Regional disparity behind women trafficking in China

Fortunately, things have gotten better.

On Feb.7, Jiangsu's Xuzhou city released the 3rd update on the chained woman with 8 kids, who’s ordeal has caused an uproar on China’s internet.

New finding says the woman, identified as XiaoHuaMei (though probably not her proper name), was originally from Fugong County, Yunnan, and was brought to Jiangsu sometime after 1996 by a woman surnamed Sun "to treat illness". Sun was said to be from the same village as XiaoHuaMei but had previously married a man in Jiangsu.

As local authorities work hard under social media pressure to investigate the case, some attentions are drawn to the disparity between the relatively developed Eastern Region and the lacking behind Western Region.

Though the development gap is narrowing between the east and west regions in China during the past several years, the cases of women in western poor villages marring to men in eastern provinces for better living, and those were forced or even trafficked to do so, remind people the cruelty of poverty and the importance to improve economic equality.

This newsletter will present a scholarly take of the dynamics behind the mass moving of women from the west to the east, through legal or illegal means.

The interviewee is Chen Yeqiang, a professor at Shandong Women’s College. In 2010, he was a doctorate candidate at Yunnan University majoring in ethnic minority studies. He had visited Fugong County, where XiaoHuaMei is from, many times for field research, and studied the decade-long practice of local women marrying into more prosperous provinces on the East Coast.

He published a book in 2015 based on his studies, titled The study of trans-provincial marriages of women of Lisu minority group in Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture (of which Fugong County is a part). In the interview, he paints a complex picture of how thousands of local women, many of whom are of the Lisu minority group, ended up in Jiangsu.

His main takes:

1. Extreme poverty drove many women to leave their homes in hope of finding a better life, primarily using marriage as a mean.

2. The conditions under which the women left Yunnan vary. Some left voluntarily, some were tricked, while others fell victims to trafficking schemes.

3. Now that Nujiang has become richer, fewer women are marrying out.

The red pin, on the border with Myanmar, marks the location of Fugong County in relevance with other cities of Yunnan province.

Even to this day, Fugong County is one of the poorest counties in the entire country. According to this set of statistics, Fugong ranked 1786 among all 1905 county-level entities in China in terms of GDP per capita.

The county’s official website described itself as one of the toughest ones to crack in the nationwide campaign to elevate extreme poverty. For the first 3 Quarters of 2021, the average dispensable income for urban residents was 17065 yuan and 6359 yuan for rural residents.

***

Below is Chen’s interview, as published by Esquire Studio.

先生制造：福贡县在您去做研究时是怎样的情形？女性的家境、学历都怎么样？

Q: What was the situation like in Fugong County when you went to do your research? What were the women's family situations and education levels?

陈业强：我调查那个村有100多个妇女嫁到东部沿海省份。在2010年前福贡县还很少有人考上本科的，辍学率比较高。当地对教育还没像东部沿海地区那么重视，因为身边上大学的比较少，因此当地人没有东部沿海地区的人那么强烈的上大学的愿望。

2010年开始我在福贡县做了多次田野调查。1978年以后，陆续有大量的怒江傈僳族族妇女婚姻迁移到东部沿海地区。在这之前为什么没有嫁到嫁到东北沿海，因为以前它是怒江地区是孤岛，那时候交通不便，信息闭塞。

外面的人去一趟怒江是很周折的事情，现在从昆明拼车过去约有9个小时。我以前去怒江做田野调查是晚上6点从昆明坐上长途大巴，卧铺，第二天早晨才到，差不多有12个小时。怒江大峡谷，路也不好，颠簸一夜才能到。

改革开放以后，怒江的路比以前好了些，信息也畅通了，东部沿海一些大龄青年找不到对象的，就去怒江讨媳妇，所以怒江傈僳族妇女嫁到东部沿海地区的就比较多了。

A: In the village I researched, there were more than 100 women married in the eastern coastal provinces. Before 2010, there were very few women in Fugong County who had gotten a bachelor's degree and the dropout rate was relatively high. The local people did not pay as much attention to education as the eastern coastal areas, because there were fewer people around who went to university, so the local people did not have as strong a desire to go to university as the people in the eastern coastal areas.

I have done several field surveys in Fugong County since 2010, and since 1978, a large number of Lisu women in Nujiang prefecture have migrated to the east coast by marriage. There were not many migrations by marriage before 1978, as it was cut off from other regions by rugged terrain and had no flow of information.

Nujiang is difficult to reach. It would take about 9 hrs to reach Nujiang from Kunming (the provincial capital). I used to go to Nujiang to do field research from Kunming by catching the 6 pm sleeper coach and arrive the next morning after almost 12 hours. The road was also bad, especially along the Nujiang river gorge, and it was a bumpy ride.

After the reform and opening up (1978), the roads in Nujiang were better than before, and the flow of information began. Some of the older young people on the east coast who could not find a match went to Nujiang to get a wife, so more Nujiang Lisu women married into the coastal provinces (such as Shandong, Jiangsu).

先生制造：您之前做研究时，在山东见到了几位嫁到山东的傈僳族妇女，但她们后面又“跑”回去了。您如何理解这样的情形？

Q: In your previous research, you met several Lisu women who married into Shandong families, but later "ran" back. How do you understand this situation?

陈业强：我觉得跑回去的妇女，是因为当时她们嫁出来的时候年龄小。东部大龄男青年娶的怒江傈僳族女孩，大部分是15岁到20岁之间的女性。这些女性嫁到东部沿海地区之前不了解男方和男方的家庭情况。这些男性把自己的条件说的很好，怒江那边女孩的家人也以为她们嫁到东部沿海地区会生活的更好。

这种“嫁”中，也有被拐卖的——拐卖就是具有出卖的主观意图，以获利为目的，用欺骗的手段获取人或物后进行出售。由于信息不对称，婚姻迁移到东部沿海地区的这些女性不太了解东部沿海地区的情况，嫁过去之后她们后悔为时已晚，她们年轻，交通又不便，所以就留在了东部沿海地区。有些女孩的年龄小还无法婚姻登记，就先同居，想跑也跑不掉，男方家人看得比较紧，女孩们就生存了下来。

后来她们逃走，我觉得也是一个觉醒的过程。这个觉醒的过程是个复杂的过程。

首先，嫁过来的这些女性和东部沿海的这些男性是没有感情基础的。很多女孩的家庭是为了彩礼，为了让女孩有个更好的生活条件。但嫁过来以后，她们才发现没有媒人或者男人所说的条件那么好。

另外，怒江的经济条件也在不断改善。随着西部大开发政策的实施，国家对西部地区的支持力度不断加大，西部地区的经济条件逐步改善。

再就是，随着年龄的增长，她们个人意识觉醒了，厌倦了没有感情的婚姻。后来交通也相对方便了。为什么好多女性逃离了却丢下了孩子？因为如果她们带着孩子走的话，一是不方便，二是男方为了孩子会到处寻找。 男方花钱娶了一个媳妇，他们肯定想留住她。如果这个媳妇能留在家里是最好的，若媳妇留不住，留下一个孩子也是可以接受的。

最后就是嫁到东部沿海地区这些姐妹之间有一些沟通，跑了一个之后，形成连锁反应，大家就跟着跑了。

A: I think the women who ran back were because they were young when they married out. Most of the Nujiang Lisu girls married by older men in the east were women between the ages of 15 and 20. These women did not know the men and the men's families before they married. These men present their conditions as good, and the families of the Nujiang girls assume that they will have a better life after marriage.

Among such "marriages", there are some who were abducted and sold. Abduction is defined as the act of procuring a person or an object by deceiving means for the purpose of reselling. Due to information asymmetry, the women had little knowledge of life in the East before marriage, and it’s too late for many to turn back after marriage. They are young and far from home, so they stayed. Some are too young to be registered for marriages, they’d live together first, they can't run away even if they want to, the husband’s family would keep a close watch. So they continued their lives there.

Later they fled, I think it is also a process of awakening. This awakening process is a complex process.

First of all, these women who married over and their husbands have little emotional attachment. Many of the girls' families are agreeing to the marriages for the bride price, and in hope of a better life for their daughters in a more prospered region. It’s only after they marry they find out that the picture is not as rosy as the matchmakers painted.

Another reason is that the economy of Nujiang has consistently improved. With the implementation of the Western Development Policy, the country's support for the western region increased, and the economic conditions in the western region improved.

Thirdly, as they grew older, their personal consciousness awakened and got tired of loveless marriages. Later, transportation also became relatively convenient. Why did so many women flee but left their children behind? Because if they take their children along it’s a burden on the journey and will prompt the husband’s family to actively search for them. The man spent money to marry a woman, most ideally she stays. If the wife leaves, keeping the child is also acceptable.

The last reason is that there’s some networking between those who are married to the East, one person fleeing would set off a chain reaction and lead to imitation by others.

先生制造：跑回怒江的妇女，会面临怎么样的现实？

Q: What is the reality for women who run back to Nujiang?

陈业强：回去的一般都改嫁到本地了，也有少数从东部沿海的一个省嫁到另一个省的。这些女性在东部沿海地区没有社会网络，很难在东部沿海地区一个人生存。留下的一般是在东部沿海地区打工时，认识了另一个省份的男性，在有感情的基础上，嫁到了另一个省。

我在山东遇到一家四兄弟都找了怒江傈僳族的媳妇，老二的媳妇生了一个女儿后又跑回怒江，她在本地找了一个离异男性，也生了个男孩，但后来那个男的出车祸去世了。她再次来到山东潍坊一家家具厂打工，打工的过程中，又认识了怒江的一个单身的男性，他是个孤儿，他们回到怒江建房子，成家，现在又有了一双儿女。她看起来是找到了真爱，是更好的一种结局。

A: Most remarried with a local fellow, with a few who married again in another coastal province. These women have no social network in the East, making living alone difficult. The ones who stayed in the East are usually the case where they met another man from another province at work and got married in the man’s province after developing feelings for each other.

I met a family of four brothers in Shandong who all married Lisu women from Nujiang. The wife of the second eldest brother gave birth to a girl in Shandong and then fled to Nujiang, where she married a divorced man. They had a boy but her second husband, unfortunately, died in a car accident. She came back to Shandong again and found a job at a furniture factory in Weifang city and became acquainted with a single man from Nujiang. The guy was an orphan. The pair returned to Nujiang, got married, and now have a son and a daughter. She seems to have found true love, which is a good result.

先生制造：当时你在山东做研究，找到了几个嫁过来的福贡妇女，这几个人的生活是怎样的？

Q: You were doing research in Shandong at the time and found a few Fugong women who had married over. How were their lives?

陈业强：以我调查的山东四兄弟为例，在80年代时，这四兄弟很久都没有找到媳妇。最后四兄弟全部是从怒江福贡那边娶的傈僳族女性做媳妇。四兄弟当时都30多岁了，其中一个就是通过介绍，花了900块钱彩礼钱娶到了一个17岁的傈僳族姑娘。但娶过来的这四个女孩最后全部跑了。给这个家人留下了四个孩子。

A: Take the four brothers from Shandong for example. In the 1980s, these four brothers couldn’t find wives for a long time. In the end, all four brothers married Lisu women from Fugong, Nujiang. The four brothers were all in their 30s at the time, and one of them got to know a 17-year-old Lisu girl and married her at the bride price of 900 yuan. But all four girls who married over ended up running away, leaving four children to the brothers.

先生制造：这四兄弟怎么会想到去怒江福贡这边寻找媳妇？

Q: How did these four brothers think of going to Fugong to look for a wife?

陈业强：他们也是通过人介绍的。第一个吃螃蟹的人怎么回事，我也不清楚。但这里面有一个过程。我当时也疑惑，怒江的女孩什么时候、怎么嫁出去的？后来访谈了一些介绍人，得知最早是官方的参与：当地政府把女孩介绍到东部沿海结婚，以改变这些女孩的命运，类似于政府的牵线搭桥。后来发展到民间，开始出现了介绍人，因为傈僳族有自己的语言，外面的人也不不懂就需要一个懂傈僳语又懂汉语的人进行介绍。

A: They were also introduced through middlemen. What happened to the first-ever person do to so I'm not sure. But there is an evolving process. I was perplexed at the time when and how the first girls in Nujiang got married to the East. Later, after interviewing some people, I learned that at first, it was the government who set up the channel. The local government introduced girls to the eastern coast for marriage to change the fate of these girls, sort of a matchmaking service offered by the government. Later, the private sector stepped in and middlemen emerged. The Lisu people have their own language and outsiders need someone who speaks both Lisu and mandarin to communicate.

先生制造：介绍人最主要的目的是为了牟取利益吗？

Q: Is the main purpose of the middlemen to make profit?

陈业强：肯定是为了利益。介绍费也在增高，我在书里记录了，1996年到2005年，介绍费是500~1000元，彩礼一般是5000~15,000；2005年到2010年，介绍费是1000~2000元，彩礼就涨到了15,000~30,000。2010到2012年，介绍费是2000~3000元，彩礼是3万到6万，是一个不断上涨的过程。

还有就是嫁到东部沿海地区的这些女性需要同伴的情感陪伴、这就像滚雪球一样，一人找到了媳妇，这个媳妇又介绍了女孩过来。 

A: Certainly. I have recorded in my book that from 1996 to 2005, the introduction fee was 500~1000 RMB and the bride price was usually 5000~15,000; from 2005 to 2010, the introduction fee was 1000~2000 RMB and the bride price went up to 15,000~30,000. 2010 to 2012, the introduction fee was 2000~3000 RMB and the bride price was 30,000~60,000. There was a steady rise.

There’s also the factor that those who came to the East early sought to have company, so they helped introduce more girls over, and it snowballed.

先生制造：其实就是这些婚姻迁移的女孩后来自己也参与到新的婚姻迁移行为里。

Q: So the girls who migrated by marriage later contributed to more migration marriages

陈业强：也是让人觉得不可思议的地方：自己已经是一个悲惨的命运，然后又去把这种命运复制给其他的怒江傈僳族女孩。

A: This is what’s unbelievable. They endured a tragic life but went on to duplicate this on other Nujiang Lisu girls.

先生制造：介绍人一般会使用怎么样的话语去游说？

Q: How would the middleman go about their target?

陈业强：肯定要把男方说得好一点，否则怒江女孩也不会嫁出去。刚才说的那个四兄弟，四兄弟，家里条件是很差的，在本地完全找不到媳妇，他们就去了怒江，老二给的900块钱彩礼都是借的。

A: Definitely trying to describe the male better than reality, or otherwise the Nujiang girl won’t be interested. The four brothers I’ve just mentioned were poor by local standards, and can no way find wives. So they looked for Nujiang girls. The 900 yuan bride price that the second brother gave was borrowed.

先生制造：所以一般要去怒江这边找媳妇的男性都是富裕省份里面的底层男性。

Q: So generally those who went looking for wives in Nujiang are poor males from richer provinces.

陈业强：对，是这个样子。

A: Yes

先生制造：但介绍人这种这种行为其实是很难定义为它是拐卖行为？

Q: But the actions of the middlemen can’t be described as human trafficking or abduction?

陈业强：对，你很难在司法层面上，把这种介绍定义为“拐卖”——介绍人的行为，有的是为了这点介绍费，有的是为了给自己找个陪伴，有的就是以为，把老家女性带出去了生活条件会更好。 

我觉得包括一开始政府之间的牵线搭桥行为，都是一种好的愿望，后来发展到民间的媒人，收取的几千块介绍费，看起来也在合理区间，不算太离谱。但这种介绍里，其实掺杂了很多欺骗。

A: Yes, you can hardly define this kind of acting as "trafficking" at the judicial level - the act of introducing people, some for the introduction fee, some to find companionship for themselves, some simply believed that they are helping others find a better life in the outside world.

I think the initial matchmaking initiatives of the government are well intended. Later, when individuals acted as middlemen, taking a few thousand yuan as a commission, seems reasonable as well, but this work, in fact, is mixed with a lot of deception.

先生制造：那些女性，她们嫁过去后的生活怎么样？

Q: How is the life of the women after they married?

陈业强：我觉得过得不好。第一，娶她们的男性自身经济条件都是比较差的，他们在本地不好找媳妇，就是因为经济条件不好，或者智力障碍，或者是成分不好，成为了“剩男”。

第二，男女双方的年龄差距比较大，没有感情基础。

第三，这些怒江的妇女来了之后确实不适应当地的文化。怒江的少数民族文化，和东部沿海地区的文化是不一样的。东西部本身的经济差距也很大。语言也不同。

感情的因素、经济的因素、语言的因素、风俗习惯的差异都有。这些女孩的熟人圈在怒江，娘家是遥远的，在东部沿海地区她们没有归属感。

A: I don’t think it’s good. First, the economic conditions of the men who marry them are relatively poor. That was the reason they couldn’t find a wife in the first place. Other factors may include handicapped, so they became “leftover men“.

Second, the age gap between men and women is relatively large, so they often have little feeling for each other.

Third, these women from Nujiang really do not adapt to the local culture after they come. The culture of ethnic minorities in Nujiang is different from the culture of the eastern coastal areas. The economic gap between the east and west itself is also very big. The language is also different.

There are emotional factors, economic factors, language factors, and differences in customs and traditions. The circle of acquaintances of these girls is in Nujiang, the mother's family is distant, and they have no sense of belonging in the eastern coastal region.

先生制造：男方给的彩礼能够在怒江当地盖一栋房子吗？

Q: Is the bride price given by the man able to build a house locally in Nujiang?

陈业强：我觉得80年代的900块钱差不多能建一栋房子，那时候的房子不是水泥房子，是千脚落地房，房顶用石棉瓦，再以前是用稻草，这在山上也花不了多少钱。

2021年年底我去怒江时发现，大部分家庭都修了水泥房子，都是两层到三层，因为政府补贴特别多，一户能补贴6万元。

A: I think 900 yuan in the 80s can more or less build a house. Houses then are not built of concrete, they are roofed with asbestos tiles, and even with straw, which in the mountains is cheap.

When I went to Nujiang at the end of 2021, I found that most families had built concrete houses, all two to three stories because the government subsidies were particularly high, and a family could be subsidized 60,000 yuan.

先生制造：当时您接触到的怒江当地村干部，对于那些嫁到外地的女性是什么态度？

Q: What was the attitude of the local village officials in Nujiang towards women marrying out?

陈业强：我最初去调查的时候，他们并不都认为这些远嫁的女性是上当受骗，有的觉得女孩去了东部会过上更好的生活。

但现在那边的年轻人基本就是自由恋爱了，他们认为这是时代不同了，他们的经济条件好了，不嫁到你们东部沿海了。

A: When I first went to do my research, they did not all think that these women married far away are duped, some think that the girl will go to the east to live a better life.

But now the young people there mostly follow their hearts. The officials think now that they’ve left poverty behind, they wouldn’t need to marry out.

先生制造：福贡当地，重男轻女的现象严重吗？

Q: Is there a preference for boys over girls in Fugong County?

陈业强：当地少数民族没有重男轻女这一说，男孩女孩都一样，这特别好，所以那边的性别比一直很正常。但东部沿海地区，因为计划生育导致性别比失调，远远超出了正常范围。

而且东部沿海地区传统文化对人的束缚还是比较严重的。但是怒江那边很好的，因为少数民族文化里面就没有重男轻女这种倾向。

而且那边的计划生育政策比较宽松，可以允许少数民族生两个。

总体而言，这种婚姻迁徙模式实际上是东部沿海的男性，用一定的经济基础，换取西部贫困女性的年轻美貌，和她们的生育资本、劳动力。这些男性重要的是因此得到了一个孩子，满足了“留种”的愿望。

A: Ethnic minorities don't give preference to sons over daughters, boys and girls are the same, which is especially good, so the sex ratio there is always normal. However, in the eastern coastal region, the gender ratio is out of balance, far beyond the normal range.

And the traditional culture of the eastern coast is still a serious constraint on people. But in Nujiang, that’s not the case, because the minority culture does not have the tendency to prefer men over women.

And the family planning policy there is more relaxed, allowing ethnic minorities to have two children.

In general, this pattern of marriage migration actually involves men from the east coast trading a certain economic capital for the beauty and youth of their reproductive ability and labor of poor women in the west. The important thing for these men is that they get a child as a result, satisfying their desire to “keep the lineage going“.

This newsletter is written by Yang Liu, founder of Beijing Channel.

Please write to yangliuxh@gmail.com if you have any feedback or tell me if you’d like to see any particular topic featured in future Beijing Channel newsletters.

Disclaimer: translation in this newsletter is done by deepl.com, with editing by your host. It should only serve as a reference, NOT as an official translation of the original text.