‘Africans in China’ is the first book-length study of Africans travelling to China and forming communities there. Employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods involving prolonged interaction with approximately 800 Africans across six main Chinese cities - Guangzhou, Yiwu, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Macau - Professor Adams Bodomo (The University of Hong Kong) has constructed sociolinguistic and sociocultural profiles that illuminate the everyday life of Africans in China. This unprecedented book provides insights into understanding issues such as why Africans go to China, what they do there, how they communicate with their Chinese hosts, what opportunities and problems they encounter in their China sojourn, and how they are received by the Chinese state. Learn more about the book, which was published by Cambria Press in 2012, at

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* Adams Bodomo is the African Studies Programme Director at the HKU School of Humanities.
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Africa-China relations have gained worldwide attention, writes Adams Bodomo, and constitute the topic of much academic and diplomatic discourse. In this paper, Bodomo explores two important issues within this topic – whether the relationship between the two parts of the world is symmetrical or asymmetrical, and the exact role of soft power in this constellation. Bodomo argues that prominent economies on the African continent such as South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria have an important role to play in ensuring a symmetrical relationship with China, in which Africa can also take part in a symmetrical cultural diplomacy with China, for example through setting up African cultural institutes around the country.