Curriculum Vitae

Academic education

2012 & 2013
Ph.D. in Social Anthropology (Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, in cotutelle with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

2001
Master in Ethnology – Orientalist Certificate (Paris X-Nanterre)

1997
Bachelor in Ethnology (Paris X-Nanterre)

1997
Master in Chinese Language and Civilization (INALCO, Paris)

1995
Bachelor in Chinese Language and Civilization (INALCO, Paris)

Academic affiliation

since 2013
Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Research group: Traders, Markets, and the State in Vietnam, since 2013.• Associate researcher at the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC).

2012
Associate researcher at Lyons Institute of East Asian Studies.

2012
Associate member of the research group ASIES (Atelier transversal d’anthropologie CAM) at Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO, Paris).

Field research experience

2012- Fieldwork on the Sino-Vietnamese border (Hekou, Mong Cai) among Chinese entrepreneurs engaged in cross-border trade

2006-2010
Fieldwork on the Sino-Vietnamese border (Hekou, Lao Cai, Dongxing, Mong Cai and some closeby villages) among mixed-couples and local traders

1998-2004
Fieldwork in Chengdu (Sichuan, China) and Beijing in the underground music communities

1998-1999
Fieldwork in a Miao Village (Xijiang, Guizhou, China) on the Guzangjie ritual and the local identity discourse

Professional experience

The Netherlands: 2011
Consultant at the Royal Tropical Institute (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), coding data for the project “Health Systems Strengthening from priority programme perspective”

China & Vietnam: 2006-2009
Research fellow at IRASEC (Institute of Research on Contemporary South-East Asia, Bangkok), conducting fieldwork and writing a book about cross-border marriages between Vietnamese women and Chinese men and their links with human trafficking

Cambodia: 2005
Consultant for Action for the Children (APLE), writing of a synthetic report on street paedophilia in Phnom Penh, based on investigations data collected by the organization.

Archivist at the Observatory on Trafficking in South-East Asia (former Research Unit of AFESIP International), building of a reference library on trafficking, sexuality, prostitution and diverse social issues in South-East Asia, Phnom Penh.

China:
2003-2004:
Project Assistant in Social and Human Sciences sector at UNESCO (Pekin Office), implementing programmes related to Human Rights, North Korean refugees, Chinese internal migrants’ children education, dialogue among Youth in East-Asia and philosophy.

2000-2004:
Interpreter-translator in various fields of art in China: music scene, film and documentary, pictorial and performance art, literature (Bleu de Chine, France)

Conference presentations

2014
“‘Trust facilitates business, but it may also ruin it.’ Trust or the hazardous link of Sino-Vietnamese  border trade”, 4th Conference of the Asian Borderlands Research Network, Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, December.

2014
“Smuggling or not smuggling? Balancing powers between Chinese traders and Vietnamese law-enforcement agents”, Asian Spacialities: Across Southeast Asian Borderlands. Communities in Between: Redefining Social Spaces in Southeast Asian Borderlands, Lyon, IIAS-Mellon Foundation Forum & Institut d’Asie Orientale, November.

2014
“Navigating across Beilun River. Chinese adjustments to border trade shipment practices in Vietnam”, Traders in Motion: Networks, identities, contestations in the Vietnamese marketplace, Halle, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, September.

2014
“The challenging integration of Sino-Vietnamese marriages in Mainland China”, Governing Marriage Migration : Perspectives from Mainland China and Taiwan, Taichung, Tunghai University (co-hosted by the University of Manchester), January 3-4th.

2013
“—Do you love him? —Well, he’s good to me… Le voisin chinois ou l’incarnation d’un idéal perdu”, Atelier Cour, Amour, Mariage en Asie et à Madagascar, Paris, INALCO (Équipe ASIEs/INALCO, CNRS), December 16-17th.

2013
“Public good versus Chaos. A little exploration of the significance of ‘chaos’ in contemporary China”, Disorder, Action and the ‘Public Good’ in China, Lausanne, Université de Lausanne, Laboratoire d’anthropologie culturelle et sociale, December 6-7th.

2013
“Cross-border marriages : a remedy to borderland economy’s uncertainties ?”, Risks, Ruptures, and Uncertainties : Dealing with Crisis in Asia’a Emerging Economies, Vienne, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Social Anthropology, December 4-6th.

2013
“Misunderstanding or hindrance? The uneven path to sustainable exchanges. A research project”, Conference, The transformation of public markets in contemporary Vietnam: Anthropological perspectives, Hanoi, VASS, May 12th.

2013
“Laogong, Laopo: les mots des Uns sur les Autres (portraits de Vietnamiennes et Chinois en couples)”, University of Strasbourg, Department of Ethnology, Research Seminar, February 14th.

2012
“Lives in limbo: the unsuccessful marriages in the Sino-Vietnamese borderlands”, Dynamics of Marriage/Divorce-related Migration in Asia, Tokyo, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, December 15th.

2012
“Immigration and the risks of nonexistence. An overview of the Vietnamese wives’ case in Southern China”, ESF Exploratory Workshop: Immigrant China, Angers, European Science Foundation, October 4th-6th.

2012
“Marginalités sociales en Chine: les fiancées vietnamiennes du Yunnan-Guangxi”, Lyon, Research Seminar at the Institut d’Asie Orientale (ENS Lyon), September 20th.

2011
“The implication of crossing boundaries for Sino-Vietnamese couples”, Dynamiques aux frontières de la Chine, XVIIIe-XXIe siècle, Paris, Centre d’études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine (UMR 8173, EHESS/CNRS) & Centre d’études chinoises (Équipe ASIEs/INALCO) EHESS, October 24-25th.

2011
“Ces pays qui manquent d’épouses”, 7 Milliards de voisins, Paris, Radio France Internationale, interview conducted by Emmanuelle Bastide, June 14th.

2011
“Les fiancées vietnamiennes en Chine”, Enjeux démographiques en Asie (Isabelle Attane & Christophe Guilmoto), Paris, EHESS, Master Seminar, June 6th.

2011
“Cross-border marriages between Vietnamese and Chinese men”, VU Amsterdam, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Research Seminar, April 1st.

2010
“Private commitments: Marriage Alliances in the Establishment of Business Networks at the Sino-Vietnamese Border (Hekou, Yunnan)”, Transnational Dynamics and Territorial Redefinitions in Southeast Asia: the Greater Mekong Subregion and Malacca Strait Economic Corridors (with comparative opening towards the Central American Isthmus), Vientiane, NERI-CASE, ANR Transiter Southeast Asia Regional Workshop, December 14-17th.

2010
“The ‘choice by default’ and what crossing boundaries implies for Sino-Vietnamese couples: A case study from Hekou, a Chinese mainland border area, Transacting Intimacy: Political Economy of International Marriages in Asia, Singapore, National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute, October 14-15th.

2010
“The ‘methodology by default’: How to apprehend realities while stuck between ethnographer/informants’ illegality, invisibility, and suspicion”, Studying ‘spaces of non-existence’: Methodological concerns, Perth (Australia), Murdoch University, Asia Research Centre, ANRC Workshop, March 21-24th.

2009
In collaboration with Zhang Juan, “The Undercurrents of Popular Discourses on Vietnamese Prostitutes. The case of Hekou, a Chinese Border Town”, The 2009 Annual Meeting of the Australian Anthropological Society, The Ethics & Politics of Engagement, Sydney (Australia), Macquarie University, Department of Anthropology, December 9-11th.

2009
“Cross-border Alliances between Vietnamese Women and Chinese Men (Yunnan-Guangxi): the Impact of Popular Representations on Conjugality Roles”, The 16th World Congress of The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Humanity, Development and Cultural Diversity, Kunming (China), Yunnan University, July 27-31st.

2008
“Cross-border Marriages between Vietnamese Women and Chinese Men (Yunnan-Guangxi): The Integration of Otherness and the Impact of Popular Representation”, 2008 Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific Conference, The Asia Pacific and the Emerging World System, Beppu (Japan), Asia Pacific University, Ritsumeikan Center for Asia Pacific Studies, December 13-14th.

Languages

• French: native language
• Chinese: fluent in mandarin (familiar with southwest dialects)
• English: fluent
• Spanish: read
• Japanese: basic
• Vietnamese: basic