grow up?
2. Can you please describe your life before coming to Taiwan. (Family life, educational achievement, work experience) What was the nature of your hometown in your country of birth? (Rural or urban)
3. When did you come to Taiwan?
4. How old were you when you came to Taiwan? How long have you been here? Do you have a Taiwan, ROC Identity card? (If not, why not?)
5. Before coming to Taiwan how much did you know about this place?
6. Why did you decide to marry a spouse here?
7. How did you come to know your husband (spouse)? Was it a friend or relative who introduced you? Or was it through a matchmaker (or broker)?
8. Does your husband (spouse) work? What does he do? How old is he?
9. When you first came to Taiwan what languages could you speak (including local dialects)? How did you learn to speak them?
10. What languages (dialects) can you speak now? How did you learn them?
11. Either now or in the past did you take Chinese language lessons? Why did you take (not take) these classes? What do you think about these lessons?
Foreign Spouse's Identity and Cultural Adjustment
41. Who do you believe counts as a "Taiwanese" person?
42. What kind of person do you see yourself as? Taiwanese? Chinese? Other?
43. How do you think other people see you? Do they think of you as Taiwanese? Or a foreign bride (spouse)? Other? (Other people include mother-in-law, husband, relatives in Taiwan, friends, neighbors, strangers)
44. Do you want to be counted as Taiwanese? Why do you want this (or don't want this)?
45. Foreign brides (spouses) like yourself, do they form their own ethnic group? Make a separate small grouping? If yes, do you think such people can influence or change Taiwan's society? Is such change good or bad?
46. If you know any relatives or friends from your country (say name of country), and want to marry here, what will you say to them? For example, "Taiwan is not bad! Hurry up and marry here." Or, "You should really think about this." Or, "Don't marry here." Why would you say this?
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Todd L. Sandel
University of Oklahoma
Correspondence to:
Dr. Todd L. Sandel
Department of Communication
University of Oklahoma
610 Elm Ave. Room 101
Norman, Oklahoma 73019
Email: tlsandel@ou.edu
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