Event: China in Africa, Africa in China

Sixth Tone Agora is a series of public events, including lectures and expert roundtables, organized by Sixth Tone. It is an opportunity to meet and engage with some of contemporary China’s most interesting and innovative thinkers, academics, and writers.

Thanks to a partnership with Duoyun Books, Sixth Tone Agora is held at Duoyun’s flagship store in the Shanghai Tower. Situated on the 52nd floor of the world’s second highest building, Duoyun offers magnificent views of Shanghai and an inspiring space for cultural and intellectual exchanges.

The next Agora event will take place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., March 26, 2023. Flair Donglai Shi, an associate professor of comparative literature at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, will give a talk on the representation of China-Africa relations in recent cultural products.

The lecture is in English. Slots must be reserved in advance. Entry fee: 40 yuan. The fee will be refunded as a coupon for the store’s café.

Abstract

The past decade has seen China-Africa ties grow closer than ever as China replaced the United States as the continent’s largest trading partner. In addition to state-level relations, however, the sociocultural impacts of intensified China-Africa exchange on people’s lives and mutual perceptions in fields such as literature, film, and tech have only just started to attract global attention. What do these cultural products say about Chinese and Africans? And can fictional narratives and documentaries help humanize China-Africa relations? This talk will explore these questions by delving into the history of interracial exchange between China and Africa, with particular attention to public figures of mixed racial heritage.

Speaker: Flair Donglai Shi

Flair Donglai Shi is an associate professor of comparative literature at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Oxford and works as an associate tutor in translation studies at Warwick University. His research areas include world literature theory, race and postcolonial studies, Sinophone studies, and China-Africa cultural relations. He is currently working on a monograph, “Yellow Peril Revisited,” while furthering his research on the interracial politics of contemporary China-Africa cultural products.

Scan the QR code to make a reservation and find out more about the event.