Privileging Personhood Over Politics: Experiences of African Diaspora Communities in China

Abstract

As the African population in cities like Guangzhou and YiWu has grown immensely in recent years, I seek to nuance what it means to be African in China and experience the realities of low-end globalization. In particular, I draw on a longstanding Sino-African history to highlight a transcultural perspective that foregrounds unforeseen connections throughout time, while challenging both Western and official Chinese narratives that neglect or generalize this relationship. To elucidate African experiences in China more clearly, I turn to ethnographic vignettes from these individuals, utilizing sources like "Africans in China" and "The World in Guangzhou." In these ethnographic accounts, I find a sense of agency and ambivalence, arising from both the opportunities and pains of living in China – as I explore at the end of my thesis, everyday racism and the stigma of HIV/AIDS and heightened disease transmission continue to be shouldered by these communities, hindering notions of belonging.