The politics of the Mainland spouses’ rights movement in Taiwan

The year 1987 was a critical turning point for Taiwan. It featured the termination of martial law, which had been in place for four decades. That year also saw the ban of travelling to China from Taiwan lifted for the first time since 1949. The latter development not only allowed Taiwanese people to visit their families in China, but also contributed to a wave of marriage migrations from China to Taiwan. These migrants have largely been the female spouses of of Taiwanese husbands and are officially known as Mainland spouses, a term that refers to marital immigrants who are originally from Mainland China and marry people in Taiwan. After over twenty years of this specific type of marriage migration, Mainland spouses represent a diverse community in modern Taiwanese society.