| Chapter 2: | Africans in Guangzhou |
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their linguistic and cultural backgrounds, their contributions to the Chinese nation, and the challenges faced by the current community members.
In this chapter, I propose some answers to these questions by focusing on the emergence of an African trading community in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province and the most cosmopolitan city in southern China. Based on a rather detailed questionnaire survey as well as in-depth interviews and community interactions, I construct a profile of this community, which reveals the significant contributions of these Africans. I propose that one of the best ways to promote Africa-China relations is by recognizing these important contributions by Africans in China as well as promoting the welfare of Africans in China and having them help form an important bridge in cultivating Africa-China socioeconomic integration.
2.2. Literature Review, Theoretical Construct, and Background Of Research Location
Literature Review
Though the Tianxiu 
building and the general Xiaobeilu 
area have been the subjects of reports in dailies, weeklies, and other periodic newspapers and magazines in Chinese, Hong Kong, and European polities, only a few academic studies have been dedicated to this emerging African community (e.g., Bodomo, 2007a, 2007b, 2010a; Bertoncello & Bredeloup, 2007; Li, Ma, and Xue, 2009, Le Bail 2009). One common theme cutting across most of these earlier studies on modern African communities in China is an emphasis on the novelty of the situation. Most of these studies use the word emergence to describe the increasing presence of Africans in China, implying that that the phenomenon of Africans migrating into and forming communities in the country is a novel one when Africans have actually been present in China for a long time. It was only in the late 1990s when a massive number of Africans from all walks of life began migrating to China to start up businesses that the African presence in China drew attention.