| Chapter 1: | Introducing Africans in China |
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Macau, a former Portuguese colony at the mouth of the Pearl River, also has a sizeable African population of about 1,000. These Africans are mostly from former Portuguese colonies, such as Angola and Mozambique (Bodomo & Silva, 2012).
Northern Chinese cities host Africans from a variety of backgrounds. In Beijing, the capital of China, there is a considerable number of Africans who are the official representatives of their countries in embassies and other international organizations. A large number of African students also live in the capital.
In Shanghai, the most cosmopolitan city in China, all the aforementioned groups of Africans can be found. However, Shanghai does not have an established African community in a specific physical location in the city yet. Instead, there are African cybercommunities, and as indicated in the chapter on Shanghai, I had to change my research methods to suit the requirements of researching a cybercommunity.
What categories of Africans are represented in this geographical spread, and approximately how many of them are there? It is difficult to identify the exact numbers of Africans who are living in China. Not even the Chinese authorities in the various cities I surveyed keep very reliable records of the numbers of Africans in a given area, let alone categorizing them by various professions, trades, and so on. Thus, the figures I report here are based partly on extrapolations with some educated deductions. The following describes the various groups of Africans who are in China and their approximate numbers.
- 1. Traders (a term that includes all people seeking their fortune in China, though they may not have any substantial capital to engage in profitable trade): 300,000 to 400,000
- 2. Students and professionals
a. Students on Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) funds as well as other sources of funding, including their own family funds: 30,000 to 40,000