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Accepted Paper:
"Teaching more than 100 foreign languages“: The Rise of Studies of African Language and Literature in China
Mingqing Yuan
(FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
By reviewing the history and current rise of studies of African languages and literature in China, this presentation aims to analyze the relationship between the enthusiasm for African languages and literature and the rise of global China through a (de)colonial lens.
Paper long abstract:
In 2019 the first African language-focused institute was established at the Beijing Foreign Studies University with around 20 African languages taught for the bachelor's degree, from Swahili, Hausa and Amharic to Shona, Afrikaans and Kinyarwanda. In contrast to the decline of common language study programs (eps. English and French), universities offering a bachelor's degree in Swahili expanded from two universities (BFSU and Communication University of China) before the 1990s to seven universities across the country in the present. With the mushrooming of Swahili study programs among universities, there is also a growing interest in African literature on both institutional and public level. Almost all the works of Abdulrazak Gurnah were translated and published within less than one year after he won the Nobel prize. The application process from the national funding scheme especially encourages topics on African literatures. How are the African languages and Literature study programs designed, developed and envisioned in China? What are the research focuses of state-funded projects about African language and literature? Considering the growing interactions between China and Africa, is this recent interest or popularity in African languages and literature a decolonization of West-centered cultural exchanges or a practice with a neocolonial impulse? By reviewing the history and current rise of studies in African languages and literature in China, this presentation aims to analyze the relationship between the rise of global China and its enthusiasm for studying, translating, reading and researching African languages and literature.