Open Access“THIS COUNTRY OF CHINA IS TOUGH”: NIGERIAN IMMIGRANT MUSIC MAKING IN GUANGZHOU, CHINA
Author(s) -
Manolete Mora
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
african music
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2524-2741
pISSN - 0065-4019
DOI - 10.21504/amj.v11i1.2291
Subject(s) - nigerians , china , igbo , immigration , entertainment , country , gender studies , ethnic group , economic growth , sociology , political science , socioeconomics , geography , anthropology , management , philosophy , linguistics , law , economics
This article concerns Nigerian music making in Guangzhou, one of China’s leading manufacturing and trading centres, and where the largest groups of Africans in China, more generally, are concentrated. Nigerians are the largest community of Africans in Guangzhou and, like other Africans traders, practice what has been referred to as “low-end globalisation” (Mathews and Yang 2012). Beyond entertainment, music making among Nigerians, and Africans in China more generally, has a significant role in not only maintaining a sense of belonging but also in communicating key social concerns, aspirations and sentiments that stem from the experience of living and working in Guangzhou. This article describes how these experiences unfold in specific songs composed by two Igbo Nigerian immigrants whose aspirations and efforts to live and work in the city resulted in different outcomes.