Today is a public holiday in South Africa – Human Rights Day. There’s a certain irony in spending the day focusing on China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vladimir Putin, knee-deep in a human rights disaster.
What one makes of the Ukraine crisis increasingly maps on where one lives. This is made clear by a remarkable new set of polling data recently published by the European Council on Foreign Relations ...
Category: Culture
Ghanaian Students Returning from China Face Unique Challenges…and Opportunities
More African foreign students are studying in China than anywhere else in the world. But do these qualifications get them jobs back home? A new webinar series by the Afro-Sino Centre of International Relations (ASCIR) featuring the China-Trained African Professionals (CTAP) ...
Ugandan Food Vlogger in Rural China Becomes Unlikely Social Media Star
30-year Ugandan immigrant Rose is now a full-fledged social media star on China's TikTok equivalent Douyin. Now, with more than a million followers and almost 200 million likes, Rose (who doesn't reveal her last name) has become one of China's most popular food vloggers. ...
Chinese Tourist Flight Given Hero’s Welcome in Cambodia
In a sign of how eager Southeast Asian countries are to welcome back Chinese visitors, the first flight from China since outbound travel resumed was given a ceremonial welcome when it landed on Tuesday in the Cambodian capital Phenom Penh. Cambodia ...
No Blackface in This Year’s Spring Gala TV Show, Actual Africans Performed Instead
The producers of this year's Spring Gala television variety show in China appear to have learned from recent scandals around Chinese actors in blackface appearing in the hugely popular annual Lunar New Year program. Instead, Tanzanian singer Coronia Kila performed on ...
Q&A: Why is Benin on Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s African Tour Itinerary?
The newly appointed head of Chinese diplomacy, Qin Gang, has begun his first African tour which will take him to five countries. A visit that is part of the long tradition of Chinese diplomacy to reserve the first overseas tour to the African continent. ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Xi Bets on Global South in Moscow
Chinese Arrivals Feted at Bangkok Airport
In a striking demonstration of how central Chinese tourism is to Southeast Asian economies, travelers arriving from a reopening China were literally applauded as they disembarked in Bangkok this week.
Mixed Reactions in Asia, Africa About the Return of Chinese Tourists
For the first time in three years, as of Sunday, Chinese nationals are now permitted to travel abroad, prompting a wave of nervous excitement among tourism operators in Asia and elsewhere about the long-awaited return of cash-flush Chinese travelers. Outbound travel ...
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 ...