MATHEWS, Gordon, Linessa Dan LIN, et Yang YANG. 2017. The World in Guangzhou. Africans and Other Foreigners in South China’s Global Marketplace. Chicago : Chicago University Press.

Ce livre propose une analyse ethnographique détaillée du rôle, de la place et du fonctionnement des entrepreneurs étrangers engagés dans des activités commerciales à Canton, l’un des principaux centres d’achats de produits manufacturés dans le monde. Pour analyser la manière dont sont effectuées l’acquisition et la distribution de diverses quantités de biens (le plus souvent des copies ou des imitations) vers les pays dits en voie de développement, les auteurs mobilisent la notion de « mondia..

(Un)writing “Chinese Space” in Urban Africa

As different forms of Global China have emerged and expanded throughout the African continent, this phenomenon has also materialised spatially. Particularly visible in urban environments, Chinese investments, entrepreneurship, and a multifaceted presence have contributed to shaping the morphology of the urban fabric at different scales, whether by altering the existent built environment or by adding new features. The production and manifestation of these different types of spaces, transient o..

Shifting urbanity and global China in conversation:: Views from Johannesburg and Lusaka

In major cities, the perpetual quest for money and profit tends to translate not only in an accelerated circulation of commodities, a sustained individual hustle, but also in a continuous production and alteration of the built environment. In Johannesburg and in Lusaka, similar observations can be made when focusing on the spatial materialisation of a multifaceted and layered Chinese presence. Largely driven by an economic impetus, these different forms of global China have left a more or less tangible imprint on the urban fabric, with direct connections to specific sectors and phenomena in each of these two cities. Through a combination of photographs and text, this chapter offers a multi-sited and flexible reading of some of these Chinese features, both in relation to places and lived experiences. In parallel, it reflects on the spatial and social ‘thickness’, derived from Clifford Geertz’s (1973) interpretation, in these two urban environments. The essay draws on a larger and collaborative research project centred around the reciprocity and dynamic tension between forms of Chinese involvement and urban shifts in Johannesburg and in Lusaka. With Chinese spaces in urban Africa often framed as exotic, different, and operating in parallel to the host society, the project’s underlying aim has been to disrupt and (re)imagine how this interplay is currently conceived, studied, and conceptualised. As such, it explores the differentiated ways in which these spaces have come into existence, how they are shaped by contextual realities, and are largely entangled in complex city-making processes

Of Spatial and Temporal Entanglements – Narrating a (Chinese) Street in Suburban Johannesburg

Map. Emerging Building Typologies along Derrick Avenue in Cyrildene. Credit: Gerald Chungu Halfway along Derrick Avenue, a lively high street within the eastern suburb of Cyrildene in Johannesburg, one suddenly comes across a large plot of vacant land. It stands out through the absence of any activity and the discontinuity it creates within the otherwise continuous built environment. Some remnants of outer walls, a house number, and a letterbox point to the previous existence of dwellings, m..

A ‘Chinese’ Street (Un)Scripted and (Re)Imagined: Material Shifts, City-Making and Altered Ways of Living in Suburban Johannesburg

Derrick Avenue in Cyrildene, is a striking example of clichéd Chinese (street life) atmosphere in Johannesburg. Owing to its visible markers and demographics, this activity node sparks visions of a spatialised elsewhere. Standing in sharp contrast to a surrounding quiet and mostly residential neighbourhood, Derrick Avenue has been viewed as exceptional, different and closed, resulting in a spatial and cognitive divorce from the rest of the area. These representations, largely associated with Chinese spaces, not only shape the ways in which such spaces are commonly examined, understood and conceptualised, but also contribute to side-lining the existence of transversal urban processes and realities. This article moves away from entering Derrick Avenue through the lens of ethnicity and othering, in an effort to read this street as a holistic object of research. Through (un)writing this space, we unpack its complexities as well as explore the coexistent tension between specific characteristics of a lived and constructed differentiation and geographies of the ‘familiar’. Once decoupled from predetermined analytical categories and conceptual frameworks, the articulation between ‘migrant space’ and ‘host city’ is not merely confined to a study of relational ties (whether parallel, contentious or complementary), but becomes one of entanglement in terms of city-making processes and broader societal dynamics

Call for Papers - " Reporting China in Africa’

ECQUID NOVI: AFRICAN JOURNALISM STUDIES 34(3) The increased involvement of China in Africa has been one of the most controversial recent geopolitical developments on the continent.  Although Chinese involvement in Africa can be traced back for centuries, the development of China-Africa relations in the 21st century gained impetus when China started looking for new sources of energy and natural resources to support its rapid economic development. This intensified political-economic relationshi..

Living In Between: The Chinese in South Africa

Un article de Yoon Jung Park, publié en janvier 2012 sur Migration Information Source. Cette étude revient sur les différentes vagues migratoires chinoises vers l'Afrique du Sud et la nature de leurs interactions avec le milieu d'accueil. "South Africa is home to various communities of Chinese people who arrived at different times and from different parts of China and Taiwan. But the differences among them do not stop there: they speak different languages, practice different religions, and ha..