China’s ‘Little Africa’ losing its allure

Abstract

In a sweltering monsoon afternoon in Xiaobei, in Guangzhou, a city in southeast China, a group of young and middle-aged African men take positions up and down a street lined by shops, alert to the passing of potential clients. Not far from them, in an adjacent street, another group of Africans—three women and a man holding a child in his arms— huddle around bales of merchandise. As the sun slowly sets, the town square fills up with people.