Sanfei Clean-ups: African Traders and Guangzhou’s Urban Development from a Global Perspective

As a beneficiary of global dispersal of manufacturing, Guangdong Province saw its light industries take off in the 1980s, which revived Guangzhou’s historical role as a trading hub. Beginning from the late 1990s, a large number of Africans came to the city to trade. In ten years’ time, they formed two conspicuous communities in urban-rural transitional areas. These communities center around a handful of former farming villages, which became subsumed within the city as it expanded, and a few wholesale markets. Because of their similar socio-economic status, Africans are sharing this space with migrant workers who were drawn to the city by all the new opportunities post-socialist urban developments offered. They both rent from former villagers who turned their houses into cheap tenements and in some cases become interdependent. Meanwhile, as China increasingly engages the West, both economically and culturally, the desire to construct global cities that serve as command centers for multinational corporations also grew in major municipalities. The land which African communities occupy thus becomes more valuable than ever. This dissertation focuses on one of these communities, Xiaobei, and investigates how it is affected by local government’s attempts to gentrify the area. So far the government’s efforts have been reduced to incessant crackdowns on sanfei – a term which refers to foreigners who enter, stay, and work in China illegally – mainly because of a Maoist legal legacy, which gives villagers tremendous negotiation power. The fact that the military owns some of the land in the area further complicates the matter. I consider, sanfei, as a racist code word constructed by news media and law enforcement. It generates support for government actions which seek to evict Africans, undermine Villagers’ and the military’s control over the land in Xiaobei. This dissertation thus examines these actions in detail.

Grantor dc:publisher

State University of New York at Buffalo

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Huang, Guangzhi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Nightingale, Carl
• Transnational Studies - American Studies
• Africana and American Studies

• Asian studies

Statement dc:rights

• Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.
• Copyright retained by author.

Language dc:language

eng

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10477/77991

OAI record oai:identifier

https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=qdc&identifier=oai%3Aubir.buffalo.edu%3A10477%2F77991