Xiaobei : a complex Sino-African site of anthropological knowledge production (and extraction)
Start Date
13-4-2023 4:45 PM
End Date
13-4-2023 5:45 PM
Description
Xiaobei, a neighbourhood area in Guangzhou’s Yuexiu district, was an important site of anthropological knowledge production in China for almost two decades. The place was full of entrepreneurial explorers, such as traders, travellers, fortune seekers, students, preachers, scholars, journalists, and film directors, who roamed in search of different types of knowledge. In this paper, I focus on the often problematic production of academic (and to a lesser extent journalistic) knowledge from the relatively small confines of this geographical location. I do this by providing a critical review of how scholars and journalists staked diverse claims to knowledge about contemporary social, cultural, local and global transformations that were epitomised by how what was taking place in the multilayered spaces of Xiaobei was represented.
Document Type
Presentation
Recommended Citation
Bautista, R. C. C. (2023, April). Xiaobei: A complex Sino-African site of anthropological knowledge production (and extraction). Presented at the International Symposium on Africa-China Relations in an Era of Uncertain Future. Lingnan University, Hong Kong.
Xiaobei : a complex Sino-African site of anthropological knowledge production (and extraction)
Xiaobei, a neighbourhood area in Guangzhou’s Yuexiu district, was an important site of anthropological knowledge production in China for almost two decades. The place was full of entrepreneurial explorers, such as traders, travellers, fortune seekers, students, preachers, scholars, journalists, and film directors, who roamed in search of different types of knowledge. In this paper, I focus on the often problematic production of academic (and to a lesser extent journalistic) knowledge from the relatively small confines of this geographical location. I do this by providing a critical review of how scholars and journalists staked diverse claims to knowledge about contemporary social, cultural, local and global transformations that were epitomised by how what was taking place in the multilayered spaces of Xiaobei was represented.