Home-going or home-making? The citizenship legislation and Chinese identity of Indonesian Chinese women in Taiwan

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Abstract

The focus of this chapter is Overseas Chinese (Huaqiao) women from Indonesia who marry men in Taiwan. The genesis of this migration can be traced back to as early as the late 1970s. Anecdotal information suggests that those in earlier years , discharged Mainlander servicemen (known as Mainlander veterans in later times) were the first to engage in this practice. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, parallel to the economic interaction between Taiwan and Indonesia, Indonesian women began to migrate to Taiwan, via marriage, in their thousands. Their number rose as economic interaction was boosted by the 'Go South' policy, a foreign policy that aimed to enhance Taiwan's relationship with Southeast Asian states. These couples were mainly introduced to each other through commercial brokers, but a certain percentage met through social matchmaking which was assisted by the contact between the Indonesian Chinese community and their relatives and friends in Taiwan. They were the pillar of female marriage migration to Taiwan from Southeast Asia up to 1996, when they came to be exceeded in numbers by Vietnamese women.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMigration to and from Taiwan
EditorsChiu Kuei-fen, Dafydd Fell, Lin Ping
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherRoutledge
Pages135-158
ISBN (Print)9780415657556
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Publication series

NameRoutledge research on Taiwan
Volume11

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