Maternal strategies and embodied practices: The making of transnational identity for mixed-ethnic children of Vietnamese marriage migrant mothers in Taiwan

Abstract

This article examines how Vietnamese marriage migrant mothers in Taiwan cultivate transnational identity for their mixed-ethnic children under stigma and patriarchal control. Based on longitudinal qualitative research with 25 mothers in Southern and Eastern Taiwan, this study analyzes maternal strategies in language, rituals, food, and music. Findings reframe mothers as active cultural agents whose covert everyday resistance, including whispering Vietnamese cooking heritage dishes and singing folk songs, fosters a negotiated, hyphenated transnational identity for mixed-ethnic children. The study extends Scott’s everyday resistance into family life, distinguishes everyday multiculturalism from state-led multicultural policy, and foregrounds embodied dimensions of identity formation.