‘The first Taiwanese wives’ and ‘the Chinese mistresses’: the international division of labour in familial and intimate relations across the Taiwan Strait

For the last two decades, Taiwanese businessmen have gone to China to invest and do business there. While in Taiwan, many have become involved in extramarital affairs with local women, creating an international division of labour in both families and intimate relations. Taiwanese wives are categorized as ‘the first wives’, a term that is largely associated with the conventional duties of a housewife as the primary caregiver for the family. Chinese women are categorized as ‘mistresses’, a label that portrays them as intruders into these Taiwanese families and stigmatizes them with the strong sexual and entertainment implications of their relationships with these men. By using an ethnographic and documentary approach to explore the complex relations among Taiwanese businessmen and their wives and mistresses across the Taiwan Strait, this article reveals an often overlooked connection between the global economy and the challenges it imposes on the international division of labour in the family and on transnational feminism.