Book Review. “Frontier Encounters. Knowledge and Practice at the Russian, Chinese and Mongolian Border” (Ed. Frank Billé, Grégory Delaplace, and Caroline Humphrey). Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK, 2012, 280 p in English

Anatole A. Klyosov

Advances in Anthropology, Editor-in-Chief.

DOI: 10.4236/aa.2014.43014                

Abstract

China and Russia are raising economic and political powers that share thousands of miles of border. Despite their proximity, their local interactions with each other—and with their third neighbour Mongolia—are rarely discussed. Although the three countries share a boundary, their traditions, languages and worldviews are remarkably different.

Frontier Encounters presents a wide range of views on how the borders between these unique countries are enacted, produced, and crossed. It sheds light on global uncertainties: China’s search for energy resources and the employment of its huge population, Russia’s fear of Chinese migration, and the precarious economic independence of Mongolia as its neighbours negotiate to extract its plentiful resources.

Bringing together anthropologists, sociologists and economists, this timely collection of essays offers new perspectives on an area that is currently of enormous economic, strategic and geo-political relevance.

Keywords

Social Anthropology, Ethnicity, International Borders, North Asia, Mongolia, China, Russia BIC Subject Codes: JHMC (Social and Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography); RGCP (Political Geography); ISBN Paperback: 978-1906924-87-4; ISBN Hardback: 978-1906924-88-1; ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1906924-89-8; ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1906924-90-4; ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1906924-91-1; DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0026

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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