China-Africa Relations: Research Approaches

Abstract

About to board a plane in Johannesburg, I handed my temporary boarding pass to the flight attendant who exclaimed, “Simbao, you have a fong kong boarding pass!” Fong kong is a slang term used in South Africa meaning fake, cheap, or low quality and is often associated with Chinese imports. In this case, the term was used to refer to a temporary pass issued earlier on my journey that needed to be replaced with a new boarding pass in Johannesburg. In 1998 the term was made popular in South Africa by the Hunger Boyz kwaito song titled “Fong Kong,” which was a direct critique of low-quality Chinese imports that were perceived to be flooding the local market. As singer Senyaka says, “We wrote this song as a protest against what the Chinese were doing to the black man” (Sosibo 2010). Today, some fans acknowledge that the lyrics of the catchy tune were somewhat offensive, but negative stereotypes of Chinese people in Africa persist. In the 2011 performance Amafongkong, produced by the Ethiopian Adugna Dance Company at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, the Chinese living in Africa were simplistically stereotyped as the peddlers of cheap goods who usurp the jobs of Africans. In some parts of Africa the removal of natural resources by Chinese companies is derogatorily referred to as the “Great Chinese Takeout.” It is estimated that trade between China and Africa has exploded from $10 billion to more than $100 billion in the last decade (Corben 2012). Chinese-run firms have reopened mines in Zambia, and in Nigeria the volume of trade between the two countries grew by nearly 300% between 2004 and 2008 (Umejei 2011). There is no doubt that economic relations between China and many African countries have recently soared and that human engagement through trade and other forms of global networking is on the rise. It is time now for meaningful research to dig deeper than a consideration of economic power, labor laws, and the fong kong hype. Until recently little in-depth research has existed on human relationships at an individual or community level,1 and even less research exists on ChinaAfrica engagement in terms of culture or the (continued on p. 4) 1 Michael MacGarry The Master (2007) From the African Archetypes series