Cross-border Marriages and Mobility
Female Chinese Migrants and Hong Kong Men
Avital Binah-Pollak
9789462986909
194 pages
Amsterdam University Press
Overview
Cross-border Marriages and Mobility: Female Chinese Migrants and Hong Kong Men focuses on cross-border marriages between mainland Chinese women and Hong Kong men, a phenomenon which is of critical importance to the transformation of Hong Kong. By examining the women’s motivations for migration and lived experiences in relation to the discursive, political, economic, and social circumstances of mainland China and Hong Kong, Avital Binah-Pollak demonstrates how these marital practices are causing the expanding and blurring of borders, so that there is a much wider strip of border in which the dichotomies of the rural/urban, periphery/center, and hybrid/national identities become more complex and negotiable. While this is particularly interesting and valid in the case of the border between mainland China and Hong Kong because of the particular nature of the relationship between these two societies, it may also apply to borders between many other societies worldwide.
Author Bio
Dr. Avital Binah-Pollak is currently a faculty member at the Humanities and Arts department at the Technion in Haifa. She is a socio-cultural anthropologist with an emphasis on gender, migration, boundaries, and education in contemporary China and Hong Kong.
