CHINESE CITIZENSHIP WEBINAR SERIES (2026) – SESSION 3 | MAKING BELONGING AT THE MARGINS: BORDERLAND CITIZENSHIP AMONG MYANMAR BRIDES IN SOUTHWEST CHINA (30 MAY 2026)
- Starting Time 活動開始時間
May 30, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
(In your time zone. 閣下所在時區）
May 30, 2026 at 1:00 PM GMT+1
(In the event local time zone. 活動所在時區)
- Participants 嘉賓
Xiaoxin Zhong
Yunnan UniversityXiaoxin Zhong is Associate Professor of Ethnology in the School of Ethnology and Sociology at Yunnan University. His research focuses on Myanmar studies and border studies along the China–Myanmar border.
- Organizers 主協辦機構
The Chinese Citizenship Webinar Series (2026) explores citizenship, belonging, migration, borderlands, and state–society relations in contemporary China through interdisciplinary dialogue.
Institutional Support:
CAPPE, University of Brighton
Global China Studies, NYU ShanghaiJournal Support:
Citizenship Studies
Social Transformations in Chinese Societies- Mode 活動形式
- Online
- Venue 地點
- Microsoft Teams
- Languages 語言
- Chinese
- Description 詳情
The third session of the Chinese Citizenship Webinar Series (2026) will take place online on 30 May 2026. This session features a talk by Xiaoxin Zhong from Yunnan University, focusing on the everyday lives, social agency, and forms of belonging developed by Myanmar brides living in southwest China’s border regions.
Date: 30 May 2026
Time:
13:00–14:30 BST
20:00–21:30 Beijing TimeFormat: Microsoft Teams Webinar
Meeting ID: 373 829 413 264 332
Passcode: mg2bm7R9Join link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/373829413264332?p=krTD4bSVGnzHFfWKW4
Speaker
Xiaoxin Zhong
Yunnan UniversityXiaoxin Zhong is Associate Professor of Ethnology in the School of Ethnology and Sociology at Yunnan University. His research focuses on Myanmar studies and border studies along the China–Myanmar border.
Title
Making Belonging at the Margins: Borderland Citizenship among Myanmar Brides in Southwest China
Abstract
This talk explores the experiences and agency of Myanmar brides living in Ruili, a Chinese border city, amid their exclusion from formal citizenship. Drawing on five months of fieldwork, it examines how these women navigate legal precarity, economic marginality, and social exclusion through everyday strategies of survival, mutual support, and digital entrepreneurship. The study frames their actions as acts of citizenship and reveals an emergent form of borderland citizenship produced through informal practices of solidarity and livelihood-making. This ethnographic account calls for a reconceptualisation of citizenship beyond legal frameworks, highlighting how marginalised migrants negotiate belonging in China’s geopolitical peripheries.
Discussant
Yaobin Tong
Shenzhen UniversityYaobin Tong is Assistant Professor in Education Studies at Shenzhen University. He received his PhD from the Institute of Education, UCL.
Chair
Liangliang Zhang
NYU ShanghaiLiangliang Zhang is Assistant Professor of Global China Studies at NYU Shanghai. She received her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 2022, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She also holds an MPhil in Social Anthropology, with a concentration in Medical Anthropology, from Cambridge, and a BA in International Comparative Studies from Duke University. Liangliang’s research explores the intersection of citizenship, well-being, and lived ecology in a globalising China.
About the Webinar Series
The Chinese Citizenship Webinar Series (2026) explores citizenship, belonging, migration, borderlands, and state–society relations in contemporary China through interdisciplinary dialogue.
Institutional Support:
CAPPE, University of Brighton
Global China Studies, NYU ShanghaiJournal Support:
Citizenship Studies
Social Transformations in Chinese SocietiesAll interested colleagues and students are warmly welcome to attend. Please feel free to share this event with anyone who may be interested.
- Registration & Video Recording 登記與錄影
Registration is not required. 無需登記。
The event is not recorded. 活動過程不會錄影。