Derek Sheridan
Biographic Data
| ID | 211874 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Derek Sheridan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Derek |
| FAMILY NAME | Sheridan |
| SIGNATURE | SHERIDAN D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5100-814X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 39 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Asymmetries, Heiren Discourses, and the Geopolitics of Studying Race in Africa–China Relations
The semiotics of Heiren (黑人)
Among Chinese migrants in Tanzania, “Heiren (黑人)” (black person/people) is a ubiquitous term with many referents, encapsulating everyone from labourers to state officials, and ranging from an ethno-racial category to an individual pronoun. In English translation, the term bears on a contentious debate regarding racialisation in Africa-China relations. In this paper, based on seventeen months of fieldwork among Chinese migrants in Tanzania, I exam…
We Are Now the Same”
Many accounts of Chinese migration in Africa compare China to “the West.” However, lived historical experiences, social hierarchies and moral mappings of the division of labour have mediated how different peoples in different contexts have received, interacted with and given meaning to Chinese migrants. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Tanzanians talk about so-called Chinese “ wamachinga ” (petty traders) who have complicated long-standing ideas about…
Even if the Chinese Grow Wings and Fly
In a Tanzanian seaside dojo, Sempai Ali Issa Hassan, a Swahili martial artist, filmmaker, and healer, offers an alternative history claiming the East Asian martial arts originate in the Afro-Islamic world. Starting from his reaction to a visit by a Chinese Shaolin master, we trace the contours of our experience making sense of claims which both challenge and recast assumptions about Afro-Asian cultural exchange
Diplomats, Activists, and the Hauntology of American Empire in Martial Law Taiwan
Despite open US support for the Kuomintang ( kmt ) during the martial law period, opposition and pro-independence politics to this day have been haunted by the spectre of the American empire. Imaginings of US power and intentions, however, have often exceeded the actual institutional traces of US presence, both extending and subverting US power. In this article, I explore how imperial conditions during martial law were imagined through the relati…
Weak passports and bad behavior
Chinese migrants in Tanzania regularly face inspections by street-level bureaucrats, inspections that are often resolved by paying "tips." These encounters make the Chinese feel vulnerable in Africa, although they disagree about why this is so. Some claim they are vulnerable because China lacks a colonial history in Africa, while others put the blame on some migrants' illicit practices, which have made all Chinese targets for extortion. These con…
Chinese peanuts and Chinese machinga
This chapter uses the rumour of a Chinese peanut seller and the related figure of the “Chinese machinga” in Tanzania to examine how claims about the China–Africa relationship are produced, validated, contested, and circulated in the context of differing political economies of epistemological value. In doing so, it flattens the conceptual distinction between vernacular and expert forms of knowledge production by showing traffic, in the form of cas…
If You Greet Them, They Ignore You
What kinds of "friendship" are possible between unequally situated actors in the global economy? In this article, I recast the anthropology of global relationships through an ethnography of interpersonal relationships. The presence of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Tanzania-like other emergent "South-South" connections-provides an opportunity for exploring how the terms of global inequalities are negotiated in everyday interactions. Historical …
Uncle Sam Said Very Clearly You Are Not a Country”
In 2006, a group of Taiwanese independence activists began arguing that Taiwan, claimed by China, was actually under the legal jurisdiction of an unrecognized U.S. military occupation. Drawing on fieldwork among both grassroots Taiwan independence activists and those who argue Taiwan should be (or already is) part of the United States, I argue that “empire” is not a pregiven entity but something that has to be imagined, mapped, and made legible. …
If You Greet Them, They Ignore You
What kinds of "friendship" are possible between unequally situated actors in the global economy? In this article, I recast the anthropology of global relationships through an ethnography of interpersonal relationships. The presence of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Tanzania-like other emergent "South-South" connections-provides an opportunity for exploring how the terms of global inequalities are negotiated in everyday interactions. Historical …
Weak passports and bad behavior
Chinese migrants in Tanzania regularly face inspections by street-level bureaucrats, inspections that are often resolved by paying "tips." These encounters make the Chinese feel vulnerable in Africa, although they disagree about why this is so. Some claim they are vulnerable because China lacks a colonial history in Africa, while others put the blame on some migrants' illicit practices, which have made all Chinese targets for extortion. These con…
The semiotics of Heiren (黑人)
Among Chinese migrants in Tanzania, “Heiren (黑人)” (black person/people) is a ubiquitous term with many referents, encapsulating everyone from labourers to state officials, and ranging from an ethno-racial category to an individual pronoun. In English translation, the term bears on a contentious debate regarding racialisation in Africa-China relations. In this paper, based on seventeen months of fieldwork among Chinese migrants in Tanzania, I exam…
We Are Now the Same”
Many accounts of Chinese migration in Africa compare China to “the West.” However, lived historical experiences, social hierarchies and moral mappings of the division of labour have mediated how different peoples in different contexts have received, interacted with and given meaning to Chinese migrants. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Tanzanians talk about so-called Chinese “ wamachinga ” (petty traders) who have complicated long-standing ideas about…
Even if the Chinese Grow Wings and Fly
In a Tanzanian seaside dojo, Sempai Ali Issa Hassan, a Swahili martial artist, filmmaker, and healer, offers an alternative history claiming the East Asian martial arts originate in the Afro-Islamic world. Starting from his reaction to a visit by a Chinese Shaolin master, we trace the contours of our experience making sense of claims which both challenge and recast assumptions about Afro-Asian cultural exchange
Diplomats, Activists, and the Hauntology of American Empire in Martial Law Taiwan
Despite open US support for the Kuomintang ( kmt ) during the martial law period, opposition and pro-independence politics to this day have been haunted by the spectre of the American empire. Imaginings of US power and intentions, however, have often exceeded the actual institutional traces of US presence, both extending and subverting US power. In this article, I explore how imperial conditions during martial law were imagined through the relati…
Uncle Sam Said Very Clearly You Are Not a Country”
In 2006, a group of Taiwanese independence activists began arguing that Taiwan, claimed by China, was actually under the legal jurisdiction of an unrecognized U.S. military occupation. Drawing on fieldwork among both grassroots Taiwan independence activists and those who argue Taiwan should be (or already is) part of the United States, I argue that “empire” is not a pregiven entity but something that has to be imagined, mapped, and made legible. …
Chinese peanuts and Chinese machinga
This chapter uses the rumour of a Chinese peanut seller and the related figure of the “Chinese machinga” in Tanzania to examine how claims about the China–Africa relationship are produced, validated, contested, and circulated in the context of differing political economies of epistemological value. In doing so, it flattens the conceptual distinction between vernacular and expert forms of knowledge production by showing traffic, in the form of cas…
If You Greet Them, They Ignore You
What kinds of "friendship" are possible between unequally situated actors in the global economy? In this article, I recast the anthropology of global relationships through an ethnography of interpersonal relationships. The presence of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Tanzania-like other emergent "South-South" connections-provides an opportunity for exploring how the terms of global inequalities are negotiated in everyday interactions. Historical …
Weak passports and bad behavior
Chinese migrants in Tanzania regularly face inspections by street-level bureaucrats, inspections that are often resolved by paying "tips." These encounters make the Chinese feel vulnerable in Africa, although they disagree about why this is so. Some claim they are vulnerable because China lacks a colonial history in Africa, while others put the blame on some migrants' illicit practices, which have made all Chinese targets for extortion. These con…
Diplomats, Activists, and the Hauntology of American Empire in Martial Law Taiwan
Despite open US support for the Kuomintang ( kmt ) during the martial law period, opposition and pro-independence politics to this day have been haunted by the spectre of the American empire. Imaginings of US power and intentions, however, have often exceeded the actual institutional traces of US presence, both extending and subverting US power. In this article, I explore how imperial conditions during martial law were imagined through the relati…
We Are Now the Same”
Many accounts of Chinese migration in Africa compare China to “the West.” However, lived historical experiences, social hierarchies and moral mappings of the division of labour have mediated how different peoples in different contexts have received, interacted with and given meaning to Chinese migrants. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Tanzanians talk about so-called Chinese “ wamachinga ” (petty traders) who have complicated long-standing ideas about…
Even if the Chinese Grow Wings and Fly
In a Tanzanian seaside dojo, Sempai Ali Issa Hassan, a Swahili martial artist, filmmaker, and healer, offers an alternative history claiming the East Asian martial arts originate in the Afro-Islamic world. Starting from his reaction to a visit by a Chinese Shaolin master, we trace the contours of our experience making sense of claims which both challenge and recast assumptions about Afro-Asian cultural exchange
The semiotics of Heiren (黑人)
Among Chinese migrants in Tanzania, “Heiren (黑人)” (black person/people) is a ubiquitous term with many referents, encapsulating everyone from labourers to state officials, and ranging from an ethno-racial category to an individual pronoun. In English translation, the term bears on a contentious debate regarding racialisation in Africa-China relations. In this paper, based on seventeen months of fieldwork among Chinese migrants in Tanzania, I exam…
Asymmetries, Heiren Discourses, and the Geopolitics of Studying Race in Africa–China Relations
Sociology (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · China (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Anthropology (3 works) · China's Global Influence and Migration (3 works) · Ethnography (3 works) · Gender Studies (3 works)