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The thesis aspires to understand the evolution of a post-Socialist capitalism from the vantage point of ethnic Kyrgyz economic actors earning and living in-between Russia, China and their ‘fatherland’. Covering a period from the late Soviet era until today, it follows the ‘commercial journeys’ of traders in Novosibirsk, middlemen in Guangzhou and entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan. The theoretical framework draws on translocality as a concept that takes acts of place-making and multiple situatedness as seriously as it does physical, social or occupational mobilities which transgress state borders and other relevant boundaries. Specifically, the thesis presents ‘translocal livelihoods’ and ‘translocal value chains’ as research perspectives that allow to capture the ways in which my interlocutors’ efforts to upgrade their positions of profitability align or conflict with non-material matters of their everyday lives, such as ethnicity or gender. The empirical evidence for the thesis was gathered during ethnographic fieldwork between 2013 and 2018, mainly in Guangzhou, Novosibirsk and across Kyrgyzstan. Part I of the thesis focuses on Kyrgyz bazaar traders in Novosibirsk. It documents the hardships and hope for ‘great profits’ that merchant ‘pioneers’ encountered during the early post-Soviet transformation of ‘wild capitalism’. As to present-day trading, the thesis details the acquisition and re-sale of China-made goods, the relevance of trust and gender in these operations, and the changes emanating from the recent relocation of Novosibirsk’s open-air bazaar to ‘civilized’ trade centers. Also, this part examines the articulation of ‘Kyrgyzness’ within the local diaspora …