A History of the African Diaspora in China (1949-2012) - progress review Yimei Liu

After the PRC established diplomatic relations with Egypt in 1956, Egypt sent its first students to Beijing to study Chinese in 1957. This marks the beginning of African migration to the PRC, as the first African students travelled to the PRC for education. Following China’s reform and opening-up policy, the number of African residing in China has increased year by year. The rise of official Sino-African relations has, however, submerged the history of the everyday lives of African people in China. This dynamic became even more pronounced in 2012, when the Chinese government implemented policies to manage undocumented migrants. The thesis endeavours to bridge a critical gap in comprehending China-Africa relations. It will explore the narrative divide Chinese state discourses about Sino-African relations and the reality of the everyday life of the African community in China. I will examine the divergence between these two narratives of Sino-African relations  dating from the foundation of the PRC until the end of the Hu Jintao period. For Progress Review 1, I focus on the Mao period, which, from 1949 to 1976, during the catastrophes of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, when Mao and the CCP projected a vision of Afro-Chinese solidarity while Chinese society was undergoing political and social turmoil.