A pioneering examination of history, current affairs, and daily
life along the Russia-China border, one of the world's least
understood and most politically charged frontiers. The border
between Russia and China winds for 2,600 miles through rivers,
swamps, and vast taiga forests. It's a thin line of direct
engagement, extraordinary contrasts, frequent tension, and
occasional war between two of the world's political giants. Franck
Bille and Caroline Humphrey have spent years traveling through and
studying this important yet forgotten region. Drawing on pioneering
fieldwork, they introduce readers to the lifeways, politics, and
history of one of the world's most consequential and enigmatic
borderlands. It is telling that, along a border consisting mainly
of rivers, there is not a single operating passenger bridge. Two
different worlds have emerged. On the Russian side, in territory
seized from China in the nineteenth century, defense is prioritized
over the economy, leaving dilapidated villages slumbering amid the
forests. For its part, the Chinese side is heavily settled and
increasingly prosperous and dynamic. Moscow worries about the
imbalance, and both governments discourage citizens from
interacting. But as Bille and Humphrey show, cross-border
connection is a fact of life, whatever distant authorities say.
There are marriages, friendships, and sexual encounters. There are
joint businesses and underground deals, including no shortage of
smuggling. Meanwhile some indigenous peoples, persecuted on both
sides, seek to "revive" their own alternative social groupings that
span the border. And Chinese towns make much of their proximity to
"Europe," building giant Russian dolls and replicas of St. Basil's
Cathedral to woo tourists. Surprising and rigorously researched, On
the Edge testifies to the rich diversity of an extraordinary world
haunted by history and divided by remote political decisions but
connected by the ordinary imperatives of daily life.
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