African community in China

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African students at Zhejiang Normal University perform at the opening ceremony of 2018 Jinhua Sino-African Cultural Cooperation Exchange Week in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province on September 9, 2018. Photo: IC

As his hand slipped across the screen of his iPhone, Jeffrey Ldigo searched to find the phone number of Andy's Restaurant & Bar, an African restaurant located in Sanlitun, Beijing's Chaoyang district. Once a month, he orders some Nigerian food there.

"I cook myself sometimes. You can buy ingredients like palm oil on Taobao," he said. Living in an apartment in Shunyi district, about an hour's commute to the center of the city, he chooses to pay a delivery fee to get his native cuisine from his home country. He came to China as a teacher in August, 2015. 

Ldigo said that this is the third community he has lived in, and he likes the short 30-minute commute to the school where he works at. 

Shunyi district is one of the neighborhoods where Africans choose to live in Beijing. "I think it's because of its job opportunities. Many international schools are located here," he said. Like many expats, eating food from their home country is one of the ways that Ldigo deals with homesickness. 

He's a member of the African community in Beijing. Under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, more young African people choose to come to China to study or do business. Some people leave, but others decide to stay here for another two to three years. They've found challenges as Africans living in China, but are trying to integrate their lives into the country and have also seen some changes.

Inset: Two African students pose at the celebration of Zimbabwe's Independence Day held in Tianjin on April 20, 2019. Photo: Jason Ajibola Lawal

Community matters 

"Our foundation colors are different from yours," Estelle Walters said. The 28-year-old woman is a makeup artist from Papua New Guinea. She opened her cosmetic bag where foundations, lipsticks, and makeup brushes are gathered. She was preparing to do makeup for her friend Pamela Masinde Kotii, a hairdresser from Kenya, who would later help Walters style her hair in return.

Living in a community makes their life in China easier in a way. "We help each other," Walters said. 

She came to China as a university student five years ago. After graduation, she has been trying to run her own business in Tianjin. "I love doing makeup for people," she said. One of the difficulties she faces is that there are misunderstandings toward their makeup. "In terms of foundation, most of the cosmetics counters in China don't provide colors that fit our skin," she said, looking at her cosmetics, most of which were bought from other countries and regions like Hong Kong and Canada. "I've heard that many people think there is no need for African women to do makeup," Kotii said. 

Two years ago, she was one of a few hairdressers who can do hairdressing in Tianjin. "It was a difficult time, people called me and said they [wanted me] to do [their] hair. But I was not available," she said. Now, things look different. With a booming African community in Tianjin, many African students know how to style hair. "I'm going to officially open my salon on May 3, 2019. By that time, there will be two salons in Tianjin," Kotii said. 

To some of them, getting together with fellow countrymen in the African community helps ease the strain of living in a foreign country and homesickness. 

"There were only seven foreigners in the whole city of a million people, so I couldn't stay there, I wasn't really happy," said Leletu Gxuluwe, an English teacher in Beijing who moved from East China's Shandong Province to Beijing about a year ago.

Musi is from France who teaches English in North China's Tianjin Municipality. She attended a party on Sunday. "Tonight is for celebrating Zimbabwe's Independence Day," Musi said, explaining that she heard this event from one of her Zimbabwean friends and decided to join them. "It's an amazing way for people to get together as a community, because we should all remember where we come from," she said. 

Creating bonds

Language barriers are always obstacles for expats who are trying to integrate themselves into the Chinese community. However, the interviewees said that they are trying to build bonds within the city they live in. And a hobby is a good choice. 

"I should go more into the Chinese community, when it comes to makeup," said Walters. Through doing makeup, she has already met some Chinese women who had no idea about African women's cosmetics before. "But when they saw the makeup videos I put on my Instagram, they all said 'that's beautiful,'" she said. 

Kotii has some Chinese customers as well. They go to Kotii's salon hoping that she can braid their hair into African styles. And during the process they can learn something new that they didn't know before. "Now there are more Chinese women who would like to try braids," said Kotii. 

"Chinese people are amazing," said Simbarashe Ndhlovu from Zimbabwe. "And some of them really try to know about us [Africans]. When I moved into my new apartment, my neighbors came to help me, checking if everything is ok," he recalled.

However, there are also some situations that make them feel alienated. Ldigo said that there are stereotypes towards Africans. "I've never interacted with African people, but in my mind, they are hard to get along with," A Chinese man in his 50s surnamed Gao said. 

Su Shengping, 25, met one of his African friends when he was a university student. He thinks that people are used to getting information from the internet, which can be biased. "For me, there is nothing different between people from different countries," he said. Ldigo has seen some changes in recent years as well. "I think it's getting better, especially with the younger ones, the kids we teach, so it's going to [change and it] just takes time," said Ldigo. 

Kotii and Walters have found that in cities like Beijing and Guangzhou, there are now cosmetics for African women, and salons cooperated by Africans and Chinese. "I think in Beijing, there are 11 salons and in Guangzhou there are more," she said. 

According to the Xinhua News Agency, over 950,000 foreigners were working in the country as of the end of last year. Africans are a component of the expats.

When asked what kind of difficulties they are facing in China as Africans, Kotii said: "For me, it's getting a visa after being a student." She added that there are a lot of things to deal with. "It's a hustle, but I think all of the people in the world are doing the same thing, so we go harder," she said.

Source: Global Times

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1147096.shtml

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