Convergences

and Divergences:
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Media and Communications in Africa-China Engagement

The 4th Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Conference, Nairobi, 18-20 August 2016

The fourth conference convened by the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China (CA/AC) Research Network will take
place in Nairobi, Kenya on 18-20 August 2016. The event will be co-hosted with the Aga Khan University at their
School of Media and Communications (Westlands) campus. Other event partners include: Fahamu, China House,
the Sino Africa Centre for Excellence (SACE) Foundation, The Nation Media Group, African Media Initiative, the
Wits China-Africa Reporting Project, the African Studies Center at Michigan State University, and the School of
International Studies/Academy of Overseas Chinese Studies at Jinan University.

The aim of the CA/AC conference is to bring together a small group of scholars who have been engaged in
empirical research and whose work focuses on the people-related aspects of China-Africa engagements from
across the world. This year the conference also has a special focus on media, communications, and related
issues of representation, perception and images. This is meant to be a working conference for participants to
share knowledge, receive constructive comments to further develop their research, and connect with one
another in an intimate setting.

In addition to the working conference, the Aga Khan University will be hosting a symposium on Getting Heard
in order to bring together scholars and media practitioners, and a public seminar on the two days preceding the
conference.

The list of panels is now ready and can be found below. The panels fall into several broader thematic areas:
A.
Race, Perception, Culture, and Representation
B.
Media Practices and Practitioners in China-Africa Engagement
C.
Politics, Public Policy, and Diplomacy

In addition to the panels listed below, early career scholars are encouraged to present their work in progress;
these papers will receive careful reading and feedback from a panel of senior scholars. We hope to contribute to
capacity building and informal mentoring for those who desire the guidance of senior scholars in the field.
Depending on the number of abstracts received we will organize 1-2 panels especially for this purpose. These
papers can focus on any aspect of Africa-China relations and need not be focused specifically on media &
communications.

We invite scholars to submit paper abstracts that will fit into these panels; please ensure that you specify the
panel that best accommodates your paper topic. Paper proposals (abstracts) are due no later than 15 February
2016. They should be submitted on the form circulated along with this call and sent to
NairobiCAAC2016@gmail.com.

The conference organizing committee will select the papers for the conference in consultation with the panel
chairs. Each panel can accommodate at least three but no more than four papers; if a panel does not receive at
least three papers, we reserve the right to cancel said panel. Feel free to contact the chairs queries about
specific panels. For all other questions, please contact the conference organizers at
NairobiCAAC2016@gmail.com. Notifications will be sent out by Friday 4 March. Those whose abstracts have
been accepted will be expected to submit full draft papers to the panel chairs by 1 August 2016.

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Practical information:
There is a registration fee for conference attendance this year. The registration fee is US$120; PhD students and
those who can demonstrate need will pay a reduced fee of US$60. Attendance of those not participating directly
in the conference will limited and determined on a case-by-case basis; anyone wishing to attend the conference
and not presenting a paper will be asked to pay the full registration fee. Registration fees will go toward
covering costs of tea/coffee, lunches, and materials. We regret that we cannot cover accommodation or travel
costs. Information about accommodation as well as evening and side activities will be forthcoming. Participants
will be responsible for their own travel arrangements, hotel bookings, airport transfers and visas. Further details
regarding payment, accommodation, transfers, and side events will be sent to those whose papers are accepted
in the coming months.

The local host will issue letters of invitation to all participants for the purpose of applying for a visa; please check
with your Kenyan embassy to find out with you will require a visa for travel from your country and apply for
these in a timely fashion.

Important dates:
Paper Abstracts Due: 15 February 2016
Notification of Participation: 4 March 2016
Draft Papers Due: 1 August 2016
Symposium & Public Seminar: 17-18 August 2016
Conference dates: 18-20 August 2016


Convergences and Divergences:
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Media and Communications in Africa-China Engagement

The 4th Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Conference, Nairobi, 18-20 August 2016
Panels

A. Race, Perceptions, Culture, and Representation

A.1 Race and Racialization in China-Africa Relations
Tu HYUNH, Jinan University, Email: Huynh.2.t@gmail.com
This panel aims to contribute to the growing interest in the question of race in China-Africa relations. We want
to problematize the phenomenon of racial (re)formation. Specifically, it is concerned with Western racial
(including orientalist) views of Africans and Chinese, alongside these populations assimilation of foreign ideas
and reconstructions of racial theories. Papers should shed light on the concept of race and spread of racism in
the modern world system, as well as on the recent tensions and relations between Africa/Africans,
China/Chinese, and the West/Westerners. Papers juxtaposing the place of East Asians and Africans in 18th or
19th-century European constructions of race; analyzing the reproduction of racial constructs (categories) in the
decolonization and post-colonial eras; focusing on the interplay of nationalism and race; and delineating the
connections between race, gender, and other modes of differentiation are welcome.

A.2. Chinese Enterprises in Africa: Perceptions and Practices
LUO Arting, Sino-Africa Centre of Excellence (SACE) Foundation, Email: arting@sacefoundation.org
This panel will explore how Chinese enterprises in Africa perceive the business environments they are facing.
How do they perceive the relevant importance of policies from China, international organizations, and local
governments? What do they think about doing business in Africa as compared to China, particularly in terms of
competition, labor management, and community relations? What attitudes do they take towards Chinese, local
and international media? Do these perceptions influence the way Chinese enterprises doing business in Africa?
And how do they manifest these perceptions in their business practices?

A.3. Partnership Perceptions and Representations of China: Confucius Institutes
Kenneth KING, University of Edinburgh, Email: Kenneth.King@ed.ac.uk
Both the Confucius Institutes and the higher education partnerships between 20 Chinese and 20 African
universities (20+20) are concerned with changing the representation of China in Africa. The CIs through the
teaching of Chinese language, culture and history, and the 20+20 through inter-disciplinary partnerships present
China as an all-weather friend, are engaged in education of mutual benefit to students in China and Africa. Visits
to China are a crucial dimension of both schemes. Equally the shared leadership of CIs, through both Chinese
and African directors, and the avoidance of the 20+20 being perceived as aid schemes present China as an
equal partner with Africa. Papers in this panel will examine CIs in Africa vis--vis their perceptions of partners
and their roles in representing China.

A.4 Branding China in Africa and Africa in China: Exploring representation and notions of suzhi and face
Yoon Jung PARK, CA/AC Research Network, Email: yoon1@verizon.net
In terms of Chinas going out, Chinas firms, Chinese products, and increasingly Chinas people come to
represent China and the China brand. In Africa, as the China brand comes under fire, criticisms are about quality:
shoddy Chinese road or building construction that cant withstand more than one rainy season and cheap,
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inferior, or fake fong kong products suitable only for the poorest of the poor. Amongst Chinese migrants in
Africa, divisions take shape around home region, generation or wave of migration, but more often around these
class/quality differences. Members of the educated and professional classes of Chinese migrants speak with
anger, frustration, and embarrassment about the low class/low quality of some Chinese migrants migrants
who bring down the China brand. Similar discourses can also be found amongst African migrants in China. This
panel will focus discussion on questions of representation, suzhi, and face in Africa-China engagements.

A.5. Migration, culture, identity and scholarship: the role of the arts in Sino-African engagements
Roberto Castillo, University of Hong Kong, Email: rocas@hku.hk
From film and photography to painting, sculpture, music and martial arts, current Sino-African cultural
exchanges involve a diverse range of practices. Without a doubt, contemporary intersections between traders,
transmigrants, artists, scholars and media practitioners have altered (and possibly allowed for reconfigurations
of) cultural panoramas in both China and Africa. As the exchanges between people in these regions are on the
rise, this panel calls for the examination of both the historical and contemporary reconfigurations (i.e.
adaptations, innovations, reinterpretations) of certain cultural practices and the possibilities that they offer.
Currently, a number of scholars are working on issues related to the cultural aspects of Sino-African
engagements. By focusing on these aspects, this panel would draw attention to the complex intersectionality of
migration, culture, diaspora, identity and representation. Indeed, one of the main questions the panel would
examine is: How are contemporary Sino-African cultural exchanges impacting on traditional cultural, national,
and ethno-nationally based identities? The panel welcomes multidisciplinary discussion of the above-mentioned
issues through the lenses of cultural exchanges, cross-cultural perception/representation, cultural diplomacy,
and soft power, but is not restricted to these perspectives/themes.

B. Media Practitioners in China-Africa Engagement

B.1. Practitioners from an Academic Perspective
Cobus VAN STADEN, University of the Witwatersrand, Email: jacobus.vanstaden@gmail.com
This panel will trace the frontiers of the contemporary Asian media presence in Africa. Papers are invited that go
beyond the traditional focus on state-owned media in order to uncover new models of reporting, including
citizen journalists, small-scale producers and stringers who work for multiple outlets at once. This panel will
therefore break down the conceptual barriers between: (1) Chinese media and other Asian media in Africa; (2)
Content for local and transnational consumption; (3) State-owned and private media: and (4) Conventional and
internet media.

B.2. Chinese Media in West Africa
Emeka UMEJEI, University of the Witwatersrand, Email: mosieds@gmail.com
The scope of the panel shall encompass all aspects of Chinese media engagement in West Africa including its
trajectory and evolution. The following thematic units shall underpin the scope of the panel:
Chinese media in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia; practitioners perspectives, perception,
representation and narrative
Newspapers coverage of China in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia
Star Times in West Africa; Star Times-Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) Partnership, Star Times partnership
with National televisions in West Africa
Influence of Chinas media investment in West Africa-Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia
Representation of China in the West African (Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia) social
media: West African Social media coverage of China-Africa relations

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B.3. Social Medias Place in China-Africa Knowledge Production
Lina BENABDALLAH, University of Florida, Email: linaben@ulf.edu
Winslow ROBERTSON, Cowries & Rice, Email: winslowalrob@gmail.com
Social media platforms such as WeChat, Twitter, and Weibo have become popular drivers of the China-Africa
discussion. Over time, they have promoted the development of pluralist communities of researchers and
practitioners, with diverse backgrounds, specialties, locations, and methodologies. Additionally, these social
media platforms serve producers and distributors of (mostly) open access knowledge, which does not require
institutional affiliations and financial supports.
In this panel, we do not seek to prove that the social media is important. We take that as a given and ask in what
ways is social media itself changing the Africa-China discourse? What are the opportunities and challenges of
this channel of communication? With these lines of inquiry in mind, we invite papers that probe the practical
relevance of the representation of China-Africa through social media platforms to the policy realm. What is the
relevance of whats being shared, argued, and discussed on WeChat, Twitter, Weibo, etc. to policymaking and
official discourse on China-Africa? Do these platforms simply allow for the sharing and distribution of existing
knowledge or the creation of new Africa-China ideas and relations?

C. Politics, Public Policy, and Diplomacy

C.1. Carrying Away Small Stones: Interrogating the Role of Mediated Exchanges between Africa-China in
Strengthening Chinas Cultural Political Economy
Folu OGUNDIMO, Michigan State University, Email: ogundimu@msu.edu
Media plays an influential role in shaping how we think about and enact culture in our daily lives. It does so by
generating narrated representations of people, places, events, and things on local, national, and international
platforms. In the contemporary relational context between Africa and China, media is used to strengthen
politico-economic ties between the two regions, and in so doing, espouses values and ideas of each that are
culturally embedded with multiple webs of meaning. Using cultural political economy as a framework, this panel
examines how mediated exchanges between Africa and China, particularly in the context of globalization, have
and continue to play a significant role in facilitating access to African markets and people. The panel engages
these exchanges, from an African Studies perspective, using cross-cultural perceptions of the other, cultural
appropriation, and cultural ideals of beauty.

C.2. South Africa and the New Geopolitics of Information: The Case of China
Hermann WASSERMAN, University of Cape Town, Email: herman.wasserman@uct.ac.za
After South Africas inclusion in the BRICS group of nations, Chinas footprint in the South African mediascape
has become stronger and more diverse. This can be seen in Chinas direct investment in South African media
houses, in the production and distribution of Chinese content across the country, and the involvement of
Chinese telecommunication companies in infrastructure development. Despite the growth in South Africa-China
media relations, existing knowledge on the matter is still scant. This panel proposes to investigate how the South
African media facilitates or resists the countrys growing relationship with China within the broader ambit of the
countrys membership of the BRICS group of nations. By bringing the attention to the role of the media, papers
in this panel seek to widen the thematic scope of scholarly works on Sino-African relations, which have been
largely limited to economic relations. Although international research in this area is growing both in relation to
the question of soft power as exercised via the media, and in relation to Chinas increased presence in Africa,
academic studies on South Africa have been limited to exploratory work. This panel showcases studies that are
based on empirical evidence and works that advance our theoretical understanding of the new geopolitics of
information within the context of South Africa.
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C.3. Transnational Migration and Foreign Policy
ZHANG Zhenjiang, Jinan University, Email: zhangzhenjiang@gmail.com
The steadily increasing numbers of transnational migrants are playing important roles in world economy and
politics. This panel aims to collect papers on transnational migrants impacts on the foreign policy of either
countries of residence or countries of origin. Paper proposals on Chinese in Africa or Africans in China and either
sending or host countrys foreign policy, bilateral governmental relations, economies, or people-to-people
relations, as well as general China-African relations will be considered for this panel.

C.4. China-Africa Public Diplomacy
ZHANG Yanqiu, Communication University of China, Email: yqzhang@cuc.edu.cn
In recent years the practice of China-Africa public diplomacy has attracted increasing attention. In this panel,
discussions on media and public diplomacy between China and Africa, reflections on Chinese public diplomacy
concepts, and comparative studies on public diplomacy related China-Africa relations are welcome.