Discussion

The search for Chinese-Russian couples in the renowned “Russian brides” village in Northeast China opens a window onto the complex intersections of migration and marriage across Chinese--post-Soviet borders. This interdisciplinary study examines marriage migration from the former Soviet Union to Reform-era China, which almost invariably involves a Slavic bride and a Chinese husband. To better understand China as a destination for marriage migration, the book explores the politics and lived experiences of desire, marriage, and race within the broader context of China’s pursuit of national rejuvenation. Drawing on diverse sources, including immigration policies, television portrayals, life stories, and digital ethnography, it presents an embodied analysis of intimate geopolitics. It argues that this particularly gendered and racialised model of international marriage reveals important dimensions of China’s position within the global order, in which white femininity embodies the perceived success of Chinese masculinity and nationhood.

Elena Barabantseva is Professor of Chinese and International Politics at the University of Manchester. Her research interests lie at the intersection of borders, identity, migration, intimacy, and citizenship in the context of globalising China. She is the author of Overseas Chinese, Ethnic Minorities and Nationalism: De-Centering China (Routledge, 2010) and Post-Soviet Brides in the China Dream (Cambridge, 2026). Her filmmaking as research practice has resulted in the production of two feature-length documentary films, British Born Chinese (2015) and A Letter to Chinatown (2025), as well as several short films, including Border People (2014) and Group Wedding (2018). Her research has been published in journals including Modern China, Critical Asian Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, The Journal of Asian Studies, International Political Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Millennium, and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.