Chinese narrative in international development and volunteer tourism: a case study of a Chinese organisation’s practice in Mathare, Kenya

Abstract

Volunteer tourism has become an increasingly popular phenomenon over the globe in recent decades. However, less attention is being paid to the receiving end of volunteer tourism and there are rarely narratives from Chinese figures. This paper seeks to address this research gap not only in volunteer tourism, but in a broader context of international development. By analysing a Chinese volunteer tourism organisation’s practice in Mathare, Kenya, this paper discusses the distinctiveness and commonality of the Chinese development approach from the national–international level to the grassroots level. It illustrates the rather polarised debate amongst the key stakeholders involved in this study, about prioritising the physical or psychological dimensions of the local needs, which further highlights the unchallenged structural inequality in Chinese development interventions of volunteer tourism. Considering forms of power among stakeholder groups and across levels, the research makes recommendations for Chinese volunteer tourism from which collaborations and a higher level of community empowerment can happen.

Keywords:

• Volunteer tourism
• international development
• China
• Africa
• power

Acknowledgements

This research obtained ethical approval from the Department of Sociology, Durham University, and Kenya National Commission For Science, Technology and Innovation in 2018–2019.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 In the development literature, there have been many terms used to distinguish countries in binary language, such as ‘developed’ and ‘developing’; ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’; ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’. In this thesis, the terms ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’ are used, to collectively represent the respective distinction between higher- and lower-income countries. China is a Western country as there are controversies when considering different aspects, such as economic indicators or culture and social accounts. However, when quoting from literature, other terms may be used. It is recognised that this terminology can be contentious as it simplifies multiple layers of complexity to a geographical dichotomy, and it subsumes numerous, diverse countries in two overarching categories. But the division between the Global North and the Global South is still important in shaping development thinking (McEwan 2009, cited in Lindsey et al. 2017), so the terminologies are referenced in this research carefully to avoid essentialising their meanings.

2 The research on which this article draws was undertaken for a PhD study (Wang 2020).

3 In the BRI Initiative, the ‘Belt’ refers to the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ and the ‘Road’ refers to the ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’ (Liu and Dunford 2016, 325). More specifically, the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ refers to the proposed overland routes for road and rail transportation through landlocked Central Asia along the famed historical trade routes of the Western Regions, and the ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’ refers to the Indo-Pacific sea routes through Southeast Asia to South Asia, the Middle East and Africa (Kuo and Kommenda 2018).

4 ‘负责任的大国’ in Chinese.

5 ‘和平发展’ in Chinese.

6 ‘(中国)走出去’ in Chinese.

7 Further details of the neighborhood and the methodology can be found in Wang (2020).

8 ‘Physical (projects)’ is directly translated from the word used by Chinese interviewees (‘物理项目’ in Chinese), referring to projects that involve direct material support, such as school building and feeding. Accordingly, the word ‘physical (need/assistance)’ (‘物理需求’ in Chinese) is used throughout the article, through it is recognised that the term ‘material need’ may be usually used in English.

9 ‘德育’ in Chinese.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yi Wang

Yi Wang is a post-doctoral researcher of sociology at East China University of Science and Technology, P.R. China. She received her PhD in sociology and social policy at Durham University, UK. Her research activities fall within two themes: (1) young people’s participation in community development and volunteering around the globe; and (2) reflexive Chinese narratives in international development and modernity.