/ Research, Studies
"African Worlds in China": Website on students' field trip to Guangzhou
In January 2020, twelve social anthropology students from the University of Basel embarked on a field research trip to explore African communities in Guangzhou, China. Now, they created a website that offers some impressions from this research trip in virtual tour form.
The Southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has emerged as a global trading hub; attracting people worldwide, and becoming an important site for cultural encounters. It is also a significant node in the South-South web of relations. Copies and knockoffs of luxury goods and other items made in China are made affordable to consumers in African countries, often by African traders who come to Guangzhou to do business. Some of these transnational merchants also settle in the city where they search for new opportunities.
The social anthropology field course 2019/20 included a research trip to Guangzhou. The students who participated in this ethnographic research created a website that serves as a virtual tour of their projects and offers sights and sounds from Southern China.