Exodus and return: State-building, local responses, and identity negotiation in China's Burma borderlands, 1949–66

What the paper says

This article, grounded in archival research from Chinese border prefectures, delves into the complexities of migration dynamics, specifically the phenomena of exodus from and return to China following the Communist takeover in 1949. It reveals how various reforms, enforced collectivisation and religious restrictions disrupted local lives, causing social panic and identity crises, which led to the disintegration of everyday life among borderland communities. Local residents’ responses predominantly involved crossing the border to seek refuge in Burma. The article critically scrutinises local authorities’ efforts to alleviate resultant instability, with the aim of retaining the borderland populace and attracting back those who had left, while also imposing the ideologies of the new communist state. Rather than viewing these ‘illicit’ cross-border movements as mere acts of resistance to governance, this study argues that they involved active negotiations for a stable daily life amid socio-political upheaval. The research contributes new insights into the micro-level mechanisms of state-building, and the integration of borderland peoples into the new Communist regime. Amid mass emigration and repatriation, state engagement permeated daily life in borderland communities, facilitating national identity formation and nation-state construction.