Africans in China: A Sociocultural Study and Its Implications on ...

preceded by the earliest-known book-length work on the subject, The African Presence in Early Asia (Rashidi and van Sertima, 1995).

Other than these studies, there has not been any book-length work that has undertaken a sustained description and analysis of the 21st-century African rush into China following China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001. It is now almost a quarter of a century ago since Rashidi and van Sertima’s startling book was published in 1995. One of the chapters in that book, James Brunson’s “The African Presence in Early China,” details possible African contributions to the Chinese race, history, and early civilization (Bodomo, 2009c). Little did Runoko Rashidi and the other authors in that volume’s collection of articles know that 15 years later, there would be empirically incontrovertible cases of real and concurrent African migrations to contemporary China and Chinese migrations to contemporary Africa.

As indicated earlier, this book seeks to delineate this African presence in China. Based on my estimations, there are around 2 million Chinese living in Africa, but there are only about 500,000 Africans in China, with some 100,000 in Guangzhou alone and the rest distributed in cities such as Hong Kong, Macau, Yiwu, Shanghai, Beijing, as well as some southern coastal cities and other middle and northern Chinese cities.

1.4. Geographical Coverage of Africans in China

This section provides a broad overview of cosmopolitan centers such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, all of which host a substantial number of Africans. I will explain briefly what categories of Africans are in China, why they come to China, and how they are received in China.

There are many distinct groups of Africans in China. There are diplomats and other official representatives from Africa as well as African students who are studying in both short-term and long-term programs. In addition, there are professionals from continental Africa and from the other African Diasporas. And finally, there are African traders who reside in China both for brief periods and on a permanent basis.