Category: View From China
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 ...
Chinese Reactions to Zambia’s Debt Deal
Zambia’s debt restructuring, in which China played a key role, is raising concern among ordinary Chinese, judging by WeChat conversations. Recent grassroots discussions on WeChat communities of Chinese in Africa quoted unnamed sources worrying that the deal could “set a costly precedent elsewhere,” which ...
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 ...
Chinese Netizens Aren’t Keen to Bail Out Sri Lanka
While international calls grow louder for China to restructure Sri Lanka's debt obligations, a very different conversation is going on in Chinese media and online communities. Antara Ghosal Singh, an expert on Chinese domestic development and a fellow at the New ...
The Chinese Internet Turned on Lu Ke, the Culprit in the BBC’s “Racism for Sale” Documentary
For years, the Chinese internet reflexively defended all compatriots against any charges of anti-Black discrimination or racism. "China and Chinese people DO NOT DISCRIMINATE. Period." was the line that came back against any accusation by foreigners of Chinese maltreatment of Black people in places like Guangzhou in 2020 or in ...
No Surprise, Chinese State Media Didn’t Think Much of PGII, But They Actually Raised a Few Interesting Points
The Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times was among the first to launch broadsides against the G7's latest effort to challenge the Belt and Road. Predictably, the paper interviewed several scholars who all discredited the new program, but rather than simply dismiss it, as they often do, they ...