This article examines the perceptions and stories of marriages between ethnic Hakka Chinese women from Singkawang, Indonesia and men in Taiwan. Initially, Indonesians described marriage as an opportunity to achieve a better life, whereas Taiwanese saw a ‘foreign spouse’ as the means to fulfil the duty to carry on the family line. Marriage from Singkawang to Taiwan was a normative practice shaped by cultural, sociopolitical, and economic conditions, leading to a peak in such marriages in the early 21st century. Yet these marriages rapidly declined after 2010, as Indonesia’s economy improved, and more importantly, attitudes changed when returning women told stories of failed marriages and abusive spouses and in-laws in Taiwan. Analysis of stories collected from more than 100 participants in Singkawang shows how participants interpreted ‘good’ and ‘bad’ marriages via an adaptive and malleable folk theory of fate and luck. Hence, parents can narrate themselves as passive, ill-fated participants not responsible when their daughter’s marriage turns out bad. Or a woman can say that it is her fate to ‘try’ marriage and narrate herself as having agency when making decisions that test her luck. Therefore, this study deepens and enriches our understanding of the complexities and enduring impacts of marriage migration as experienced across time in Asia.

本文考察了来自印尼山口洋市的华人客家女性与台湾男性之间有关婚姻的观念和故事。首先，印尼人将婚姻描述为一种实现更好生活的机会，而台湾人则将“外国配偶” 视作一种履行传宗接代职责的手段。从山口洋嫁到台湾是一种规范性的实践，为文化、社会政治以及经济条件所形塑，这种婚姻形式在21世纪初达到了高峰。然而，在2010之后却迅速回落，其原因一方面是印尼经济得以改善，但更重要的是，回国妇女讲述了她们在台湾的失败婚姻，以及遭到配偶及婆家虐待的故事，因而改变了人们对此种婚姻的态度。通过对于在山口洋市收集的逾100名受访者故事的分析，本文揭示了受访者如何通过有关“命运”和“运气”的、具有适应性及可塑性的民间理论来阐释“好婚姻”与“坏婚姻”。由此，当女儿的婚姻出现问题时，父母可以将自己描述为被动的、命途多舛的，并且无需为此负责的参与者。又或者，一个女性可以说“尝试”婚姻是她的命运，并将自己描绘为在做考验运气的决定时是具有自主性的。最后，本研究加深和丰富了对于亚洲地区跨时期的移民婚姻的复杂性及持续影响的理解。