The Everyday Chinese Framing of Africa

A Perspective of Tourism-geopolitical Encounter

Bibliographic Data

ID3948241
AuthorsNing An (0000-0002-6300-6368, South China Normal University), Jiayin Zhang (0009-0006-7399-6752, South China Normal University), Min Wang (0000-0001-8567-8125, South China Normal University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume28
Issue4
Pages1422-1441
Publication date2023-08-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2020.1807957
OpenAlexW3082782986
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited41

This paper conducts a discourse analysis of Chinese tourist writings about Africa on the most popular Chinese online tourist forum, Mafengwo (hornet’s nest). By examining 2,950 travelogues collected online, our research finds that Chinese tourists’ conceptions of Africa are mainly built through 5 frames, including the exotic frame, the adventurous frame, the poverty frame, the China’s engagement frame, and the affection frame that describe Africa as a remote, exotic, adventurous, dangerous, miserable, and backward place compared to a modern China that strongly supports Africa’s development. Much tourist writing corresponds with the official Chinese geopolitical narrative of China-Africa relations that perceives China itself as a peacefully rising power who would also like to help developing others like Africa. However, we also find that some Chinese tourists’ descriptions of Africa fit uneasily into the official Chinese geopolitical conceptions, in which they demonstrate affection for Africa, but only in regard to its Western aspects, e.g., architecture, food, activities. One contribution of this study is providing a bottom-up Chinese citizenry discourses and cultural experiences of Africa, and with this empirical analysis it updates theories of everyday Chinese geopolitics of tourism. We think this study is unique in that we have broadened the understanding of both official and citizenry Chinese geopolitical conceptions and their (dis)connections, in particular from the everyday encounter between geopolitics and tourism, which also sets a frame for comprehending Chinese citizenry geopolitical conceptions of the outside ‘other’

Affection · China · Content analysis · Epistemology · Frame analysis · Geography · Geopolitics · Linguistics · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Tourism · China's Global Influence and Migration · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Law · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development

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