ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the varying forms of labor second wives have performed for their male partners and class-distinctive meanings extramarital intimacy have taken on for cross-border Hong Kong and Taiwanese men. Attracted by favorable economic policies, lured by the availability of a large quantity of cheap labor and facilitated by the cultural and linguistic alliance, hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong and Taiwanese investors, managers and professionals have ventured to China since the 1980s to build factories and expand business. Lucy, a Guangzhou native, has been with a married Hong Kong architect for three years. The chapter examines the ways in which socio-cultural forces of globalization have generated stratified windows of opportunities and constraints for individuals in diverse social positions to experience intimacy and illuminate how individuals capitalize cross-border intimacy in an attempt to achieve dignity, distinction, belonging and social mobility.
