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ABSTRACT
This article focuses on the recent phenomenon of Ethiopian films that prominently feature Chinese characters. As the success of these films relies on representing a stereotypical Chinese ‘Other’, and in reference to China’s ever-growing presence in African countries, we pose broader questions relating to the place of ethnicity, race and national identity in popular cultural productions emerging from the continent. Through an analysis which caters for multiple and at times oppositional interpretations, we argue that the representation of the ‘Chinese Other’ constructed by these films at times criticizes and at times reasserts existing stereotypes and prejudices. The overriding view and intent of the filmmakers to use Chinese characters mainly as narrative devices is often functional in the development of specific, inward-looking social and political criticisms. But this attitude inevitably forces the films to overlook the key issue underlying discourses about otherness in Ethiopian popular media – namely the issue of how to deal with racial multiplicity in a society that defines belonging along rigid and exclusionary terms.
ረቂቅ
ይህ ፅሁፍ በዋናነት የቻይናን ገጸ ባህርይ ባልተለመደ ሁኔታ በወቅቱ በሚሰሩ የኢትዮጵያ ፊልሞች ላይ ያተኩራል። የነዚህ ፊልሞች ስኬት የቻይናን ባህልና ወግ በኢትዮጵያውያን እሳቤ እንዲሁም ከመቼውም ጊዜ በላይ የቻይና የልማት ተሳትፎ በአፍሪካ አገሮች ውስጥ በማጉላት ሲሆን፤ በዚህ ፅሁፍ በባህል፣ በጎሳ በዘር እና ብሔራዊ ማንነትና ቦታ ጋር በተያያዘ ሰፋ ያለ ጥያቄ ለመዳሰስ እንሞክራለን። በጥናቱ ላይ ሁለት ተቃራኒ ሃሳቦችንና ትርጓሜዎችን በመቃኛት ትንተና አካሂደናል። በጥናቱ ላይ በፊልሙ የጊዜ ውክልና እና ወቀሳ አንዳንድ ጊዜ ግትርነት እና ጭፍን ጥላቻ ብቅ ብለው ይከራከራሉ። ከፊልሙ እይታ እና ሐሳብ በዋነኝነት በማህበራዊ እና በፖለቲካዊ ትችቶች ላይ ያተኩራል።
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 When using the term ‘popular’ in this article, we refer to the existing literature on African popular arts and media developed by a number of scholars in African studies over the past few years (cf. Barber Citation1997; Wasserman Citation2011).
2 South Africa is an exception in this context, and some research on the media representation of other non-Western people and cultures have been conducted over the past few years. See for instance Baderoon (Citation2002), Huynh (Citation2008) and Simbao (Citation2012).
3 Examples of Nollywood films focusing on the representation of non-African non-Western cultures and people are J.U.D.E (Osakwe Citation2012), partly shot in India, and Kalybos in China (Asamoah Citation2015), partly shot in China.
4 At the time of writing this article, the film ፍቅር በአማርኛ - ‘ Fïqïr Bä’Amarïñña/Love in Amharic’ (Citation2015) was finishing its post-production. This film features the non-professional Chinese actor, Kian Zian, also in a central Amharic-speaking role as the male love interest.
5 Alessandro Jedlowski conducted three months of research fieldwork in Ethiopia between November 2013 and February 2014 as part of his post-doctoral research project funded by the Marie Curie Cofund program, while Michael Thomas has spent time in-and-out of Ethiopia since 2010, with the research for this paper conducted during a six month stay between March and September 2014 for his MA thesis.
6 It should be noted that this phenomenon does not only occur with foreigners from South East Asia but, increasingly, also with Western foreigners. This calling of any foreigner ‘China, China’ somehow points to the growing impact of the Chinese presence in Ethiopia on popular perceptions of foreigners, which used to be addressed by the use of the term ferenji (European foreigner).
7 See, however, Lee (Citation2014), Ray (Citation2015) and Jean-Baptiste (Citation2011) for historical examples that highlight the existence of more complex scenarios, particularly during colonial times.
8 This problem is further accentuated in Ethiopia by the fact of it being mandatory that each individual carries an ID card which, among other primary information, denotes a person’s ethnicity.