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Liminal Spaces: Ethnic Chinese in the Borderlands of Southern Africa

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Migration and Agency in a Globalizing World

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series ((IPES))

Abstract

This chapter, which builds on original research on Chinese people in Southern Africa and other ethnographic studies, makes two simple arguments. First, context matters. Different African countries, at different points in time, can be more or less welcoming to Chinese migrants. China’s global rise, the relative numbers of Chinese newcomers vis-à-vis local populations, the circumstances of their arrival, and the capacity of local economies to absorb new migrants matter. Secondly, the South African case shows us that despite a long history in the country, Chinese people—whether third-generation South Africans or newly arrived—continue to occupy an in-between status. Caught between racial categories and nation-states, they make their homes in liminal spaces. Perhaps, in a hyper-globalized world, in these metaphorical borderlands, this is the new normal.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Interview, 10 April 2008.

  2. 2.

    A phrase used by Mingwei Hwang at the ‘Chinese in Africa/Africans in China’ conference in Nairobi, 18–20 August 2016.

  3. 3.

    Many of these interviews were conducted by research colleagues Anna Ying Chen and/or Tu Huynh.

  4. 4.

    Bourdarias (2010); Cissé (2013); Dittgen (2010, 2015); Dobler (2009); Harrison et al. (2012); Huynh et al. (2010); Kernan (2010); Khan Mohammed (2014); Lam (2015); Lampert and Mohan (2014); McNamee et al. (2013); Schmitz (2014); and Xiao (2015), amongst others.

  5. 5.

    Estimates of the numbers of Chinese people in South Africa range from approximately 250,000 to over 500,000 (Huynh et al. 2010; Park 2013; McNamee et al. 2013).

  6. 6.

    Based on over 70 in-depth interviews conducted for my Ph.D. research (Park 2008).

  7. 7.

    See also ‘Dalai Lama visa row halts Nobel forum in South Africa’, 2 October 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29467665 (accessed on 9 January 2017).

  8. 8.

    This is not to contradict Harris’s argument in this volume (chapter “The Construction of ‘Otherness’: A History of the Chinese Migrants in South Africa”) about the general ‘othering’ of the Chinese as a group. As I have argued elsewhere, while the Chinese have clearly been ‘othered’ throughout their history in South Africa, at present they do not seem to be viewed as a dangerous or most hated ‘other’ in the country. The most fervent xenophobia seems to be reserved for black African migrants (Park 2013).

  9. 9.

    Jim Cobbe, Lesotho: Will the enclave empty?, Migration Information Source, September 2004, www.migation information.org. The Chinese Embassy in Lesotho puts the number at ‘more than 5,000’. Tsitsi Matope, ‘China Pays Special Attention to Lesotho’ (interview with Lai Bo, Chargé d’Affaires, Chinese Embassy in Lesotho), States News Service, 25 March 2011.

  10. 10.

    ‘Lesotho’s visa application centre in Shanghai gets official launch’, Tendersinfo, 14 February 2011.

  11. 11.

    Lesotho Department of Home Affairs data, 2009/2010, collected and collated in April 2010.

  12. 12.

    There was a common school yard taunt targeting any child who looked East Asian: ‘Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, look at these’. I learned quite soon after my arrival in the United States that most Americans were unable to distinguish between different groups.

  13. 13.

    This and other quotations of Chinese South African interviewees are from my Ph.D. research. The interviews were carried out in 1998 and 1999. All names have been changed.

  14. 14.

    The only gap in Chinese consular representation in South Africa occurred from 1911 to 1920, when the acting Consul General, Liu Ngai, was recalled to China. During this period, the United States consulate in Johannesburg handled matters relating to Chinese interests in South Africa (Yap and Man 1996, p. 417).

  15. 15.

    Interview, 1998.

  16. 16.

    How these privileges accord with the Chinese South African position during the affirmative action court case decided in 2008 (as discussed by Karen Harris, chapter “The Construction of ‘Otherness’: A History of the Chinese Migrants in South Africa,” in this volume) is a matter worthy of further discussion; suffice it to say here that, although some Chinese South Africans benefitted from concessions and privileges , as mentioned earlier, they continued to live legally as second-class citizens and did not receive the right to vote until 1994. While I am not a legal scholar, this lack of franchise on its own should have been sufficient to justify the decision in favour of the Chinese.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Yoon Jung Park

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  1. Yoon Jung Park
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa

    Scarlett Cornelissen

  2. Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan

    Yoichi Mine

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Park, Y.J. (2018). Liminal Spaces: Ethnic Chinese in the Borderlands of Southern Africa. In: Cornelissen, S., Mine, Y. (eds) Migration and Agency in a Globalizing World. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60205-3_5

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