A01=Gordon Mathews
A01=Linessa Dan Lin
A01=Yang Yang
africa
african
anthropologist
anthropology
Author_Gordon Mathews
Author_Linessa Dan Lin
Author_Yang Yang
brand name
business
Category=JHMC
chinese
city
clothing
community
enterprise
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnic
ethnographic
ethnography
foreigners
global
globalization
high end
home country
immigration
international
knockoff
market
marketplace
relationships
reputation
south china
sub saharan
trade
travel
urban
xenophobia
xenophobic
Product details
- ISBN 9780226506074
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 16 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 16 Nov 2017
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Mere decades ago, the population of Guangzhou was almost wholly Chinese. Today, it is a truly global city, a place where people from around the world go to make new lives, find themselves, or further their careers. A large number of those migrants are small-scale traders from Africa who deal in Chinese goods often knock-offs or copies of high-end branded items to send back to their home countries. In The World in Guangzhou, Gordon Mathews explores the question of how the city became such a center of "low-end" globalization and shows what we can learn from that experience similar transformations elsewhere in the world. Through detailed ethnographic portraits, Mathews reveals a world of globalization based on informality, reputation, and trust rather than on formal contracts. How, he asks, can such informal relationships emerge between two groups Chinese and Sub-Saharan Africans that don't share a common language, culture, or religion? And what happens when Africans move beyond their status as temporary residents and begin to put down roots and establish families?
Full of unforgettable characters, The World in Guangzhou presents a compelling account of globalization at ground level and offers a look into the future of urban life as transnational connections continue to remake cities around the world.
Gordon Mathews is professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Linessa Dan Lin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Anthropology Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Yang Yang graduated with a master of philosophy in anthropology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
