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- Convenors:
-
Mingyuan Zhang
(University of Oslo)
Theodor Tudoroiu (The University of the West Indies)
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- Formats:
- Panels
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 22 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel welcomes papers that use any anthropological approach to explore the local perception of China's multidimensional actorness in the Global South. This concerns projects facilitated by the Belt-Road Initiative and the 'globalization from below' enacted by Chinese entrepreneurial migrants.
Long Abstract:
This panel intends to explore the 'new horizons' of the anthropological analysis of an interesting but at times challenging topic: the local perception of China's multidimensional actorness in the Global South. The spectacular rise of the new global power has been associated with the two faces of today's most important international process, globalization. There is 'globalization from above,' enacted by Chinese corporations that impact the day-to-day life of people in various countries through trade, construction, resource extraction, local manufacturing, or educational projects; and there is 'globalization from below,' which turns Chinese entrepreneurial migrants into important socio-economic actors in African villages and Caribbean islands. Both processes are enhanced by the policies and actions of the government in Beijing, which tries to protect, support and, in a certain measure, coordinate the actions of its firms and nationals abroad. For a number of reasons, the Chinese expansion is more impactful in the Global South than in more developed countries. Accordingly, it is this vast part of the world that provides abundant evidence on the complex interaction between Chinese actors and local individuals and communities. This panel aims to bring together scholars who analyze local perceptions of the Chinese presence based on ethnographic findings. We welcome papers based on any theoretical approach that scrutinize any relevant topic in any geographical region of the Global South. They have, however, to emphasize the local perception dimension in an as original as possible way; and, ideally, to be provocative - and interesting.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 22 July, 2020, -Paper short abstract:
This article examines local communities perceptions on Chinese's oil companies presence and activities in the oil-bearing districts of Diffa and Zinder, Niger Republic.
Paper long abstract:
The aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding of Chinese oil industry image in Sub-Africa through the case of Niger Republic, focusing on local communities perceptions about Chinese's oil companies activities and relationships within and around them. It seeks to understand how collaboration between Chinese industrialists in the oil sector in Niger Republic and their local partners (workers, local entrepreneurs, trader, civil society actors and decentralized government services, etc.) is characteristic in Diffa and Zinder oil-bearing regions. Likewise it seeks to discover if the image of Chinese industrialists is as obscure as some of their local partners say or if this is merely a transposition of speeches coming from elsewhere.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the local perception of Chinese language and culture education offered by the Confucius Institute in Madagascar. It argues that China's educational projects represent the features of discontinuity and disconnectedness entailed in Africa's participation in the global world.
Paper long abstract:
The Confucius Institute (CI) - a worldwide educational project sponsored by the Chinese government aiming to promote Chinese language and culture - has established two regional head offices in Madagascar since 2008. The rapid spread of China's educational projects represents one crucial aspect of China's intensive engagement in Africa since the late 1990s usually considered as a form of "soft power." Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted over 16 months in northern Madagascar, this paper critically examines the local perceptions of the practices of teaching and learning Chinese language and culture. This paper argues that in countries where educational infrastructure is relatively weak, the classrooms of the CI provide much-desired yet unsatisfying opportunities for students to engage with the world hoping to achieve an alternative yet elusive form of "modernity." However, the Chinese instructors lack proper training of local languages, pedagogical methods and cultural awareness to provide effective teaching in Madagascar. Further, the CI represents "Chinese culture" as a timeless and homogenic entity by only emphasizing "traditional" elements such as Kung Fu in cultural events. Chinese educational projects as such benefit the CI itself rather than Malagasy students, and they represent the features of "discontinuity," "disconnectedness" and "exclusiveness" similar to many other China's projects in the Global South. They leave local communities shattered dreams of obtaining the better lives they imagine they might have if only able to learn Chinese and contribute to the fragmenting of understandings of what it means to be Chinese in the wake of Chinese interests in Madagascar.
Paper short abstract:
This is a study of Trinidadians' perception of China's social conditionality-the interdiction for foreign aid recipients to regulate the inflow and economic activities of Chinese entrepreneurial migrants. Accepted by political elites, this conditionality is vocally rejected by the society at large.
Paper long abstract:
This paper argues that, despite the claims of many scholars, China's development assistance is in fact accompanied by various combinations of political, economic, and social conditionalities. Using an International Relations Constructivist approach and the results of fieldwork in Trinidad and Tobago, it explores the local perception of the social conditionality imposed by Beijing on its Caribbean partners. This type of conditionality is defined as the use of incentives and sanctions to prevent the adoption by development assistance recipient states of policies that would regulate the inflow and the activities of entrepreneurial migrants from the donor country despite the negative impact of their economic actions on local businesses and workers. This is a strong form of conditionality that significantly shapes the target state's domestic policies. The case of Trinidad is examined in comparison with similar Caribbean and African examples where the presence of Chinese entrepreneurial migrants has had visibly detrimental socio-economic consequences that have frequently resulted in large-scale frustration, criticism, protests, and even riots, which are discussed extensively in the literature. Findings suggest that, in Trinidad as elsewhere in the Global South, a gap has developed between the political elites and the society at large. The former benefit from the material incentives represented by the Chinese loan-financed and constructed prestige infrastructure projects that significantly increase their political legitimacy and electoral support. The rest of the society, however, has a very negative perception of the Chinese entrepreneurial migrants' actions and strongly rejects Beijing's social conditionality.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines local representations of China and Chineseness in Chile in audiovisual material between 2000-2019. Using an ontological approach, we show how stereotypes of the Chinese as eternal foreigners persist alongside radical efforts to imagine a post-racial Chile and "remix" culture.
Paper long abstract:
China has for a long time been a prominent "Other" in the Occidental imaginary, as is evident in representations of the Chinese and Chineseness in literature, film, and television. Within the context of the increasing multidimensional participation and involvement of China in the global South generally and in Latin America in particular, this paper seeks to explore the shifting local representations of China and Chineseness in Chile in the 21st century. Specifically, we examine audiovisual portrayals of Chinese persons, China, and Chineseness between 2000 to 2019, including television documentaries, soap operas, cinema, theatre plays, music videos, and advertisements. Our analysis draws on an ontological approach to Chineseness, critical race studies, and debates on multiculturalism, and is additionally informed by ethnographic research on Chinese migrants and inter-ethnic relations in Santiago. We show that stereotypical, essentialist portrayals of the Chinese as incomprehensible and unassimilable foreigners endure in remarkably consistent ways throughout the 20th and 21st century. Despite more efforts since 2010 to include Chinese persons as part of a modern and multicultural Chile, such depictions still reproduce the fundamental incommensurability of "Chinese" and "Chilean" cultures, by rendering such bi-cultural persons "less" Chinese. Nevertheless, a few radical efforts seek to imagine a post-multicultural, post-racial Chile in some productions that "remix" culture. We thus engage in timely questions about how the changing global position of China not only shapes the experiences of overseas Chinese persons and/or perceptions towards China, but also challenges ethno-national identities in the global South.
Paper short abstract:
China's engagement in Africa seems more relevant than ever. In this presentation, the focus will be put on the role of China's diverse Media agendas as examples of Soft Power initiatives in Africa by providing recent case studies from a globalizing Chinese mediasphere.
Paper long abstract:
Since the re-election of Xi Jinping as General Secretary of the CCP for life and President of the People's Republic of China in 2017, China's engagement in Africa seems more relevant than ever. China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) or silk road initiative is often referred to as a Eurasian infrastructure network initiative, but this is in fact a rather myopic perception, as it is much more than that. The maritime silk road is planned to go past the coast of East Africa, where several ports are already being built and more will be built in the future. Ports are not only planned and under construction on the maritime silk road's direct way along Africa's east coast but also on coasts of Central and West Africa. The global and geopolitical consequences of China's engagement in Africa is, therefore, being discussed by Chinese and Non-Chinese scholars alike since quite some time and there exists already heated debate on the economic-financial and social-political impact of China's rise and greater global role in the future. In this presentation, the focus will be put on the role of China's diverse Media agendas as examples of Soft Power initiatives in Africa by providing recent case studies from a globalizing Chinese mediasphere.