Cambria Press is pleased to announce that Africans in China: A Sociocultural Study and Its Implications on Africa-China Relations by Adams Bodomo is now available.

Below is a transcript of the Q&A session with Professor Bodomo.

 ************************

 1. Why did you decide to write this book?

I decided to write Africans in China because I wanted to tell the story of one the most amazing events that began at the turn of the millennium and is continuing to this day: the migration of Africans into China and the formation of communities there.

In the 1990s China’s economy began to grow very fast, and the government of this vast country of some 1.5 billion people began to look for reliable sources of energy to fuel their country’s fast growing economy. They turned to Africa. This resulted in intensified government-to-government relations between China and the various African countries. This, in turn, led to growing people-to-people relations, an increasing interaction between ordinary Africans and ordinary Chinese, with Chinese migrating to Africa and settling there and with Africans migrating to China and forming communities there.

There are now about two million Chinese in Africa and about half a million Africans in China.  These Africans are distributed all over China, but with large concentrations in southern Chinese cities such as Hong Kong, Macau, Yiwu, and, especially, Guangzhou, which hosts the largest African community.

Africans in China is the first book-length description and analysis of this significant people-to-people contact involving Africans and Chinese within China’s boundaries.

As an African myself, one of the first and till now one of very few African professors at the University of Hong Kong in China, I found myself at the right time, in the right environment, with the right kind of expertise to observe, describe, document, analyze, and explain this important aspect of Africa – China relations at the beginning of the 21st Century.

To understand Africans in China, one needs to understand the sociocultural backgrounds of their African origins and to understand Africans in China one needs to understand the sociopolitical contexts in which they live in China. As someone who grew up in Africa and as someone who has observed the Chinese sociopolitical system for 15 years, I am honored to have had the right knowledge bases to tell this beautiful global story about human migration and the formation of a Diaspora at the very beginning of the 21st Century.

2.  What do you hope your readers take away from your book?

I hope that readers will find information that will help them find answers to important questions like why Africans go to China, how many Africans are there in China, which African countries do they come from, where in China are they found, what do they do there, and how are they received by the Chinese people and the Chinese state?

This is a book that most scholars of African studies, Asian studies, Diaspora studies, Global Studies, and the general public would want to read. This is a story about African agency, about Africans braving all odds to make a living for themselves in foreign lands. Ultimately it is a human story about people travelling to distant lands with the hope of fulfilling a beautiful dream.

3.  What other research do you believe is needed on this topic?

More scholars, including young research students, journalists, and established experts, should follow up on the issues raised in the book. Two major research strands are needed as followup work to this book.

First, the book has mainly described the African presence in major cities and urban centers such as Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Yiwu, Shanghai, and Beijing. However, Africans are increasingly migrating to second-tier cities, towns, and even villages. It would be important to have research conducted on these newer settlements to observe and describe the African communities that are being formed there.

Second, the book has also identified different groups of Africans, including traders, students, sportsmen, artists, and teachers. However, the description in the book has concentrated mainly on traders and, to some extent, on students. More research is needed to further observe these two main groups and the other smaller ones. I hope that my book, Africans in China, will generate a lot of discussion among experts, students, and the general reading public towards a more and more in-depth understanding of the evolving African Diaspora in China.

************************

This book is a vital resource not only for those in African and Asian studies but also for those in ethnic and immigrant studies, international studies, and sociology.

Recommend this book to your librarian today! They can order it directly from Cambria Press or they can order through their preferred academic book wholesaler (Cambria Press is on the approval list of premier wholesalers like YBP).

STAY POSTED! Follow Cambria Press on Twitter, like Cambria Press on Facebook, and share this news from Cambria Press on Google+!