Chinese-In-Africa: What Do Africans Think of the Chinese?
By Liu Zhirong
I’ve spent the last few years in Africa, meeting a range of people from
government ministers, governors, businesspeople, tribal chiefs and
village heads and all levels of African society to try to understand how
Africans view the Chinese. We can take the Africans as a kind of mirror
to ourselves, and take a look at what the Africans in their hearts see
in the Chinese so that we can adjust our own behavior accordingly, and
become better accepted by Africans. Just as the Tang Dynasty [Prime
Minister] Wei Zheng who said, “We can use copper as a mirror to see how
our clothing looks, or we can take history as a mirror to understand the
rise and fall of states, or we can take people as a mirror, to come to
understand our our strengths and shortcomings.”
Portugal arrived on Africa’s west coast in 1418, and after that Africa
was never isolated again. Africa become the stage upon which a
continuing tragedy of European colonial exploitation, massacres,
plundering and slave taking played out. By 1914, except for Ethiopia
and Libya, all of Africa had been divided up by European colonialists.
Africans had no choice but to give up the languages they had spoken ever
since they descended from the trees and to begin speaking the languages
of the colonial powers. After the Second World War, the African
countries became independent one after another and the European rulers
were forced to retire from Africa in defeat. The economic vacuum they
left behind was filled by the Indians and Pakistanis with whom they had
long been trading. In today’s world of economic globalization, Africa
is not longer black Africa but the last remaining gold mine on Earth.
Prospectors of all skin colors come to Africa to prospect and seek their
fortunes, including about one million Chinese. The African black people
know well the whites from a century or two of colonial rule; the
Chinese, economic explorers who arrived late on the scene, are much less
familiar. They look at us, just as we look at them, starting with
remarking on exoticism and with curiosity and gradually from an
impression based on guesses, observation, and evidence.
Summary of points on African views of Chinese in Africa:
1. Chinese work very hard and work all the time. Africans enjoy
life. Do Chinese get their joy in working all the time?
2. Chinese are frugal and self controlled. In many countries in
Africa, a man might have more than one wife. Africans see that
Chinese have only one wife but might live in an African country
for two or three years without her. Do Chinese get an anti-sex
injection before they leave China? Why don’t Chinese men need
women? It seems like they just like to sit around and drink tea.
3. China makes cheap, poor quality products. China also makes good
products but doesn’t export them to Africa. Many people made this
comment about clothing, cars, and other items.
4. Chinese are scofflaws. In one case a Chinese company laid off
workers in a way inconsistent with local labor laws. The workers
took the Chinese company to court and won. China perhaps because
of its feudal traditions doesn’t understand the rule of law.
However, Africans learned this from the Europeans so Chinese
companies operating in Africa need to understand this so that they can
operate successfully there.
5. Chinese are not careful of sanitation. In Francophone Africa, they
mistake bidets in hotel rooms for urinals. They won’t obey local
rules such as no smoking in the washroom.
6. Chinese disrupt markets. Their bids are often one third the price
of a bid by a French competitor, making the French so angry that
they tear out their own hair. Later the Chinese companies are very
polluting, use poor materials, or break their contract. Africans
are often angry at being underbid by Chinese who they see as
forcing them out of their own market. Some Africans say that
wherever the Chinese go they disrupt markets.
7. Chinese are fractious. Chinese unlike Africans, won’t help
someone from their own country, but rather combine according to
the part of China they come to and fight against other Chinese.
Africans notice the fight to the death competition between Chinese
companies in Africa. The worst tricks Chinese business people
play isn’t against Africans but against other Chinese.
8. Chinese are atheists. They see that Chinese work all the time but
Africans feel that finding a purpose in life is a spiritual quest,
and that the purpose of life is to return to be with God.
9. Chinese will eat anything. Chinese need to be careful in Africa.
In Ethiopia, they should not eat donkeys or dogs. One local
official said once Chinese came to build a road and ate up all the
pigs in the area. Next time you come, tell us a year in advance
and we will ask the farmers to raise a lot of pigs.
Full Chinese report at: http://blog.scol.com.cn/zuoguantianxia/archives/212561.html
(boxun.us)