The Shifting Meanings of Race in China: A Case Study of the African Diaspora Communities in Guangzhou

Based on archival research and multi‐sited fieldwork among Chinese and migrants from Africa in Guangzhou, Yiwu (China), and Lagos (Nigeria), this research explores the contradictions and unevenness in the racialization of black African identity in South China. I argue that racism against black Africans in Guangzhou needs to be contextualized within larger contexts such as the rise of China as a global economic power, its changing relations with Africa under the Mao and post‐Mao regimes, the intersection of internal and international migration in global cities such as Guangzhou, and the persistent influence of Western racial ideology in popular media. [African Migrants; China; Blackness; Race; Racism]