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Paper short abstract:

Derrick Avenue in Cyrildene, a suburb in the eastern parts of the city, is the closest one can get to a clichéd Chinese (street life) atmosphere in Johannesburg. However, instead of resorting to ethnicity and difference as an entry point, we explore the street as an ordinary object of research.

Paper long abstract:

Derrick Avenue in Cyrildene, a suburb in the eastern parts of the city, is the closest one can get to a clichéd Chinese (street life) atmosphere in Johannesburg. Owing to the prevalence of visible Chinese markers and its demographics, this activity node sparks imaginaries of a spatialised elsewhere. Standing in sharp contrast to the surrounding, mostly residential neighbourhood, this street has been viewed as exceptional and different, contributing to its divorce from the rest of the area. In reality though, and irrespective of its 'ethnic' qualities, many of the existent layers point to a number of urban dynamics that characterise Johannesburg as a whole.

In most studies of Chinese spaces outside of China, the adoption of ethnicity and difference as the main entry point has shaped the ways in which these spaces are being analysed and conceptualised. In the case of Cyrildene, we argue that this specific analytical framework not only obscures but also assigns a certain singularity to urban dynamics and realities often exceeding the confines of this area. We seek to shift away from classifying this space and engage the street and its surroundings as an ordinary object of research. Stripping it, at least at the outset, of its Chinese features, our aim is to understand how characteristics of a lived and constructed differentiation materialise and relate to geographies of the ordinary, thereby suggesting a more comprehensive approach to the study of Chinese urban spaces in contexts beyond China.