Exceptional States examines new configurations of marriage, immigration, and sovereignty emerging in an increasingly mobile Asia where Cold War legacies continue to shape contemporary political struggles over sovereignty and citizenship. Focused on marital immigration from China to Taiwan, the book documents the struggles of these women and men as they seek acceptance and recognition in their new home. Through tracing parallels between the predicaments of Chinese marital immigrants and the uncertain future of the Taiwan nation-state, the book shows how intimate attachments and emotional investments infuse the governmental practices of Taiwanese bureaucrats charged with regulating immigration and producing citizenship and sovereignty. Its attention to a group of immigrants whose exceptional status has become necessary to Taiwan’s national integrity exposes the social, political, and subjective consequences of life on the margins of citizenship and sovereignty. "This is an innovative, exquisitely researched, and beautifully crafted ethnography of the bureaucratic, legal, and everyday experiences of mainland Chinese marriage migrants. Friedman has advanced the study of marriage migration and demonstrated its vast political significance. After reading this book, no one can ever think that marriage is just a private, domestic matter."&;Nicole Constable, author of  Born Out of Place: Migrant Mothers and the Politics of International Labor "Exceptional States  offers a fresh approach to marriage migration, citizenship, and sovereignty in East Asia. Sara Friedman's study is a fascinating ethnography for students and scholars interested in transnationalism, marriage and family, gender, and political science."&;Jennifer Cole, author of  Sex and Salvation: Imagining the Future in Madagascar "This is an innovative, exquisitely researched, and beautifully crafted ethnography of the bureaucratic, legal, and everyday experiences of mainland Chinese marriage migrants. Friedman has advanced the study of marriage migration and demonstrated its vast political significance. After reading this book, no one can ever think that marriage is just a private, domestic matter."—Nicole Constable, author of  Born Out of Place: Migrant Mothers and the Politics of International Labor "Exceptional States  offers a fresh approach to marriage migration, citizenship, and sovereignty in East Asia. Sara Friedman's study is a fascinating ethnography for students and scholars interested in transnationalism, marriage and family, gender, and political science."—Jennifer Cole, author of  Sex and Salvation: Imagining the Future in Madagascar Sara L. Friedman is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies at Indiana University. She is the coeditor of Wives, Husbands, and Lovers: Marriage and Sexuality in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Urban China and the author of Intimate Politics: Marriage, the Market, and State Power in Southeastern China . Exceptional States Chinese Immigrants and Taiwanese Sovereignty By Sara L. Friedman UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Copyright © 2015 The Regents of the University of California All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-520-28623-8 Contents List of Illustrations, ix, Preface, xi, Acknowledgments, xvii, Note on Romanization and Naming, xxiii, Introduction: Sovereignty Effects, 1, PART ONE BORDER CROSSINGS, 1 • Documenting Sovereignty, 27, 2 • Real or Sham? Evaluating Marital Authenticity, 51, PART TWO IMMIGRATION REGIMES, 3 • Exceptional Legal Subjects, 81, 4 • Risky Encounters, 112, PART THREE BELONGING, 5 • Gender Talk, 143, 6 • Home and Belonging, 170, Epilogue, 193, Notes, 197, References, 219, Index, 231, CHAPTER 1 Documenting Sovereignty June 25, 2009 Mr. Zhu and I sat in his cramped office in the multistory building that housed the headquarters of the National Immigration Agency (NIA), located in an older section of Taiwan's capital, Taipei. Mr. Zhu was a seasoned middle-aged bureaucrat who appeared to have made an effortless transition from police official to immigration officer, his slight paunch and fleshy jowls a sign of his current desk job heading the NIA section responsible for issuing temporary visas. Feeling frustrated by Mr. Zhu's unenthusiastic responses to my questions about how the NIA managed the growing numbers of Taiwanese and Chinese moving across the Taiwan Strait, I asked him to describe his own experiences of crossing the border into China. Mr. Zhu hesitated, a bit unsettled by my sudden change of topic, then leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingertips together in a contemplative pose, a cynical smile spreading across his broad face. When passing through immigration, he explained, PRC border officers stamp the Taiwan compatriot pass issued to him by the Chinese government. They might look at his ROC passport to confirm his identity (and he always brings it with him, he emphasized), but they would never stamp it. Similarly, he