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

findings helped to provide greater insight into the numbers gathered in the quantitative stage.

I had to change my research methods and tactics for Shanghai to adapt the data gathering methods for communities formed through computer-mediated communication (Bodomo, 2009c). These methods included observing blogs, posting messages to blogs and asking blog members to respond, and engaging in participant observation of these blogs by serving as a member of these online communities for a while.

This was clearly an elaborate methodology that comprised both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis. This study is the first to combine both methods in the study of the new African Diaspora, allowing for a much deeper examination of the African presence in China.

Each subsequent chapter will provide an in-depth description of the African presence in each of the six main centers in China. Following a description of the city, I elaborate on the ethnic and national compositions of the African communities and their sociolinguistic profiles, including important issues of language contact and communication. This is followed by a discussion on which Africans are residing there, why they are there, how they live their lives, how they practice their culture, how they influence their Chinese hosts and how they are in turn influenced, and how they contribute to the economies of their home countries and China. Finally, I present an outline of the relations between these Diasporan or migrant communities and the state in chapters 2 through 7.

In the last three chapters (chapters 8, 9, and 10), I connect and compare this African presence in China with the African presence in other places, such as eastern Asia and the West (chapter 8). I provide a summary of the main similarities and differences between the six main areas I studied in China before assessing the implications of the African presence in China for general Africa-China relations (chapter 9). Finally, in the conclusion, I address the future of Africa-China relations after a brief recap of the research.