The cross-Strait marriages have gradually been increasing since 1987 when the Taiwan government lifted the restrictions on its nationals to travel to China, either as tourist, or to visit their long lost relatives who are living in China. The growing number further increased when in 1992, the government allowed, with restrictions, the Taiwanese businessmen to invest in China. Henceforth, tourism, cultural, economic and social interactions, including intermarriages had an unprecedented increase. Likewise, on the same year, the government allowed Taiwanese men to marry Chinese women and has set out the rules allowing the Chinese spouses to settle down in Taiwan. The cross strait marriages are now considered a social phenomenon, especially when the number of Chinese spouses reached 198,031 in August 2004. They are now considered as one of Taiwan¡¦s minority groups that need special consideration from both the government and society. The Chinese spouses who are mostly women, come from different cultural, social and political environment, thus, are faced with more challenges and difficulty in phasing in, both in their domestic life and the Taiwan community, in general. It is in this context of this vulnerability, that Taiwan society should give preferential attention to the Chinese spouses. This study aims to explore the Chinese female spouses¡¦ family backgrounds, individual personalities, motives for marriage, ways of finding their partners, how they get oriented to Taiwan¡¦s way of life and how these new adaptations affect their life. In the light of these detailed information, the study seeks to further understand the Chinese female spouses¡¦ predicaments both in spiritual and material aspects, and surface their most urgent needs. This study also aims to provide a new perspective of the Chinese female spouses so that Taiwan society can be compassionate and overcome the existing prejudices against them. Further, a better understanding of the Chinese spouses¡¦ predicament would enable the government to draw up policies that will protect their rights and interests as ¡§genuine Taiwanese daughters-in-law.¡¨ The research approach of the study is qualitative and the researcher conducted in-depth interview among 20 Chinese female spouses who live in Taipei County and Taipei City. The conclusions of this study are as follows: I. The structure of Chinese spouse: A. The number of female spouse overwhelmingly outnumbers the number of male spouses. B. The pattern of cross-Strait marriages is that of an ¡§old husband marries a young wife¡¨. More than one-third of cross-strait marriages are second marriages. C. Most of these Chinese spouses are in manual labors or unemployed. D. The cross-Straits marriages are closely related to the cross-Straits businesses, which start from the eastern coast to middle China and goes westward to the inland. E. Most of the Chinese spouses live in big cities after they came to Taiwan and most of them reside in Taipei County and Taipei City. F. Taiwan spouses¡¦ educational backgrounds gradually became better than those of their Chinese female spouses. II. The Chinese women¡¦s motives for marrying Taiwanese men have gradually changed. Chinese women have changed the reasons to choose their partners from better economic standing to better or compatible personalities. The second consideration is whether there is love between the couple. The economic capability is now the last consideration for their marriages. III. The different ways of how they find their partners has a big influence on the Chinese female spouses¡¦ adjustment to Taiwan¡¦s lifestyle. Those who were free to choose their partners have better accommodation in Taiwan, and those who were arranged to know their husbands by their relatives or friends, were mostly disappointed. Some of them even felt they were deceived into marriage, thus they regretted their marriages and are driven to depressions. IV. The major and key factors that influence the Chinese female spouses¡¦ life adaptation in Taiwan are more of the legal issues, more specifically, their rights to residence, rights to status and rights to work. The other problems include: lack of support network or mechanisms in Taiwan society, the unequal treatment between men and women, and the social discrimination against them.

The major research instrument is interview. We interviewed 13 Chinese brides in Kaohsiung area and the main purpose of this study is to realize the way they interpret their experience of life change. They can provide us abundant discourses and we can experience the plentiful content of the group. We can conclude from the content of interview that the interviewed Chinese brides would adopt different strategies to cope with different issues. They want to strive for the ¡§distinction¡¨ and approved social positions in Taiwan society and would manage their impression by various tactics. Since the Chinese brides haven¡¦t gathered together as a category, their goals and tactics of acting still stay in individual level. They take different roles in different field and construct their images in diverse strategies. We try to classify the Chinese brides in different fields by two main variables: the distribution of capital and ability of motion. The categorizing index is not immobile, but it would modify in changing situation. The purpose of establishing generalized rules is to present the multiplicity and complex power relationship of the Chinese brides phenomenon.

自開放探親以來，兩岸交流日趨熱絡，截至民國九十四年底陸續來台團聚及申請居留、定居的大陸配偶已逾廿三萬人，成為新興移入人口的主流。「兩岸婚配」的盟合大多係由台灣男性主動認識大陸女子、或經由親友介紹、及婚姻仲介等方式而結婚，大陸配偶透過「跨海婚姻」的歷程來到台灣，在陌生的社會民情與生疏的家庭環境中試圖展開新生活，她們無不努力地學習並詮釋新的角色；然因兩岸的社經環境、風俗習慣，人民的成長背景及價值觀念等文化之差異與隔閡，建立自己的同儕生活上有所困難，加上在台灣取得社會資源的不易，使其與台灣社會網絡互動貧乏，只能依賴婚姻的狀況下更顯得被孤立，而成為社會的弱勢族群，且因人數眾多已形成嚴重的社會問題。 由於大陸配偶來台者日眾，在相關的社會新聞中，造成台灣民眾常抱持著偏執與異樣眼光看待她們，總將其視為外來者或麻煩製造者而產生了許多誤解，使她們在異鄉的生活適應上備感艱辛，諸如她們漂洋過海的婚姻動機為何？來台後對於兩岸的生活習慣與價值觀念之差異要如何適應？又將如何與台灣的社會相連結？對於國家與社群的認同為何？微視她們真正的心聲是值得我們作抽絲剝繭的探究。本文針對中國移民女性來台的社會適應問題進行研究，讓現實生活中的大陸配偶自己發聲，筆者實地去瞭解她們的生活底層，聆聽她們的心聲、感受與生活經驗，試從其自身的敘述中來勾勒出她們的「台灣經驗」，而非新聞媒體上所建構與杜撰的故事，或是三姑六婆們街頭巷尾的竊竊私語。 / Ever since Taiwan and PRC opened door for citizens to visit their relatives across Taiwan Straits, cross-border interactions from both sides are becoming more frequent. According to statistical data released by Taiwan government, more than 230 thousand PRC immigration requests to Taiwan have been granted by the end of 2005. In consequence, PRC residents are becoming the mainstream in Taiwan immigration population. Typically, cross-border marriage took place through matchmakers or relatives’ introduction or Taiwanese males actively create opportunities to know PRC female. Thereby female is the dominant gentile in PRC immigrant population. Due to different value systems, and vast cultural gap, it is not easy for PRC spouses to quickly adapt to the new environment and families. In addition, for lack of proper access to Taiwan social networks, PRC immigrants are usually isolated and speechless. And the issues become more severe as PRC immigrants increases in Taiwan. From time to time, social incidents caused by PRC immigrants are mistakenly reported or even exaggerated by public media that lead to biased misunderstanding from Taiwanese pollution. And there’s virtually no chance for PRC spouses to speak up. In this paper, we will focus primarily on the following issues: what are the motivations of PRC spouses to come to Taiwan, how they adapt themselves to make up the cultural gap and the new value system, as well as how can they link up with Taiwan societies. Rather than referencing to media reports that could possibly be distorted, we chose to collect first hand experiences by face to face interviews with PRC spouses. Let’s listen to their genuine voice about their “Taiwan experiences”.