Working bodies, performed bodies: marriage migrant women's bodily works.

Over the last twenty years and with the age of globalization, migration flows of populations have been increasing throughout the world. Migrants who enter into Taiwan for the purpose of international marriage currently stands at more than 450,000. The highest percentages of them are women, and most come from Mainland China (M.C.) and Southeast Asian countries (S.E.A.), such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand. Many international marriage immigrant wives meet their Taiwanese husbands using commercial matchmaker agencies. In this paper, I will focus on the marketization of international marriage business's involving Taiwanese men and immigrant women from S.E.A. and M.C.. I will discuss the mechanisms and the processes by which commercial matchmaker agencies operate in order to bring both Taiwanese men and the immigrant women together. From some immigrant women's accounts, the commercial matchmaker agencies arranged immigrant women to stay in a 'brides-to-be' camp - where women take training courses to learn how to be Taiwanese wives- until women are chosen by Taiwanese men. I will use literature around body work to frame this paper and discuss how immigrant women may be trained to prepare themselves for marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]