Chinese in Africa
‘Chineseness’ and the Complexities of Identities
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Book Description
Chinese in Africa explores the complexities of identities and forms in which the Chinese Migrants in Africa express their ‘Chineseness’.
In its study of the Chinese diaspora in Africa, the book eschews tendencies to compound the Chinese by showing their distinctiveness in terms of history, culture, identity, and adaptation mechanisms. It pushes beyond the boundaries of ethnic and cultural homogenisation based on a perceived ‘Chinese’ physiognomy. The diversity and hybridity of the Chinese identity and expressions of Chineseness explored in this book’s seven chapters is essential to making sense of the historical and contemporary people to people engagements in Africa-China relations. The book brings together scholars from international relations, political science, sociology and area studies and draws from their field research and expertise in China and several African countries.
A multidisciplinary volume, Chinese in Africa will be invaluable to scholars, students and policymakers interested in identities, and expressions of those identities. The chapters originally published as a special issue of Asian Ethnicity.
Table of Contents
1. Chinese in Africa: ‘Chineseness’ and the complexities of identities
Obert Hodzi
2. Nationalism, overseas Chinese state and the construction of ‘Chineseness’ among Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Ghana
Jinpu Wang and Ning Zhan
3. Understanding Chinese immigrants in Africa from the perspective of national identity
Zhihang Wang
4. Chinese and ‘self-segregation’ in Africa
Yan Hairong, Barry Sautman, Lu Yao
5. Gauging the dispositions between indigenes, Chinese and other immigrant traders in Ghana: towards a more inclusive society
Kwaku Opoku Dankwah and Padmore Adusei Amoah
6. Chinese migrants and the politics of everyday life in Zimbabwe
Simbarashe Gukurume
7. Rational or irrational? Understanding the uptake of ‘made-in-China’ products
Mark Kwaku Mensah Obeng
Editor(s)
Biography
Obert Hodzi is a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Liverpool, UK. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland.