20 Years of Research on Africans in China: 88 Essential Academic Publications

A curated bibliography of 88 academic publications spanning nearly 20 years of research on Africans in China, from 2007 to 2026. The collection traces the development of the field across migration, trade, mobility, race, belonging, family life, education, digital platforms, representation and everyday African experiences in China.

88. Yang, Zesheng, and Zizhong Zhang. 2026. “Silenced, Condemned, and Redirected: How Racism in Chinese Football Is Discursively Negotiated on Social Media.” International Review for the Sociology of Sport.

87. Thebe, Phillip. 2026. “Can Hong Kong Be Home? Sub-Saharan African Students’ Notions and Aspirations of Home in a Global City.” International Migration 64 (5): e70207.

86. Jin, Tinghe, Mengjie Jiang, Qian Liu, Shi Guo, and Jingjing Lu. 2026. “Buffered and Burdened Agency: African Students Navigating Chinese Higher Education.” British Educational Research Journal.

85. Cui, Xiao, and Li Zhu. 2026. “Communication Practices and Challenges of the ‘Africans in Guangzhou’ Issue on Chinese Social Media Platforms: A Survey Based on Big Data.” Howard Journal of Communications.

84. Li, Xuemeng. 2026. “Seeing Africans in China: Comparing Forms of Racism and Identifying Controlled and Less Controlled Environments.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

83. Wu, Daisy Binfang. 2026. “How Post-Study Plans Project Into Onward Mobility Trajectories: Compromise, Attunement and Migrant Subjectification in (Re-)Routing Post-Study Migration of African Migrant Students in China.” Population, Space and Place 32 (2): e70234.

82. Liu, Chang. 2026. “Beyond the ‘Similar Other’: Historicising and Mediating the Visibility of African Housewives in Rural China.” Language and Intercultural Communication.

81. Zhang, Zihuan. 2026. “Theorising Racism in China: A Decolonial Intervention.” Ethnic and Racial Studies.

80. Castillo, Roberto. 2025. “The Scramble for Xiaobei: Epistemic Extraction, Racialised Knowledge, and Representation in Africa–China Urban Encounters.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 26 (6): 952–973.

79. Li, Run. 2025. “Platformisation Practice for Emancipation or Subordination? A Multimodal Critical Discourse Study of Self-presentations of African-Chinese Families on Douyin.” Critical Arts 39 (4): 102–119.

78. Zhong, Juan. 2025. “The ‘Similar Other’: The Construction of African Housewives in Rural China in Short Videos.” Language and Intercultural Communication 25 (2): 212–225.

77. Xu, Charles Qining. 2025. “Bias against Black Immigrants and Black People among Chinese Online: An Empirical Study on the Video Platform Bilibili and Its Floating Comments.” Cogent Social Sciences.

76. Wang, Zizhen. 2025. “Racialised Mobilities in China.” The Sociological Review 73 (1): 63–80.

75. Qing, Shenglan. 2024. “Signifyin’ ‘Black in China’ and Sharing Black Pathos: Libidinal Energies in Vlogs Produced by Black YouTubers in China.” Social Media + Society 10 (3).

74. Rothschild, Viola. 2024. “Taking a Chance on China: African Student-Entrepreneurs in Greater Zhejiang Province.” Global Networks 24: e12471.

73. Wu, Daisy Binfang, and Song Hou. 2024. “Towards the ‘Rationality–Emotion Nexus’ for Approaching International Student Mobility: An Ethnography of African Student Migrants at a Chinese University.” Population, Space and Place 30 (1): e2719.

72. Li, Run. 2024. “Constructing Ambivalent Masculinity and Constant Femininity in Interracial Families: Media Representations of African-Chinese Marriage on Xiaohongshu.” Discourse & Communication 18 (2): 266–289.

71. Zhang, Binxin. 2024. “Africans in China, Western/White Supremacy and the Ambivalence of Chinese Racial Identity.” The China Quarterly 260: 932–947.

70. Adebayo, Kudus Oluwatoyin. 2023. “Nigerians in China: Health Maintenance, Circulation and Everyday Transnationalism in Guangdong Province.” Global Networks 23 (2): 412–427.

69. Xu, Wen. 2023. “International Higher Education and the Pursuit of ‘Chinese’ Capitals: African Students and Families’ Strategies of Social (Re)production.” British Journal of Educational Studies 71 (3): 307–323.

68. Du, Shichao, and Zai Liang. 2023. “Religion and Perceived Attitudes among African Immigrants in Guangzhou, China.” Ethnic and Racial Studies.

67. Adebayo, Kudus Oluwatoyin. 2022. “‘They Did Not Allow Me to Enter the Place I Was Heading to’: Being ‘Stuck-in-Place’ and Transit Emplacement in Nigerian Migrations to China.” Mobilities 17 (6): 885–898.

66. Haugen, Heidi Østbø. 2022. “The Love Child and the State: Transnational Family Formation in Guangzhou.” NAN NÜ 24 (1): 134–160.

65. Su, Ping, Yuejian Lin, and Mingying Zhou. 2022. “Identity Negotiation and Segregated Integration of African-Chinese Mixed-Race Children in Guangzhou, China.” Journal of Contemporary China 31 (134): 186–201.

64. Tan, Yiming, Desheng Xue, and Bo Zhang. 2022. “Neighbor Interactions and Settlement Intentions of African Migrants in Urban China: A Case Study of Guangzhou.” Population, Space and Place 28 (6): e2554.

63. Castillo, Roberto. 2021. African Transnational Mobility in China: Africans on the Move. Routledge.

62. Carling, Jørgen, and Heidi Østbø Haugen. 2021. “Circumstantial Migration: How Gambian Journeys to China Enrich Migration Theory.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 47 (12): 2778–2795.

61. Jin, Xin, Gideon Bolt, and Pieter Hooimeijer. 2021. “Africans in Guangzhou: Is the Ethnic Enclave Model Applicable in the Chinese Context?” Cities 117: 103320.

60. Jordan, Lucy P., Lan Anh Hoang, Cheryl Hiu-Kwan Chui, Wenting Wang, and Valentina Mazzucato. 2021. “Multiple Precarity and Intimate Family Life among African-Chinese Families in Guangzhou.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 47 (12): 2796–2814.

59. Mulvey, Benjamin. 2021. “‘Decentring’ International Student Mobility: The Case of African Student Migrants in China.” Population, Space and Place 27 (3): e2393.

58. Taiwo, Wendy Thompson. 2021. “‘Take My Card’: Analyzing the Business Cards of Nigerian Entrepreneurs in Guangzhou.” Material Culture 53 (1): 37–60.

57. Castillo, Roberto. 2020. “‘Race’ and ‘Racism’ in Contemporary Africa–China Relations Research: Approaches, Controversies and Reflections.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 21 (3): 310–336.

56. Castillo, Roberto, and Padmore Adusei Amoah. 2020. “Africans in Post-COVID-19 Pandemic China: Is There a Future for China’s ‘New Minority’?” Asian Ethnicity 21 (4): 560–565.

55. Niu, Dong, Sainan Lin, Hongsheng Chen, and Zhigang Li. 2020. “A ‘Transient Neighborhood’: Africans’ Spatial Concentration in Guangzhou, China.” China Review 20 (2): 211–234.

54. Adebayo, Kudus Oluwatoyin. 2020. “‘I Don’t Want to Have a Separated Home’: Reckoning Family and Return Migration among Married Nigerians in China.” Migration Studies 8 (2): 250–270.

53. Lan, Shanshan. 2019. “Reconstructing Blackness in Grassroots Interactions Between Chinese and Africans in Guangzhou.” Anthropological Quarterly 92 (2): 481–508.

52. Mora, Manolete. 2019. “‘This Country of China Is Tough’: Nigerian Immigrant Music Making in Guangzhou, China.” African Music 11 (1): 29–48.

51. Liang, Kelly Si Miao, and Philippe Le Billon. 2018. “African Migrants in China: Space, Race and Embodied Encounters in Guangzhou, China.” Social & Cultural Geography.

50. Wilczak, Jessica. 2018. “‘Clean, Safe and Orderly’: Migrants, Race and City Image in Global Guangzhou.” Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 27 (1): 55–79.

49. Niu, Dong. 2018. “Transient: A Descriptive Concept for Understanding Africans in Guangzhou.” African Studies Quarterly 17 (4): 85–100.

48. Mathews, Gordon, Linessa Dan Lin, and Yang Yang. 2017. The World in Guangzhou: Africans and Other Foreigners in South China’s Global Marketplace. University of Chicago Press.

47. Lan, Shanshan. 2017. Mapping the New African Diaspora in China: Race and the Cultural Politics of Belonging. Routledge.

46. Ho, Elaine L. E. 2017. “The Geo-Social and Global Geographies of Power: Urban Aspirations of ‘Worlding’ African Students in China.” Geopolitics 22 (1): 15–33.

45. Zhou, Min et al. 2016. “Entrepreneurship and Interracial Dynamics: A Case Study of Self-Employed Africans and Chinese in Guangzhou, China.” Ethnic and Racial Studies.

44. Gilles, Angelo. 2015. “The Social Construction of Guangzhou as a Translocal Trading Place.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs.

43. Bork-Huffer, Tabea. 2015. “Health Care Seeking Practices of African and Rural-to-Urban Migrants in Guangzhou.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs.

42. Castillo, Roberto. 2015. “Landscapes of Aspiration in Guangzhou’s African Music Scene: Beyond the Trading Narrative.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs.

41. Mathews, Gordon. 2015. “African Logistics Agents and Middlemen as Cultural Brokers in Guangzhou.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs.

40. Mathews, Gordon. 2015. “Taking Copies from China Past Customs: Routines, Risks, and the Possibility of Catastrophe.” Journal of Borderland Studies.

39. Bischoff, Paul-Henri. 2015. “African Transnationalism in China: At the Interface of Local, Transnational, Bilateral and Multilateral Responses.” Journal of Asian and African Studies.

38. Lan, Shanshan. 2015. “Transnational Business and Family Strategies among Chinese/Nigerian Couples in Guangzhou and Lagos.” Asian Anthropology.

37. Huynh, Tu. 2015. “A ‘Wild West’ of Trade? African Women and Men and the Gendering of Globalisation from Below in Guangzhou.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power.

36. Marfaing, Laurence, and Alena Thiel. 2015. “Networks, Spheres of Influence and the Mediation of Opportunity: The Case of West African Trade Agents in China.” The Journal of Pan African Studies.

35. Cisse, Daouda. 2015. “African Traders in Yiwu: Their Trade Networks and Their Role in the Distribution of ‘Made in China’ Products in Africa.” The Journal of Pan African Studies.

34. Li, Anshan. 2015. “African Diaspora in China: Reality, Research and Reflection.” The Journal of Pan African Studies.

33. Bork-Huffer et al. 2015. “Mobility and the Transiency of Social Spaces: African Merchant Entrepreneurs in China.” Population, Space and Place.

32. Castillo, Roberto. 2015. “‘Homing’ Guangzhou: Emplacement, Belonging and Precarity amongst Africans in China.” International Journal of Cultural Studies.

31. Bork-Huffer, Tabea, and Yuan-Ihle, Yuan. 2014. “The Management of Foreigners in China: Changes to the Migration Law and Regulations during the Late Hu-Wen and Early Xi-Li Eras and Their Potential Effects.” International Journal of China Studies.

30. Liang, Yucheng. 2014. “The Causal Mechanism of Migration Behaviours of African Immigrants in Guangzhou: From the Perspective of Cumulative Causation Theory.” The Journal of Chinese Sociology.

29. Lin, Lavinia et al. 2014. “Health Care Experiences and Perceived Barriers to Health Care Access: A Qualitative Study among African Migrants in Guangzhou.” Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health.

28. Bork-Huffer et al. 2014. “Global Change, National Development Goals, Urbanisation and International Migration in China: African Migrants in Guangzhou and Foshan.” Megacities.

27. Mathews et al. 2014. “How to Evade States and Slip Past Borders: Lessons from Traders, Overstayers, and Asylum Seekers in Hong Kong and China.” City & Society 26 (2): 217–238.

26. Castillo, Roberto. 2014. “Feeling at Home in the ‘Chocolate City’: An Exploration of Place-Making Practices and Structures of Belonging amongst Africans in Guangzhou.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 15 (2).

25. Bodomo, Adams. 2014. “The African Traveller and the Chinese Customs Official: Ethnic Minority Profiling at Border Check Points in Hong Kong and China?” Journal of African American Studies.

24. Lan, Shanshan. 2014. “State Regulation of Undocumented African Migrants in China: A Multi-Scalar Analysis.” Journal of Asian and African Studies.

23. Bredeloup, Sylvie. 2014. “West-African Students Turned Entrepreneurs in Asian Trading Posts: A New Facet of Globalization.” American Journal of Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems, Special Issue on African Global Migration.

22. Pang, Ching Lin, and Ding Yuan. 2013. “Chocolate City as a Concept and as a Visible African Space of Change and Diversity.” In 对经济社会转型的探讨：中国的城市化，工业化和民族文化传承, edited by 黄忠彩 and 张继焦.

21. Muller, Angelo, and Rainer Wehrhahn. 2013. “Transnational Business Networks of African Intermediaries in China: Practices of Networking and the Role of Experiential Knowledge.” DIE ERDE 144 (1): 82–97.

20. Haugen, Heidi. 2013. “China’s Recruitment of African University Students: Policy Efficacy and Unintended Outcomes.” Globalisation, Societies and Education 11 (3).

19. Haugen, Heidi. 2013. “African Pentecostal Migrants in China: Marginalization and the Alternative Geography of a Mission Theology.” African Studies Review 56 (1): 81–102.

18. Han, Huamei. 2013. “Individual Grassroots Multilingualism in Africa Town in Guangzhou: The Role of States in Globalisation.” International Multilingual Research Journal 7 (1): 83–97.

17. Lyons, Michal et al. 2012. “In the Dragon’s Den: African Traders in Guangzhou.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 38 (5): 869–888.

16. Bredeloup, Sylvie. 2012. “African Trading Post in Guangzhou: Emerging or Recurrent Commercial Form?” African Diaspora 5 (1): 27–50.

15. Bodomo, Adams, and Grace Ma. 2012. “We Are What We Eat: Food in the Process of Community Formation and Identity Shaping among African Traders in Guangzhou and Yiwu.” African Diaspora 5 (1): 3–26.

14. Bodomo, Adams. 2012. Africans in China: A Sociocultural Study and Its Implications on Africa-China Relations. New York: Cambria Press.

13. Haugen, Heidi. 2012. “Nigerians in China: A Second State of Immobility.” International Migration 50 (2): 65–80.

12. Li, Zhigang, Michael Lyons, and Alison Brown. 2012. “China’s Chocolate City: An Ethnic Enclave in a Changing Landscape.” African Diaspora 5 (1): 51–72.

11. Mathews, Gordon, and Yang. 2012. “How Africans Pursue Low-End Globalization in Hong Kong and Mainland China.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 41 (2): 95–120.

10. Haugen, Heidi. 2011. “Chinese Exports to Africa: Competition, Complementarity and Cooperation between Micro-Level Actors.” Forum for Development Studies 38: 157–176.

9. Bodomo, Adams, and Grace Ma. 2010. “From Guangzhou to Yiwu: Emerging Facets of the African Diaspora in China.” International Journal of African Renaissance Studies 5 (2).

8. Bodomo, Adams. 2010. “The African Trading Community in Guangzhou: An Emerging Bridge for Africa-China Relations.” The China Quarterly 203: 693–707.

7. Bertoncello, Brigitte, and Sylvie Bredeloup. 2009. “Chine-Afrique ou la valse des entrepreneurs-migrants.” Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales 25 (1): 45–70.

6. Li, Zhigang, Laurence J. C. Ma, and Desheng Xue. 2009. “An African Enclave in China: The Making of a New Transnational Urban Space.” Eurasian Geography and Economics 50 (6): 699–719.

5. Le Bail, Hélène. 2009. “Foreign Migration to China’s City-Markets: The Case of African Merchants.” Asie Visions 19: 1–24.

4. Rennie, Namvula. 2009. “The Lion and the Dragon: African Experiences in China.” Journal of African Media Studies 1 (3): 379–414.

3. Zhang, Li. 2008. “Ethnic Congregation in a Globalizing City: The Case of Guangzhou, China.” Cities 25 (6): 383–395.

2. Li, Zhigang, Desheng Xue, Michael Lyons, and Alison Brown. 2008. “The African Enclave of Guangzhou: A Case Study of Xiaobeilu.” Acta Geographica Sinica 63 (2): 207–218.

1. Bertoncello, Brigitte, and Sylvie Bredeloup. 2007. “The Emergence of New African ‘Trading Posts’ in Hong Kong and Guangzhou.” China Perspectives 1: 94–105.