The world in Guangzhou : Africans and other foreigners in south China's global marketplace /
Only decades ago, the population of Guangzhou was almost wholly Chinese. Today, it is a truly global city, a place where people from around the world go to make new lives, find themselves, or further their careers. A large number of these migrants are small-scale traders from Africa who deal in Chin...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Chicago :
University of Chicago Press,
[2017].
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Only decades ago, the population of Guangzhou was almost wholly Chinese. Today, it is a truly global city, a place where people from around the world go to make new lives, find themselves, or further their careers. A large number of these migrants are small-scale traders from Africa who deal in Chinese goods, often knockoffs or copies of high-end branded items, to send back to their home countries. In The World in Guangzhou, Gordon Mathews explores the question of how the city became a center of "low-end globalization" and shows what we can learn from that experience about similar transformations elsewhere in the world. Through detailed ethnographic portraits, Mathews reveals a world of globalization based on informality, reputation and trust rather than on formal contracts. How, he asks, can such informal relationships emerge between two groups, Chinese and sub-Saharan Africans, that don't share a common language, culture or religion? And what happens when Africans move beyond their status as temporary residents and begin to put down roots and establish families? |
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| Physical Description: | viii, 252 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780226506074 022650607X 9780226506104 022650610X |