Original
Balancing Accommodation and Authority: Husbands’ Family Strategies in Transnational Marriages in North-East China
Abstract
Abstract This article examines South–South transnational marriages between Vietnamese women and Chinese men in North-East China, focusing on the strategies husbands’ families employ to sustain these unions. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of family strategies and in-depth interviews with 26 households, it develops a “departure-restraint” framework to explain how receiving families respond to the persistent possibility of a bride’s marital exit. The findings show that these strategies rest on a balance between limited accommodation and selective authority: Vietnamese brides are granted a degree of autonomy in everyday matters, while husbands’ families retain control over major household decisions. The article further argues that the relatively narrow economic gap between sending and receiving regions in South–South marriages reshapes household dynamics in distinctive ways. Under conditions of limited economic opportunity, husbands’ families maintain marital stability not through outright domination, but through calibrated negotiations over everyday autonomy and household authority.
中文
平衡迁就与权威：中国东北地区跨国婚姻中男方家庭的策略
摘要
摘要 本文考察中国东北地区越南女性与中国男性之间的南南跨国婚姻，聚焦男方家庭为维系此类婚姻结合所采取的策略。基于布迪厄的家庭策略理论以及对26个家庭的深度访谈，本文提出“退出—约束”框架，用以解释接收方家庭如何应对新娘持续可能发生的婚姻退出。研究发现，这些策略建立在有限迁就与选择性权威之间的平衡之上：越南新娘在日常事务中获得一定程度的自主权，而男方家庭则保留对家庭重大决策的控制。本文进一步认为，南南婚姻中输出地与接收地之间相对较小的经济差距，以独特方式重塑了家庭内部动态。在经济机会有限的条件下，男方家庭并非通过公然支配，而是通过对日常自主权与家庭权威的审慎协商来维持婚姻稳定。
关键词
跨国婚姻、南南移民、家庭策略、越南新娘、中国东北、婚姻稳定、家庭权威、布迪厄