Cross-border trade as a form of livelihood: transformations of business activities in Vietnam's northern borderlands

The article deals with practices of cross-border trade in two Vietnam’s northern provinces of Lao Cai and Quang Ninh. The research is concerned with anthropological study of border areas and based on field materials collected in 2020–2021. The study revealed that since the early 1990s cross-border trade has become an important source of livelihood for the various communities inhabiting the Sino-Vietnamese borderlands. But in the meantime, each of the provinces exhibits its own peculiarities in forms, strategies and participants of this trade.