Great African Reads discussion

I thought I should set up this spin-off thread from the foreign aid thread...there seems to be a lot of really interesting stuff out there about this burgeoning relationship between China and Africa. I thought this reuters video about Africans living and working in China was really interesting.

i thought someone had posted here in the past day...the person was unable to get the video to play but remarked on the horrible comments under the youtube video. i just checked the link and the video works for me and it really is quite interesting. however, the comments underneath ARE very offensive. should i delete this or is there a way for me to link to the video without the comments? i'm not very sophisticated with technology.

the video is about China's first black African news anchor and what it is like for her to work in China and why she likes living and working there. so in my view, it's a worthwhile piece to have here at this group but the comments really are awful. i must not have noticed them when i first posted this; i can't remember how i found this link. i apologize to anyone who saw the comments and was put off by them.

I think the warning is sufficient. I'll hazard a guess that many of us have experienced racism and sexism and are familiar with the sentiments in the comments.

Last weekend, the Chinese Embassy in Accra showed six sub-titled films to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Ghana.

I missed the first one, Maimaiti's 2008.

I walked out halfway through the second one, My Sunshine Lane (Hutong Days), supposed to be a comedy about a poor guy for whom everything goes wrong, but much too depressing for my taste.

Assembly is based on a true story from the Chinese Civil War. The early war scenes were technically brilliant. The script for the rest of the film seemed intent on including every somewhat drawn out aspect of the subsequent history.

Ye Wen (Master of Kung-fu), another bio-pic, about the man who would eventually become Bruce Lee's mentor, was fascinating in its period detail and in how it dealt with the Japanese invasion.

Walking to School is a charming, sad, sentimental tale about children who have to cross a raging river on a wire rope to go to school. My favourite.

Forever Enthralled, yet another bio-pic, tells the story of Mei Lanfang, King of Peking Opera. The opera sequences were interesting, the personal story rather dull.

For some months I've been struggling to complete an article entitled The Year of Africa - in China which I plan to submit to a newspaper in South Africa. Let me share some of the information I've found.

Regarding Chinese attitudes to Africans, Professor Simon Xu-hui Shen reports, in a paper published in the Journal of Modern African Studies in 2009, the results of a two-year study of messages about Africa posted in Chinese on-line forums. It makes disturbing reading.

For the broad picture, check Afro-Chinese Relations, Past, Present and Future, 15 papers presented at a conference held in Johannesburg in November 2005. Edited by Prof. Kwesi Kwaa Prah. Copies available from CASAS www.casas.co.za/

My own snapshot of the publishing industry in China:

There are nearly 600 major publishing houses in China, 50 of which publish works of literature and art. Of the 250,000 titles published each year, 150,000 are new, 20,000 are fiction and 10,000 are translations. Best-sellers, with sales of over 50,000, account for over 60% of turnover. Books are astonishingly inexpensive, fiction titles retailing for the equivalent of $2 to $3. In all, there are some 800,000 titles in print. In 2009, 7 billion books were printed. The output of the publishing industry is worth $150 billion, measured against which the $80 million spent on imported books is trivial. The USA and UK are the leading sources of translated works. Amongst these, fiction is the favourite sector. In recent years, best-selling foreign fiction titles have included The Bridges of Madison County, The Horse Whisperer, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Lord of the Rings.

The China National Publication Import & Export Corporation, which had a stand at the recent Cape Town Book Fair, is the major supplier to the country’s 3000 public libraries and 50,000 local cultural centres. There are over 400 million volumes on the shelves of these libraries.

With 20,000 square meters of floor space, Beijing’s giant Di San Ji is just one of China’s 70,000 bookstores. Reputed to be the largest in the world, it has 300,000 books on offer and every day receives some 60,000 visitors.

This year’s Beijing International Book Fair hosted 2000 exhibitors from 58 countries in 43,000 sq.-meters of exhibition space, showed 200,000 titles and received 200,000 visitors.

The statistics about China’s book trade are mind-boggling. But here’s the crunch: my on-line search turned up Chinese translations of novels by just three African authors: J. M. Coetzee (most of his work, Zhejiang Arts Publishing House), Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart and A Man of the People, Chongqing Publishing House) and Nadine Gordimer (Get A Life and My Son’s Story).

In Publishing in China: An Essential Guide, Xin Guangwi tells us that Gordimer’s publisher, The People’s Literature Publishing House, is the most prestigious literary publisher in China. It has the largest back catalogue and produces 500 titles each year.

Other publishers specializing in foreign literature include The Writer’s Publishing House, affiliated to the Chinese Writers’ Association, the Shanghai Translation Publishing House, Yilin Press, Hubei Education Press and Lijiang Press.

Huang Yuhai, founder of Shanghai 99, Dan Brown’s publisher, says, “China has a huge market . . . Despite its problems, China’s economy is moving steadily forward. The living conditions of ordinary people have been improved. People now share many of the Western cultural values. This is really good for the book industry, especially for those of us who publish foreign books.”

Youtube is one of the worst sites in the internet for offensive comments. Brutal over there. But yeah, I think offensive comments just kinda come with being on the internet.

And in a way, it's important to learn the lesson that when people are allowed to say whatever they want anonymously, many of them will say horrible things.

Manu wrote: "Last weekend, the Chinese Embassy in Accra showed six sub-titled films to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Ghana.

I missed the first one, Maimaiti's ..."

wow, thanks Manu! i will be checking Netflix for availability in the U.S...

Manu wrote: "For some months I've been struggling to complete an article entitled The Year of Africa - in China which I plan to submit to a newspaper in South Africa. Let me share some of the information I've f..."

This is all really fascinating information. i would like to read your article when it's published, Manu!

also i'd be curious to keep on top of African titles translated into Chinese. i wonder how popular English-language or French-language African books are in China (compared with European, American, Latin American books?)

i'm going to go track down Professor Simon Xu-hui Shen's article now...

well, this thread kinda almost died.

so i'll revive it by adding India into the mix.

The next issue of Research in African Literatures, currently in production and due out in August, will be a special issue devoted to Asian African literatures, with special emphasis on Indian African lit. RAL 42.3, guest edited by Gaurav Desai. Watch for it.

Ruthmarie wrote: "The next issue of Research in African Literatures, currently in production and due out in August, will be a special issue devoted to Asian African literatures, with special emphasis on Indian Afric..."

omg thanks for the heads up!!

Marieke wrote: "Ruthmarie wrote: "The next issue of Research in African Literatures, currently in production and due out in August, will be a special issue devoted to Asian African literatures, with special emphas..."

You might find this blog interesting too http://chinaafricablog.com/

I would like to know if anyone can tell about any book recommendations on China and Africa.
Thanks
mlh

Interesting. There's a big African population in my part of Seoul.

Marlin, I just saw this. My apologies. Do you mean nonfiction books? I will come back with a couple of recommendations....

Marlin wrote: "I would like to know if anyone can tell about any book recommendations on China and Africa.
Thanks
mlh"
Afro-Chinese Relations, Past, Present, Future, edited by Kwesi Kwaa Prah, contains 15 papers by roughly equal numbers of Chinese and African academics presented at a conference held in Johannesburg in 2005. ISBN 978-1-919932-67-5

I also found this book that was released this year and I'm thinking about buying it.
Has anyone read it yet?

It's been a year since Marlin's original request, but here are a few (haven't read any of these, but they look interesting):

China Safari: On the Trail of Beijing's Expansion in Africa
The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa
China Goes Global: The Partial Power
Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World

Our business is focused on cooperation between China and Africa, although I'm new to the company, but this is my first job in an international company, we even monitor working hours with this program Kickidler, so in principle it is quite interesting