China-Africa media interactions: media and popular culture between business and state intervention

Following the exponential growth in China-Africa relationships over the past few years, African and Chinese media industries have developed new ties and increased their reciprocal relationships. For instance, Chinese state media corporations such as Xinhua News and China Central Television (CCTV) have significantly invested in developing their African chapters, private companies such as StarTimes acquired a leading role in the continent-wide satellite television market, and Chinese telecommunication firms such as Huawei and ZTE have transformed the African continent into their testing ground for new products and marketing strategies, to be later exported elsewhere around the world. This special issue addresses the increasing China-Africa media interactions. Contributions: New directions in the study of Africa-China media and communications engagements (Bob Wekesa); Visual representations in South Africa of China and the Chinese people (Philip Harrison, Yan Yang & Khangelani Moyo); Watching Hong Kong martial arts film under apartheid (Cobus van Staden); Representing ‘otherness’ in African popular media: Chinese characters in Ethiopian video-films (Alessandro Jedlowski & Michael W. Thomas); Perspectives of Zimbabwe-China relations in Wallace Chirumiko’s ‘Made in China’ (2012) and NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names (2013) (Terrence Musanga); The Chinese presence in the Malian mediascape (Birama Diakon & Ute Rschenthaler); Covering Ebola: a comparative analysis of CCTV Africa’s Talk Africa and Al Jazeera English’s Inside Story (Shubo Li); Making space for emotions: exploring China-Africa ‘mediated relationships’ through CCTV-9’s documentary African Chronicles (Feizhou jishi) (Giovanna Puppin). [ASC Leiden abstract]