Just Another Chinese Guy

Just Another Chinese Guy
A documentary by Melanie Gärtner, 2015 (16min)in cooperation with the BMBF-funded project AFRASO (Africas Asian Options)(www.afraso.org).
While media coverage on Chinese-African interactions commonly portrays them as a neocolonial political project; a look on the daily lives of Chinese people in Africa, who are trading, settling and forming communities, reveals that mono-causal explanations for the presence of Chinese people in Africa are misleading. Transnational migration is usually economically motivated, but Chinese people migrate to Africa for different personal reasons and come from various regions and social classes.
The South African city of Johannesburg is a centre of China’s presence in Africa. Over the last twenty years, Chinese migrants have set up shopping malls in Johannesburg, where they sell Chinese consumer products to the local population and traders from South Africa and neighboring countries. In consequence, a Chinatown has been established in one of Johannesburg’s suburbs, where one can find greengrocers who sell goods that are grown on “Chinese” farms in South Africa as well as hairdressers and computer shops that are almost exclusively for Chinese. Chinese newspapers, clubs and associations also have their offices there.
In “Just Another Chinese Guy”, the documentary filmmaker Melanie Gärtner accompanies Angus, a young Chinese, through Chinese Johannesburg. Angus recounts from his own life and the life of his friends. The audience is even introduced to Angus’ exceptional hobby: Playing bagpipes. With a focus on Angus’ narrations, the film presents a complex and emerging community. For Angus and his friends, Africa is not only symbolized by famines and poverty, but also represents a continent of opportunities that became their home. Angus’ friend Conny, for example, lives in Johannesburg since four years and has already established her own business. Angus admires her business model and Conny’s personality. For his friend Scot, Johannesburg is a chance to overcome the restrictions of Chinese society and to pursue playing bagpipes. For Andy, migration did not turn out very well and he would prefer to return to China as soon as possible. “Just Another Chinese Guy” depicts Angus’ role as a mediator between his friends, his family and the South African society, but also tells how Angus tries to set up his own way of life that differs from that of his parents and older siblings. The portrayal of Angus’ friends indicates that migration is experienced differently from person to person and shows that migration cannot exclusively be thought in categories like integration and assimilation. Angus, for example, perceives himself as South African. He is not a stranger in the South African society, but part of it.
“Just Another Chinese Guy” is based on the cooperation between the documentary filmmaker Melanie Gärtner and Matthias Gruber, an anthropologist at Goethe University, Frankfurt. The film has been made within the research project Africa’s Asian Options (AFRASO) that is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Within AFRASO, researchers from Goethe University approach African-Asian interactions from transregional and comparative perspectives. Trading networks between Africa and Asia are one thematic focus of the overall project, which Matthias addresses from the perspective of Chinese traders in Johannesburg. Accordingly, trade is perceived as more than the exchange of goods and service. It also covers questions of mobility, migration and the development of communities.

[@yoonjungpark7996]

I first "met" Angus at a conference in China this past December, when Mathias Gruber presented his research at the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China conference. What a lovely and interesting young man... and what a splendid example of globalization from below and cultural crossings.
First of all, congratulations to Mathias, Melanie, and AFRASO for what we hope is only the first of many such projects. Secondly, so much of what Angus says (and otherwise communicates) are things that we, as researchers, might try to say in our papers, but it’s so much more meaningful coming from him. Lastly, it is a testament to the relationship that Mathias and Melanie built with Angus, that he was willing to do this video and share so much of himself. Really, really lovely. Yoon Jung Park, Convener/Coordinator, Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network

[@soysaucegirl2007]

I absolutely love this because it is so revealing on so many levels. There are ZERO direct engagements / interactions with Africans at all. There is just the line about 'dangerous places' not to visit, which was clearly about black areas. Black people are his wallpaper. Then there was the obsessing over the phone shop lady who clearly has no feelings for him. Just to push the lack of interest in Africa further, we are invited into this guy's fascination with Scottish Highland music! Through this, I see how apartheid is continually perpetuated - LOL at him talking about 'mixing' into the country as he plays Scottish music in Africa. I really wish there were more films made by Chinese in Africans, which show how displaced or integrated they are. We need the TRUTH like this.