The world in guangzhou: africans and other foreigners in south china#x92;s global marketplace

The biggest debt that my two research collaborators and I have is to the people who spoke to us. I would very much like to thank by name the hundreds of people who spoke to us, but to do so would violate their privacy, which would be of particular danger since some of what they described was illegal. This book is dedicated to them, with the deepest thanks I can possibly give. For those of you I can still find in Guangzhou when this book comes out, I will give you a copy, but I fear that many of you will be gone by then, headed to different parts of the world. All I can do is thank you anonymously from the bottom of my heart. I hope that this book justifies the trust you have placed in us.I thank Lynne Nakano and Reijiro Aoyama for reading earlier drafts of this book, as well as the two anonymous readers of the University of Chicago Press. All of you provided valuable insights and helped me to correct my stupider mistakes-although no doubt some such mistakes remain. I also thank Heidi Haugen, Tu Hyunh, Karsten Giese, and numerous other scholars as well, for our discussions of African traders in Guangzhou. Yijing Zheng, Daina Chen, and Lynn Sun were enormously helpful in collecting and translating Chinese newspaper articles on Africans in Guangzhou, something they did on a voluntary basis, to their great credit. I thank Samson viii Acknowledgments Wong for his maps and Gene Parulis for the photographs he has generously contributed to this book. And I thank the team at Chicago for their ongoing help and encouragement: T. David Brent, Priya Nelson, Ellen Kladky, and Ryo Yamaguchi. Finally, I thank the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong, for providing me with a Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship 2013/2014 (project no. CUHK403-HSS-13), which enabled me to engage in the research that made this book possible. This row of restaurants serves food from and employs Syrians, Jordanians, Palestinians, Yemenis, and Turks. Sub-Saharan Africans are to be found patronizing these restaurants on occasion-I've never heard of anyone being refused admission or service on the basis of ethnicity-but the ethnic division is quite apparent. When we've spoken to various proprietors of these businesses, some tell us that they don't like Africans much: "They're poor. They can't afford to come here," or, more pointedly, "They're all here illegally. And they're drug dealers!" The Africans, based on the other side of Huanshi Middle Road, say in turn, "I don't like Arabs! They're terrorists!" Much has been written about Chinese racism toward Africans, but Arab-African antipathy, as well as Indian-African antipathy, although not much mentioned in the context of Guangzhou, also definitely exists. Nonetheless, these different communities exist side by side though only rarely interacting-we've not heard of fights breaking out between them. Arabs, Middle Easterners, and Indian traders typically engage in a larger scale of busi-\*Uyghur are Turkic-speaking and Muslim. There are some ten million Uyghurs in China; most live in Xinjiang Province in western China, but thousands now live in Guangzhou. They are different in appearance from Han Chinese in Guangzhou because of their Muslim garb and their Caucasian visage. \*RMB, the Chinese renminbi or yuan, is a currency often referred to in this book. In 2013-2014, there were, on average, 6. Introduction -- What this book is about -- Impressions of Guangzhou -- A brief history of foreigners in Guangzhou -- Foreign places in Guangzhou -- How this book's research was done -- Foreigners in Guangzhou -- The Chinese dream: stories of eight foreigners -- Rich foreigner, poor foreigner -- Race and money -- Foreign communities: Japanese and Nigerians -- The power of rumor -- Foreigners' attitudes toward China and Chinese -- African-Chinese relations -- African traders in Guangzhou: an overview -- Business deception and cheating -- Quarrels between Africans and Chinese -- Chinese views of Africans -- African views of Chinese -- Low-end globalization -- Low-end globalization/high-end globalization -- How low-end globalization works: sourcing, money, copies, and customs -- Accounts of low-end globalization -- Low-end globalization's circuits -- Legal-illegal in Guangzhou -- Paths, legal and illegal -- Visa and passport worries, jail and deportation -- Police -- Accounts of overstayers and friends -- Logistics agents, middlemen, and cultural brokers -- Logistics agents -- Middleman -- Cultural brokers -- Accounts of logistics agents, middlemen, and cultural brokers -- Religion in a foreign world -- I believe in god but Chinese believe in gold -- Islam in comparison to Christianity -- Christian churches -- Accounts of religious seekers -- Religion: implications -- Romance, love, marriage, and families: a Chinese Barack Obama? -- African Chinese -- The travails of Chinese-African romantic relationships -- Children -- Accounts of marriages -- Conclusion: the larger significance of Africans in China. Gordon Mathews with Linessa Dan Lin and Yang Yang. Includes bibliographical references and index. Only decades ago, the population of Guangzhou was almost wholly Chinese. Today, it is a truly global city, a place where people from around the world go to make new lives, find themselves, or further their careers. A large number of these migrants are small-scale traders from Africa who deal in Chinese goods—often knockoffs or copies of high-end branded items—to send back to their home countries. In The World in Guangzhou, Gordon Mathews explores the question of how the city became a center of “low-end globalization” and shows what we can learn from that experience about similar transformations elsewhere in the world.
 
Through detailed ethnographic portraits, Mathews reveals a world of globalization based on informality, reputation, and trust rather than on formal contracts. How, he asks, can such informal relationships emerge between two groups—Chinese and sub-Saharan Africans—that don't share a common language, culture, or religion? And what happens when Africans move beyond their status as temporary residents and begin to put down roots and establish families?
 
Full of unforgettable characters, The World in Guangzhou presents a compelling account of globalization at ground level and offers a look into the future of urban life as transnational connections continue to remake cities around the world.  "Only decades ago, the population of Guangzhou was almost wholly Chinese. Today, it is a truly global city, a place where people from around the world go to make new lives, find themselves, or further their careers. A large number of these migrants are small-scale traders from Africa who deal in Chinese goods--often knockoffs or copies of high-end branded items--to send back to their home countries. In The World in Guangzhou, Gordon Mathews explores the question of how the city became a center of "low-end globalization" and shows what we can learn from that experience about similar transformations elsewhere in the world. Through detailed ethnographic portraits, Mathews reveals a world of globalization based on informality, reputation, and trust rather than on formal contracts. How, he asks, can such informal relationships emerge between two groups--Chinese and sub-Saharan Africans--that don't share a common language, culture, or religion? And what happens when Africans move beyond their status as temporary residents and begin to put down roots and establish families?"--Publisher's description Contents Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Foreigners in Guangzhou 3. African-Chinese Relations 4. Low-End Globalization 5. Legal-Illegal in Guangzhou 6. Logistics Agents, Middlemen, and Cultural Brokers 7. Religion in a Foreign World 8. Romance, Love, Marriage, and Families: A Chinese Barack Obama? Notes References Index