Al-Jazeera produced this interesting investigative piece on Chinese businessmen and migrants living and working in Senegal, provocativlely titled, “The Colony.”
It’s interesting to compare this take on overseas Chinese migration with a recent article in the New York Times about how tens of thousands of Chinese migrants have transformed the Italian city of Prato into a low-end textile and garment hub of Europe, with mixed-to-negative reactions by the Italian locals.
But for all the talk of how the impact of Chinese foreign commerce and migrant labor is being felt around the world, there is much-needed activity happening in the opposite direction, as China serves as a destination for both commercial and cultural exchange. We’ve reported earlier about the interesting “Raiding Africa” project funded by the Rotterdam Film Festival and spearheaded by Gertjan Zuilhof. He’s submitted several updates on the project during its summer run: entries five and six are particularly interesting in describing how visiting African filmmakers are encountering China, interacting with local Chinese and filming their experiences.
Tags: africa, al-jazeera, china, christian, christianity, church, gertjan zuilhof, guangzhou, italy, migrant labor, missionaries, my father's house, nigeria, prato, raiding africa, religion, rotterdam, senegal, zhao dayong