External publications

Global app, local politics, and Chinese migrants in Africa: a comparative study of Zambia and Angola

Li, Hangwei
External Publications (2022)

in: Wanning Sun / Haiqing Yu (eds.), WeChat and the Chinese Diaspora Digital Transnationalism in the Era of China's Rise, London: Routledge, 234-256

ISBN: 978-1-00-315475-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003154754
Information

This chapter explores how WeChat groups have penetrated the everyday life of Chinese migrants in Zambia and Angola; and why these groups are important platforms for understanding the identity construction of Chinese migrants in the digital world. The chapter highlights the role of WeChat groups in mutual support and political communication among Chinese migrants in the two countries, as well as the perpetual gaze and surveillance of the motherland via Chinese embassies in these WeChat groups. It also points out the racialised and “othered” approach in the identity construction among the Chinese migrants in Africa and how their Chineseness makes them feel culturally and racially superior to the locals.