Acknowledgements

The research for this book was made possible through a research grant from the China-Europe Consortium ‘Immigration and Transformation of Chinese Society’ (2014–2019, ESRC ES/L015609/1). I am deeply grateful to my project colleagues, including Frank Pieke, Xiang Biao, Michaela Pelican, Caroline Grillot, Björn Ahl, Wang Feng, Shen Wei, Ka Kin Cheuk, Tabitha Speelman, Andrea Střelcová and Lin Goethals, whose insights and exchanges over the years greatly enriched my work.

The analytical backbone in this book was developed through collaborations and two workshops that we organised with Aoileann Ní Mhurchú and Spike V. Peterson during Spike’s tenure as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor in the Critical Global Political Cluster at the University of Manchester in 2018.

I extend heartfelt thanks to Professor Wang Xiaofeng, my academic host at Northeast Asian Studies College of Jilin University, who generously supported my stays in 2016 and 2018 and facilitated my fieldwork in Northeast China. I am also grateful to Ute Wallenböck and Vanessa Frangville for inviting and hosting me at Masaryk University and Université Libre de Bruxelles, respectively, where I benefited from valuable discussions and exchanges.

Special thanks go to Lan Shanshan, who welcomed me as an associate researcher on her European Research Council’s ChinaWhite project. The reading group discussions, conference exchanges and feedback from her team, particularly Willy Sier, Raviv Litman, Ke Ma and Christina Kefala, were instrumental in shaping parts of this book.

Colleagues who read and discussed sections of the manuscript, including Pál Nyíri, William A. Callahan, Tao Wang, Laura McLeod, Mat Paterson, Shogo Suzuki and Jeesoon Hong, provided invaluable feedback. I am also indebted to my colleagues at Manchester, Pete Gries, David Stroup, Ed Pulford, Wang Xiaobing, Stephen Hutchings, Bei Ju and Michael Magcamit, for giving up their time to read parts of the manuscript and offering their insightful critiques during a half-day workshop in April 2024.

I appreciate the support and exchanges from members of the British Academy Global Convening Programme’s Chinese Global Orders project, including Leigh Jenco, Hasan Karrar, William A. Callahan, Máximo Badaró, Hans Steinmüller, Tansen Sen, Yu-shan Wu, Liang Yongjia, Frances Shu-fang Cheng, Elisabeth Forster, Cobus van Staden, Nicholas Loubere, Adhira Manalagiri, David A. Palmer, Maria Adele Carrai, Carwyn Morris, Stephen Whiteman, Rivi Handler-Spitz, Jacob Fordham and Andrea Li.

I would like to express my gratitude to my doctoral student Chengzhi Zhang for his research assistance and to Carole Pearce for her exceptional editing contributions. I am also deeply appreciative of the editorial team at Cambridge University Press, particularly Lucy Rhymer, for her support and guidance. Additionally, I extend my heartfelt thanks to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and to Rosa Martin at Cambridge University Press for her editorial advice throughout the development of this book.

Most importantly, I am profoundly thankful to the women who shared their stories with me, forming the heart of the research informing this book.

Finally, my family in Belarus, Canada, Spain and the UK have been a constant source of support, life force and encouragement, enabling my extended research trips to China.

This work was presented at conferences and workshops at institutions in Asia and Europe, including the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Doshisha University, SOAS University of London, University of Manchester, University of Amsterdam, Minzu University of China, Masaryk University, Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Kokura symposium on ‘Increasing Tensions in Cooperative Northeast Asia.’ Feedback from colleagues and audiences at these events was invaluable. Any errors or inconsistencies in the analysis remain my responsibility.

Parts of the analysis and argument in the book appeared in:

• 2022: ‘Losing Self to Discover National Citizenship: Contestations over Parental Rights among the Post-Soviet Foreign Wives in China’, Geopolitics 26, no. 2: 444–463.

• 2019 (with Caroline Grillot): ‘Representations and Regulations of Marriage Migration from Russia and Vietnam in the People’s Republic of China’, Journal of Asian Studies 78, no. 2: 285–308.

• 2025: ‘Returning the Gaze: International Love at the Chinese–Russian Border’, in Empirical Art: Filmmaking for Fieldwork in Practice, ed. A. Lawrence and M.-C. Dietrich (Manchester: Manchester University Press).