On the Edge: Life Along the Russia-China Border

Based on their firsthand field research, anthropologists Billé and Humphrey present an enthralling portrayal of the 2,600-mile border between China and Russia as the line dividing two essentially different civilizations. Although the border runs mostly along rivers, the first vehicular bridge between the two countries, across the Amur River, only opened in 2022, after the book was already published—and even then only for freight traffic. A striking illustration of the border being “a break, not a connection” is the story of a divided island at the confluence of the Ussuri and the Amur Rivers. The island is called Heixiazi on the Chinese side and Bolshoi Ussuriiskii in Russia. No roads connect the two sides of the island. Although social interaction remains limited (in particular, romantic relations or intermarriage are not too common), there has been a rise in unofficial transborder contacts among indigenous peoples, such as the Buryats and the Bargas, whose communities span both sides of the boundary. Most important, cross-border economic activity is fairly frenetic. The detailed description of these thoroughly informal and often illicit interactions, including hunting and fishing, logging, gem production, and shuttle trade makes the book a page-turner. Russia and China have significantly expanded their trade and defense ties since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2012 declaration of a “pivot to the East,” but this political rapprochement failed to invigorate social contacts between Russian and Chinese people.