On the evening of December 25th, 2020, the Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University (PKU) held the 47th seminar of the “North Pavilion Dialogue” lecture serie. Mr. Xu Liang, Assistant Professor of the School of International Studies (SIS), Peking University (PKU), gave a lecture entitled “The Frontier of Factories, Families and Capital - A Socio-Economic Study of Chinese Enterprises in Africa”. The lecture was hosted by Mr. Gui Yongtao, Vice President of the IISS, PKU and Vice President of the SIS, PKU.

Mr. Xu Liang first shared the significant progress made by, and major achievements of both China and Africa in various fields such as diplomacy, trade and investment in the last decade from a macro perspective, and introduced two modes of narratives in the existing China-related studies - “China as an Empire” and “China as a Development Model”. On that basis, he further proposed a third mode of narrative - “China as Capital”  

Mr. Xu Liang noted that the narrative “China as Capital” manifests itself in three dimensions in Africa. The first dimension is state-owned capital, which is the uppermost dimension and involves inter-country cooperation in strategic industries and major infrastructure projects. The second is grassroots venture capital, which is the tertiary dimension of the three and points to the overseas Chinese diaspora working, operating businesses and venturing in Africa. The third dimension - private industrial capital, which is also the intermediate dimension of the three, is the highlight of Mr. Xu Liang’s presentation. According to relevant studies, private capital from China has undeniably contributed to significant economic development and increased employment opportunities in Africa, and is of considerable significance for African nations to seize historic opportunities for their own development. 

Mr. Xu Liang shared results of his own research and studies on Chinese-owned garment factories in the city of Newcastle in South Africa. There are roughly 120 Chinese-owned garment factories in Newcastle, the city which features a large presence of local Zulu community, employing a total of some 20,000 local female workers. When analyzing the reasons for such a large presence of Chinese factories in Newcastle, Mr. Xu Liang noted that as the result of the previous apartheid policy, a large number of labor-intensive factory areas had been established in the domestic “borderlands” in South Africa, accommodating numerous employment opportunities for black South Africans. However, with the widespread international condemnation of the apartheid policy and the ongoing industrial transformation, South Africa began to seek investment from and cooperation with Asian countries. Currently, there are three types of Chinese household enterprises in Newcastle, including large exporters with investments from Hong Kong and Singapore, small and medium-sized sweater factories with investments from Taiwan, and foundry factories with investments from mainland China. Mr. Xu Liang further focused on analyzing the changing patterns of Chinese families. When Taiwanese investors came to Africa with their families in the 1970s, they formed new “model families” and established their own family business networks. Since the beginning of the 21st century, however, mainland Chinese investors in Africa have developed a new family pattern - “production-oriented couples”, in which women who master threading and sewing techniques and men who master mechanical repair techniques have formed partnerships in their long-term mutual cooperation within factories. This new pattern, to a considerable degree, has been widely accepted by the local society.  

Mr. Xu Liang’s analysis then shifts to the family structure of Zulu female workers in Chinese-owned garment factories. The inflow of private capital from Chinese-owned businesses has transformed the social status of Zulu women from stay-at-home mothers to industrial workers. Mr. Xu Liang defined those Zulu female workers who have worked in Chinese factories for half of their lives as “factory mothers”, a role specifically featured in a female-associated family structure where only female roles such as mother and grandmother exist with the absence of male roles such as husband or father. He argued that the rise of such phenomenon is largely due to the fact that with the decline of the local mining industry, men are no longer able to find jobs in places where they are supposed to find job opportunities, and that a female-centered family structure has come into being as a result of such social change, which helps families maintain a low-wage standard of living and thus facilitates the dual reproduction of labor and social institutions.  

Finally, Xu Liang believed that a micro-level study of the “frontier regions” of factories, families and capital not only facilitate researchers’ understanding of the historical significance and nature of Sino-African exchanges in a global context, but also sheds light on the prospect of new changes in capital forms, factory presence and family structure and even serves as a process of better understanding of others and ourselves. 

During the Q&A session, Mr. Xu Liang had discussions and exchanged views with the teachers and students present at the lecture on a variety of topics, including the distribution of household property among overseas Chinese families, the impact of the inflow of Chinese private capital on self-owned factories of Zulu female workers, and the implications of the transformation of South Africa’s industrial structure from traditional industry-oriented to modern industry-oriented. (Contributed by: Zhang Xu)

 Editors: Li Fangqi, Zeng Chuyuan     Photographer: Zheng Peijie