Amin, who was abducted from Vietnam, has lived in Chidong Town, Xinyi City, Guangdong Province for 22 years. But when recalling the experience of being abducted by human traffickers, the picture is still clear. In 1994, Amin heard that doing some small business on the Chinese bor

Amin, who was abducted from Vietnam, has lived in , Chidong Town, Xinyi City, Guangdong Province for 22 years. But when recalling the experience of being abducted by human traffickers, the picture is still clear. In 1994, Amin heard that doing some small business on the Chinese border could make a lot of extra money, so he wanted to try his luck, but unexpectedly he was drugged on the way. "He gave us those foods and fainted and was brought to China in this way. I knew it when I went to Fangcheng , (I just shouted) 'Hey, where did you take me? Why don't you bring me? I'm going back? '(But) no, no. '

With the increase in media reports in recent years, "Vietnamese brides" like Ah Min have entered the public eye. In fact, as early as the 1980s and 1990s, there was a large number of trafficking of Vietnamese women on the Sino-Vietnam border. The long-term war has left behind the social problems of gender imbalance in Vietnam. Not only is the large number of widows in war, but there are also more and more young women who are unmarried at the right age. In rural China, due to the traditional concept of favoring boys over girls and the prevalence of abortion techniques, the gender ratio has also begun to become unbalanced. Many poor and older men are unable to marry their wives, providing a strong market demand for trafficking of Vietnamese women. China and Vietnam are adjacent countries. The land boundary line between the two countries is about 1,350 kilometers long, connecting the two provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan, China, with Laizhou, Laojie, Hejiang , Gaoping, Lang Son and Guangning 6 provinces . The complex terrain of high mountains and rivers on the Sino-Vietnam border also provides convenience for illegal activities of trafficking women, and the transaction chain of marriage between the two countries has gradually formed.

At present, academic discussions on Sino-Vietnamese marriage are mainly concentrated in border areas, and there is little research on Vietnamese women in other parts of China. But in some remote areas, "Vietnamese brides" are also a large group. In the Xinyi City , which we surveyed in Guangdong Province, according to relevant police officers from the local public security bureau, there are currently more than 200 Vietnamese women smuggled into Xinyi City, and a large part of them were abducted and trafficked in the 1980s and 1990s. Come. Due to the long time they came to China, most of them have adapted to the local environment, but their homesickness for Vietnam is difficult to eliminate, and their identification with China is not easy to form. At the same time, they also face the real dilemma of not being able to obtain household registration, and they are with the vast majority of China. Farmers also work hard to make a living and raise children. A considerable number of them went out to work like local farmers, and some have lived in rural western Guangdong for many years. The latter are the people we visited this time. In addition, some Vietnamese women are engaged in illegal activities such as prostitution, marriage fraud, drug trafficking, etc., and will be deported to Vietnam once discovered by the public security department.

Generally speaking, "Vietnamese bride" refers to women who were originally Vietnamese nationality and lived in Vietnam, but were later abducted and trafficked to other countries to establish a new family. In actual investigation, we found that the local people's understanding of "Vietnamese brides" is not limited to Vietnamese women who were trafficked and abducted, but also counts Vietnamese women who come to China voluntarily. Moreover, the title of "bride" focuses on the short process of "marriage", which makes people easily ignore their future lives. Among the locals, these women have another name, called "Vietnamese Po".

There are many people coming from

Amin lived in Hanoi before he was abducted to China. After graduating from high school, she worked in a state-owned cotton ball factory. At the same time, she was also a single mother of a boy. When she was abducted and arrived at Xinyi , she was a little lame and could not do farm work, so she was disliked by several families. Finally, an old couple in the village took 3,500 yuan and picked Amin for their thirties. A "bride" for 2,000-3,000 yuan was the price these trafficking gangs always offered that year. If some "brides" cannot be sold at a good price, they will be sold to different places continuously. This is a more painful memory for those who witnessed it.

In addition to being collectively forced to traffickill by trafficking gangs, some Vietnamese women are also brought by acquaintances, with a nature ranging from being deceived and voluntary. After they came to China for a trip, they found it difficult to go home, so they got married locally. Ah Hua from the village next to Ahming is also from Hanoi. At that time, she finished her university medical school and had an internship in the hospital. “My friend has married here.When I come back to play, I will bring me here and play. If I don’t know the way (go back), then I will marry him. "Ahua believes that although the life gap between marriage is large, it is still a natural and voluntary marriage.

A Nian who came to China voluntarily.

Another majority of Vietnamese women came voluntarily in order to seek a better life. Hua. A Nian came to China voluntarily in 2000. "I had three children at that time. Do you think it's hard work? There is no house, and my parents also made the hut for me. "She recalled that her husband in Vietnam was not a housekeeper and had mistresses, and the whole family could only be maintained by her selling firewood. "I saw those people back from China, and I saw that they had clothes to wear and money to take a ride. , I said, take me there. "After she came to China, she met her current Chinese husband and gave birth to a son with him.

Some Vietnamese women also brought their children to China to make a living because their children were still young. "At that time (in Vietnam) was very poor , I have no food to eat, I am very hungry. "I heard that China is very good, so I want to come and have a look. The person introduced at that time said he married to Guangxi because my relative was in Guangxi. "A Zhong brought his son to Guangdong and rebuilt his family. Now that her Chinese husband has passed away, she makes a living by recycling garbage. When her son grows up, he goes out to work in the factory in the Pearl River Delta.

For Vietnamese women who come to China voluntarily To be aware of the fact that it is a way to improve living conditions, and it also makes them more capable of supporting their Vietnamese family. Their Chinese husbands are often unable to marry their local wives because they are too old and poor. This kind of Southeast Asia Foreign spouse marriages are also common in Taiwan, South Korea and other regions. Taiwanese scholar Xia Xiaojuan summarized it as a "commodified marriage in which marginalized men and women seek a way out." Vietnamese women who were abducted are more victims of profit-seeking victims of trafficking gangs. . They are prone to psychological trauma, and it is more difficult to get the connection with Vietnamese families.

is to go or stay

Almost all Vietnamese women who were abducted to China had the idea or plan to escape in the early days. "I'm also Walked out many times. I found out that I didn’t recognize those words and couldn’t understand what I said. It was raining heavily in the middle of the night, and I squatted on the side of the road, got kicked out again. I also reported the case several times, but I couldn't speak and couldn't communicate with the police. Later, I couldn't walk and couldn't find the way back to Vietnam. I really wanted to die at that time. "In the investigation, a Vietnamese woman recalled trying to escape many times that year, but because of her language barrier and long distance, she failed. "Since she had children, she never thought about going back and was reluctant to leave. "

language barriers, imprisonment and expenses of husband's family are all obstacles to escape. But for the abducted Vietnamese women who stayed in the end, children are usually the turning point for them to completely eliminate the idea of ​​escaping. And, after having children The husband's vigilance for the Vietnamese wife to escape will also decrease, and he will even take the initiative to help the Vietnamese wife go home to visit relatives.

The Vietnamese woman who eventually stayed and took root in China gradually changed from the so-called "Vietnamese bride" to the "Vietnamese woman". "天" is a common name for older women in Cantonese, with a derogatory meaning. Locals use the slightly derogatory word "天" to refer to them, and they also use "天" in the context of China. Vietnamese woman defines herself.

. In the public's perspective, their naming faces difficulties. Only when people use the word "Vietnamese bride" can their origin and life be understood by the public. But they are no longer the same The brides who are about to marry are no longer self-selling items under commodity marriages. They have become ordinary members of China's new rural life, raising children, and facing the same difficulties that other rural Chinese women may face: urbanization, Poverty, children drop out of school, political corruption.

More than 20 years have passed, and the internal heterogeneity of this group is also expanding. Some of them have registered their household registration through gray channels, went out to work in the Pearl River Delta region, and integrated into The wave of marketization in China; some stay in the countryside and do some miscellaneous work, such as construction workers, cooking in school canteens, etc., and development opportunities are limited. In the survey, only a few Vietnamese women can continue to use their original skills in China, such as beauty and hairdressing. wait.Most Vietnamese women do not know Chinese characters, have limited skills, and their income levels are difficult to improve. Ah Hua, who used to be a doctor, didn't know the name of the medicine and had no chance to further study. She had to give up her medical skills and rely on cutting wood to help her make up for her family.

Most of the Vietnamese women who stayed in rural western Guangdong who lived in difficult families.

Their family lives are also different. Amin likes to say to people, "My husband loves me very much. When I sleep, he uses his arms to make a pillow for me." Although the trafficked marriage starts with coercion and violence, it may not necessarily lead to good feelings. The next generation of their childbirth in China is also different: some are forced to drop out of school due to poverty, go out to work early, some go to key universities, and find good jobs in first-tier cities.

As mothers, their Vietnamese background has a certain impact on their children, but it is also relatively limited. When their children were young, they generally hummed Vietnamese songs and taught some Vietnamese vocabulary in scattered ways. Children will unconsciously learn some of the unique living habits of their mothers in Vietnam. For example, in the survey, the son of a Vietnamese woman developed the Vietnamese-style meal habit of her mother when she was a child. She used separate dishes and dipped in spices to eat. However, after going out to study in the villages at junior high school, she has been using the meal habit of returning to China. Their children also rarely speak and in Vietnamese. Ah Hua explained, "I can't teach you (children speak Vietnamese). If you say your words, they may say a few words, like asking you to have a meal. The problem is that after a long time, they won't remember them. Everyone says everything Vernacular. "As children become socialized in the Chinese cultural environment, the unique influence of mothers will continue to be weakened.

"We Vietnam", "You China": Nostalgia and recognition

Amin who is singing Vietnamese songs.

"Those Vietnamese songs are about boys and girls. If I don't see you, there will be no sun. If I don't see you, my heart will die. The feelings inside are very loving." Ah Min likes to sing Vietnamese songs. She also has a book filled with lyrics of Vietnamese songs. She has not returned to Vietnam for 22 years and has also cut off contact with her relatives there. Once she remembered a few Vietnamese lyrics, she quickly remembered them, fearing that she would never remember them again after passing.

The reason why I didn’t go back to Vietnam to visit relatives is mainly because of money. Because they have children in China, their husbands are generally not worried that they will run away. For Ah Min, it would cost one or two thousand yuan to go back to Vietnam, which was a luxury expense. Moreover, as I get older, I have many physical problems, and I don’t dare to go far.

Ahua shed tears because she missed her mother.

Only two of the 11 Vietnamese women interviewed have never returned to Vietnam. Both of these Vietnamese women who were abducted and trafficked were unable to plan to go home due to poverty and physical health problems. Due to long-term loss of contact, it is particularly difficult for abducted Vietnamese woman to go home for the first time. Azhen went home for the first time, and everyone from the whole village ran out to greet her, "My parents cried as soon as they saw me, so happy that they cried, and they were very moved. It turned out that everyone thought I was dead "Generally speaking, women who come to China voluntarily return to Vietnam to visit relatives more frequently, and usually go back every two or three years. Most of the Vietnamese women who were abducted and trafficked have only been back 1-3 times in more than 20 years.

They usually go back to Vietnam to visit relatives by following their friends from Vietnam whom they met and smuggled back from the Guangxi border. Vietnamese fellow villagers are an important part of their interpersonal relationships. They are very dependent on their fellow villagers when buying Vietnamese condiments and visiting relatives. Among the interpersonal networks of fellow villagers, the most special type is human traffickers. Many Vietnamese women who marry into China are the "main forces" in the forced trafficking group. Some even themselves are abducted "Vietnamese brides". Under the temptation of economic interests, they also joined the chain of trading, and the cycle worsened the problem of population trafficking. The investigation found that many "Vietnamese brides" in villages were trafficked by the same Vietnamese woman.

The attitude of trafficked Vietnamese women towards human traffickers is also contradictory. Some people no longer know human traffickers and still express very much hatred. More often, the "Vietnamese female traffickers" in the trafficking gang live similar to them and have always had some contacts.A Vietnamese woman said she had received invitations from human traffickers to participate in trafficking: "The person who abducted me is in Hengdong Village, which is very close to this. She is also from Vietnam. I usually ask her to buy something from Vietnam. She I had asked me to go and kidnap together, but I said I wouldn't go. I heard that she had been arrested recently and had abducted 15 Vietnamese girls. I don't know if she has been released now."

There are also quite a few situations in which the traffickers are the Chinese husband's home. relatives. A Vietnamese woman talked about her relationship with the person who abducted her at that time: "I said I won't sue you. The man you asked me to marry was not very good, so I scolded you. She didn't know how good she was to me. Lean, if you are sick, call me every day and ask me to go to her place. "In these cases, most of the complaints about human traffickers are concentrated on "You asked me to marry a husband," rather than "You kidnap me to China." ”. The color of trafficking is faded, which is more similar to the common and common complaints about the introducer after marriage in rural China. Long-term life forced Vietnamese women who were once victims to choose to adapt to local life, downplay the experience of trafficking, and form normal social relations with people around them.

In the process of getting along with them, the author feels that they can not only speak fluent local dialect, but also deal with the worldly ways, such as greeting guests and discussing sacrifices with their families, which all reflect a full understanding of local customs. This is not unrelated to their time when they came to China and the Confucian background that China and Vietnam share. However, in some details of life, they still retain some habits that are very different from those of local rural women, such as toenails, eyebrow trimming, hookah smoking, etc.

But although they seem to be quite adaptable to local life, most of the Vietnamese women interviewed are still more inclined to say that they are "Vietnamese", and "You China" and "We Vietnam" will appear from time to time in the words of daily life. ”. "I am good to Chinese people, but Chinese people are good to me. Many Chinese people think you are from Vietnam and do something bad. But I didn't want to come here at first, and I was deceived by others, and there was nothing I could do." A Lu believes that In daily interactions, Chinese friends who are not familiar with each other will still be wary of her identity.

Many scholars have paid attention to the social and cultural acculturation issues of Vietnamese women. The research of Chinese scholars mainly focuses on marriages on the Sino-Vietnam border, and most surveys tend to think that their sense of belonging to their country, participation in public life, and emotional emotions are difficult to adapt to. "Identity anxiety" and "institutional exclusion" are the summary of the situation of Vietnamese women when scholar Zhou Jianxin studied transnational marriages on the Sino-Vietnam border. He believes that different social and cultural environments and exclusionary institutional design make it difficult for them to adjust well, and it is easy to cause anxiety about identity. The "institutional exclusion" of lack of nationality and household registration is also applicable to this group of Vietnamese women living far from the border.

household registration difficulties

According to Vietnamese law, once it is found that the citizen of his country has not come to China through any registration procedures and has not returned for three months, he will automatically lose his Vietnamese nationality. Chinese law stipulates that marriage registration for border residents in neighboring countries requires a valid passport, international travel document or entry and exit pass and a spouseless certificate. These Vietnamese women who smuggled through the border cannot register their marriage without proper entry procedures, so it is difficult for them to obtain Chinese household registration through formal channels. Some Vietnamese women also "buy a Guangxi household registration" through gray channels in the 1990s, or the local village brigade helped to handle it. In recent years, procedures have become more and more stringent, and the possibility of "buying a household registration" is getting smaller and smaller. Of the 11 Vietnamese women surveyed, only three had Chinese household registrations.

household registration is the line that involves people and national policies. Without a household registration, they have become the "three non-" people who illegally enter the country, stay illegally and find employment. Specifically, without a household registration, they cannot go out to work in a regular factory, enjoy any social security, and participate in the village's land division. "It's simple. You have to eat and wear clothes. Once you don't have a household registration, you (that's) you don't have an ID card. You can't go to work without an ID card, and you can't divide the land without a household registration."Compared with social security, Ahua cares more about the distribution of her land, which brings benefits to the family.

At the beginning of 2016, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Solving the Issues of Registration of Household Registration for Personnel without Household Registration", which stated The new policy has attracted the attention of several interviewed families, but compared with a large number of over-birth black households, a group like "Vietnamese bride" is not prominent. There are no specific references to corresponding solutions. According to the information learned from Xinyi Public Security Department, no local regulations can be issued that can help this group to legally apply for household registration.

Due to objective obstacles such as policies and processing methods, As we grow older, these Vietnamese women's willingness to apply for household registration has gradually become less strong. "When you are old, you don't have to go anywhere. If you want to work, you need to (household registration), and I don't need it. "Amin said. In addition, there is still a trend of advocating burial among rural people in western Guangdong. Some Vietnamese women even consider that they have no household registration and can escape the cremation promoted in rural areas.

Vietnamese women's children usually can enter the household with their fathers, so in The household registration is not affected. Most Vietnamese women tend to place their hopes on the next generation in China in interviews. The identity of "mother" is not only the reason why most of them end up staying in China, but also the reason they and China The most important connection of this land.

"A person is destined by fate, right? Who would want to marry so far? I don't want to. "Amin's words are not an isolated case. The destiny is the explanation of their past lives, especially Vietnamese women who have unfortunate trafficking experiences. This is a disappearing group, but their experiences and struggles in rural China But it should not be forgotten by society.

(This article was written based on the relevant investigation of the "Vietnamese Bride in Rural China" team of Fudan University. Chen Xiaojun, Ma Xiaoyang, Tan Lishan, Zou Qiaosui, Zhang Ziwei, and Tang Yucheng also contributed to this article . Video shooting: Tan Lishan, Yang Xiujun, Zhao Fangxue, edited by: Yang Xiujun, Lin Qianwei. )