1) EU expansion meets KILL BILL and, true to their style, every possible non-western stereotype… and fit it in one video.
I’m, literally, crying blood.
2) Why do documentaries of the Chinese diaspora in Africa seem to have the same geographical concentration (Zambia being the epicentre) and interview the same people?
Al-Jazeera’s ‘King Cobra and the Dragon’ (made for ‘People and Power’ programme) directed by Solange Chatelard, interviews Mr Liu, who’s got to be Zambia’s most famous farmer, after also featuring in ‘When China met Africa’, directed by Mark and Nick Francis, another documentary on Sino-African relations. His family is also featured in both documentaries, and so are his accounts of how hard-working Chinese people are. However, in Francis’ documentary he is portrayed as a rather rude and harsh boss who does not pay employees on time and is does not tolerate complaints from the workers in his farm. However, in Chatelard’s video, the Liu family appears to be largely integrated in Zambian life: from the open attitudes of the parents to the daughter’s Zambian accented English.
Al-Jazeera’s account also includes the story of the Zambian workers who died at a Chinese-run factory explosion a couple of years ago… and so does Channel 4, Unreported World Series, ‘China’s African Takeover’ (Season 13 episode 3), presented by Aidan Hartley. This latter documentary is sensationalist to the max, and I just find it hard to relate to anything it shows.
Even though Al-Jazeera’s documentary draws on examples that have been previously explored on other occasions, it does so much more successfully, portraying a multifaceted reality. This achievement is unique to Chatelard’s account, as the rather audience-seeking ‘China’s African Takeover’ or the biased ‘When China met Africa’ remained very peripheral on the topic, drawing on already existing stereotypes.
Al-Jazeera/Chatelard’s: Mr Liu/His daughter/ graveyard for deceased Zambian workers.
Channel 4/Aidan Hartley: graveyard for decease Zambian workers.
Mark and Nick Francis: Mr Liu/Mr Liu’s daughter
3) The Guerrilla Girls: REVISITED 22 years after.
4) EYE·PATCH·REVIVAL:
solange guo chatelard
March 8, 2012
Well spotted. You’re probably one of the first and few people who noticed that Mr Liu’s family appears in both films. I introduced Mr Liu and his family to Marc and Nick Francis in 2008 when I worked in Zambia as their production assistant. I thought certain aspects of their lives deserved more attention, such as the role of women, mothers in particular, and the everyday lives of children born and raised in Zambia, so I tried to include some of those aspects in “King Cobra and the Dragon”.
I couldn’t agree more with your point about stereotypes and recycled stories cropping up again and again, but attempts to move away from the ‘big stories’ was a challenge with the channel’s editors. I tried to get around that by contextualising events and the way in which they had been reported in the past, but sadly there are limits to what one can produce on and for TV.
eduardocassina
March 9, 2012
Hello Solange. I am very glad you went back to interview Mr. Liu: as I mentioned, I believe you portrayal of him and his family has a dimension that the Francis’ documentary fails to encapsulate. I also appreciated the lack of utter sensationalist approaches that are often deployed by Westerners when looking at (mainland)Chinese communities, not only in Africa but … everywhere (sadly). I think you did a fantastic job encompassing the multiple and complex dynamics that exist in Zambia and its Chinese diaspora.
On a different note, today I came across another documentary, this time produced by the BBC: ‘The Chinese are Coming’. On the first episode of the two, they go to Lusaka’s central market, where they interview a chicken farmer, and for variety’s sake it is not Mr Liu, but Mr. Pan. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9386678.stm). I also read about how Chinese enterprises in Ecuador are sharing a similar fate to Zambian ones, becoming a central argument in political campaigns in the Andine country ( http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2012/03/08/actualidad/1331190707_452752.html). It would perhaps be very interesting comparing the two.
Thanks for getting in touch,
e
solange guo chatelard
April 1, 2012
Hi, thanks for your response and for sending the link to the Ecuador case. The China Quarterly has just published a special edition on “China-Latin-American Interactions”, but as for Africa, research in the field is still in its very early stages, debates remain contingent upon the headlines of the day, and analytical parameters have yet to be defined, challenged, and revised.
As for Justin’s Rowlatt’s report “The Chinese are Coming”, perhaps just one thing.
Kennedy Gondwe, a freelance Zambian journalist, thinks up an original topic ‘Chinese chicken farmers in Zambia’, does the research, goes into the field, and produces a well balanced and insightful 3 minute report for the BBC. It’s aired, it’s interesting, but no big deal.
Months later, after watching “When China Met Africa” (also a BBC production), Justin Rowlatt goes to Zambia, uses Gondwe as his fixer, is led into the market, interviews the exact same people, for the same broadcaster (BBC), poses as an explorer, and gets an award for best journalist of the year. No comment.
Who’s being ripped off? the audience, the fixer, or the broadcaster itself?
eduardocassina
October 22, 2012
Good point Solange. I guess they are all being ripped off at different levels, and we sure know who is the con artist.
I just read a really interesting Master’s Thesis (by Arwen Hoogenbosch, University of Utrecht) on Chinese language education in Zambia… which really reflects on the complex relationship between Chinese, Zambians and Sata’s government.
He spent a few months doing participant observation in two different Chinese schools in Lusaka, and came up with revelatory findings. I think you’ll find it interesting!
http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/student-theses/2012-0601-200602/A.Hoogenbosch%5B1%5D.pdf