Reflections on the legacy of Jiang Zemin, China’s president from 1993 to 2003, who passed away on Wednesday, emphasized how he presided over a decade of explosive economic growth. Fewer have pointed out that he was also a key architect of China’s current relationship with Africa.
After the Mao era, emblematized by Chinese involvement in African anti-colonial struggles, the relationship went dormant as China focused on building economic ties ...
Category: Culture
Chinese World Cup Broadcast Doesn’t Show Maskless Crowds
When Chinese football fans turned on their TVs to watch World Cup matches from Qatar, there was a sense of disbelief over how tens of thousands of maskless fans were all packed together in stadiums while millions of Chinese compatriots at home are still confined ...
Here We Go Again… More Blackface on Chinese Television
The Hong Kong-based television network TVB is facing criticism following this week's broadcast of its popular drama series Come Home Love: Lo and Behold, which featured actors wearing blackface. The offending scene had a number of young Hong ...
Africa Again is the Backdrop for a Chinese Blockbuster Movie
Home Coming is the latest Chinese blockbuster movie set in Africa that registered big box office returns during its Golden Week opening. The film is set in the fictitious North African country of Numia and tells the story based on the 2011 ...
Sicomines’ Expat Staff in the DRC Mark China’s National Day With a Patriotic Song Competition
230 expatriate staff members from the Congolese joint venture mining giant Sicomines gathered over the weekend in the Congolese mining city of Kolwezi to celebrate the Chinese National Day holiday with a patriotic song competition. 15 contestants, most dressed in their work uniforms, belted out their renditions ...
South African Anti-Foreigner Campaign Targets Chinese
The worrying escalation of xenophobia in South Africa is reportedly now hitting the country's Chinese community. Under the banner of Operation Dudula ('force out' in isiZulu), protesters marched to the China City mall in Johannesburg to protest the presence of foreigners, whom the movement blames for crime ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Jiang Zemin Created the Africa-China Relationship As We Know It Today
At 29 years old I travelled to Africa, After a Year I Decided to Go Back Home
Chinese vloggers in Africa have a mixed track record. On the one hand, some vloggers contribute to dissolving Chinese misconceptions towards Africa/Africans by illuminating what daily life is like in many African countries. On the other hand, some other vloggers exploit Africans through misogynistic beauty contests and ...
The Stereotypes Are Untrue – Africans Are Not Lazy, Greedy, or Deceitful
Mainstream Chinese perceptions of Africa and Africans are largely very rudimentary, even crude in some instances. In fact, many of the caricatures that are now widely seen in Chinese media are reminiscent of the blatant racism that was prevalent in 20th-century Western movies and television shows that ...
My Work Experience in Africa
There’s a lot of international media coverage of Chinese mining operations in Africa, but we rarely read about Chinese mining employees’ experiences in the African countries where they spend years living and working. An interesting article was recently published on the ...
African Exploitation Videos Are Big Business on Chinese Social Media
The recent BBC documentary "Racism for Sale" pointed a powerful spotlight on the popular Chinese "blessing video" business that is both highly exploitative and very profitable. These videos feature Africans and people from other developing regions, often ...
Check This Out… Shaolin Kung Fu in Zambia
The Shaolin Cultural Center in the Zambian capital Lusaka recently held an event to show off the talents of some of their incredible students, both kids and adults, who've become masters of this ancient Chinese martial art. Watch ...