No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Triangular System in Chinese Studies of African Literature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2025
Abstract
Drawing on the dynamic and historically layered relationships among Africa, China, and the West, a “triangular system” serves as an analytical framework for understanding the evolution of studies of African literature in China. Tracing a four-stage periodization reveals how Western epistemologies have shaped Chinese interpretations of African literature. At the same time, it also illuminates China’s efforts to assert intellectual autonomy. A fluid, geometry-based triangulation model that accommodates multiplicity, foregrounds African agency, and fosters direct Afro-Chinese literary engagement is essential for meaningful South-South collaboration in literary studies, which must resist epistemic dependency and nationalist instrumentalization, and instead emphasize mutual learning and structural transformation.
Résumé
En se fondant sur les relations dynamiques et historiquement stratifiées entre l’Afrique, la Chine et l’Occident, un « système triangulaire » constitue un cadre analytique permettant de saisir l’évolution des études de la littérature africaine en Chine. Une périodisation en quatre étapes met en lumière la manière dont les épistémologies occidentales ont influencé les interprétations chinoises de la littérature africaine, tout en soulignant les initiatives de la Chine visant à affirmer son autonomie intellectuelle. Une triangulation fluide, basée sur la géométrie, qui s’adapte à la diversité, met en avant l’action africaine et encourage l’engagement littéraire afro-chinois direct est nécessaire pour une collaboration significative Sud-Sud dans les études littéraires, qui doivent faire face à la dépendance épistémique et à l’instrumentalisation nationaliste et mettre l’accent sur l’apprentissage mutuel et la transformation structurelle.
Resumo
Partindo das relações dinâmicas e historicamente estratificadas entre a África, a China e o Ocidente, é possível recorrer a um “sistema triangular” como quadro analítico para compreender a evolução dos estudos da literatura africana na China. Ao identificar uma periodização em quatro fases, podemos compreender o modo como as epistemologias ocidentais condicionaram as interpretações chinesas da literatura africana, esclarecendo-se ao mesmo tempo os esforços empreendidos pela China no sentido de afirmar a sua autonomia intelectual. Para que haja uma colaboração Sul-Sul significativa no domínio dos estudos literários, é necessário dispor de um modelo de triangulação fluido, baseado na geometria, que acomode a multiplicidade, coloque em primeiro plano a agência africana e promova o envolvimento literário direto entre África e China, resistindo-se à dependência epistémica e à instrumentalização nacionalista e, pelo contrário, enfatizando-se a aprendizagem mútua e a transformação estrutural.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of African Studies Association
References
Xiuwen, Bao, and Lin, Wang, eds. 2016. Introductions to Famous Writers and Literary Works from Africa in the 20th Century. Zhejiang People’s Press.Google Scholar
Batchelor, Kathryn. 2019. “Literary Translation and Soft Power: African Literature in Chinese Translation.” The Translator 25(4): 401–19.10.1080/13556509.2020.1735090CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benabdallah, Lina. 2020. Shaping the Future of Power: Knowledge Production and Network-building in China-Africa Relations. University of Michigan Press.10.3998/mpub.10194365CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cao, Shunqing. 1996. “Aphasia of Literary Theory and Cultural Morbidity.” Wenyi Zhengming [Controversy of Literature and Art] 2: 50–58.Google Scholar
Castillo, Roberto. 2020. “‘Race’ and ‘Racism’ in Contemporary Africa-China Relations Research: Approaches, Controversies and Reflections.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 21(3): 310–36.10.1080/14649373.2020.1796343CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Yale and Zhenwu, Zhu. 2023. “The Rationale for the Construction of Chinese African-literaturology: An Interview with Professor Zhu Zhenwu.” Shandong Waiyu Jiaoxue [Shandong Foreign Language Teaching] 44(5): 1–9.Google Scholar
Cheng, Ying. 2019. “History, Imperial Eyes and the ‘Mutual Gaze’: Narratives of African-Chinese Encounters in Recent Literary Works. In Routledge Handbook of African Literature, edited by Adejunmobi, Moradewun and Routledge, Carli Coetzee.10.4324/9781315229546-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Ying. 2021. “What Can We Learn from Africa? Teaching African Cultures in China.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 33(2): 140–51.10.1080/13696815.2020.1824776CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Ying. 2023. “Introduction: Resonances from Afar.” In Feizhou Zhedie: Richang Shenghuo de Wenhua Zhengzhi [Africa Unfolding: Cultural Politics of Everyday Life], edited by Ying, Cheng and Lifang, Zhang. Peking University Press.Google Scholar
Couto, Mia, and José, Eduardo Agualusa. 2019. “O terrorista elegante e outras histórias.” Planeta.Google Scholar
de Sousa Santos, Boaventura. 1999. Pela mão de Alice: o social e o político na pós-modernidade, 7th ed. Edições Afrontamento.Google Scholar
de Sousa Santos, Boaventura. 2010. “Para além do pensamento abissal: das linhas globais a uma ecologia dos saberes.” In Epistemologias do Sul, edited by de Sousa Santos, Boaventura and Almedina, Maria Paula Menezes.Google Scholar
de Villiers, Phillippa Yaa, Ferrrin-Aguirre, Isabel, and Kaiyu, Xiao. 2010. Zheli Bu Pingjing—Feizhou Shixuan [No Serenity Here: An Anthology of African Poetry]. World Affairs Press.Google Scholar
Duarte, Luís Ricardo. 2022. “João Paulo Borges Coelho: unir os fios do passado.” Jornal de Letras 1346: 14–15.Google Scholar
Dusse, Fernanda. 2019. “Por uma crítica literária do Sul global.” Aletria: Revista de Estudos de Literatura 29(3): 151–68.10.17851/2317-2096.29.3.151-168CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, Catherine. 2016. “Chinese Literature in Africa: Meaningful or Simply Ceremonial?” The Conversation, November 17. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAJ.7gjwwmnhfGoogle Scholar
Glissant, Édouard. 1992. Poetics of Relation, translated by Wing, Betsy. University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Groys, Boris. 1992. “Russia and the West: The Quest for Russian National Identity.” Studies in Soviet Thought 43(3): 185–98.10.1007/BF00818762CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Stuart. 1993. “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power.” In Formations of Modernity: Understanding Modern Societies, edited by Stuart, Hall and Bram, Gieben. Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hui, Huang. 2016. “A Survey of Studies on African Literature in China.” Waiguo Wenxue Yanjiu [Foreign Literature Studies] 38(5): 146–52.Google Scholar
Huang, Kun. 2022. “Translated Solidarity: Lumumba’s Textual Afterlives and the Poetics of African Decolonization in Maoist China.” Journal of World Literature 7(4): 577–96.10.1163/24056480-00704006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ihuoma, Chinonso. 2024. “Confucius Institute and Socio-Cultural Exchange between Nigeria and China.” Paper presented at Yale Africa-China Symposium: Cultural Dimensions, Maputo, March 14–15.Google Scholar
Hui, Jiang. 2015. “An African Intellectual History of Conversion and Resistance: Review of China Achebe’s Arrow of God.” Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 30(6): 60–72.Google Scholar
Hui, Jiang. 2017. “To Promote Value or to Westernize: What Kind of African Literary Studies Should China Pursue? Starting with the Postcolonial Study of Coetzee’s Disgrace.” Shandong Social Sciences 6: 62–76.Google Scholar
Hui, Jiang. 2019. “Historical Preconditions, Universal Forms, and Fundamental Issues in the Development of African Literary Studies in China.” Wenyi Lilun yu Piping [Literary Theory and Criticism] 5: 127–41.Google Scholar
Hui, Jiang. 2020. “Introduction.” In African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, edited by Olaniyan, Tejumola and Quayson, Ato. Translated by Feng, Yao, Xiaomeng, Sun, Lin, Wang, et al. East China Normal University Press.Google Scholar
Hui, Jiang. 2024. “Foreign Literature in China: African.” World Humanities Report, Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes.Google Scholar
Majia, Jidi. 2016. Maneno ya moto kutoka China, translated by Philo Ikonya. Nairobi: Twaweza Communications.Google Scholar
Júnior, Benjamin Abdala. 1996. “Necessidade e Solidariedade nos Estudos de Literatura Comparada.” Revista Brasileira de Literatura Comparada 3(3): 87–95.Google Scholar
Kim, Claire Jean. 1999. “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans,” Politics and Society 27(1): 105–38.10.1177/0032329299027001005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lan, Shanshan. 2016. “The Shifting Meanings of Race in China: A Case Study of the African Diaspora in Guangzhou.” City & Society 28(3): 298–318.10.1111/ciso.12094CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lai-Henderson, Selina. 2019. “Translation and International Reception.” In Mark Twain in Context, edited by Bird, John C.. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Anshan, Li. 2020. “General Foreword.” In Robert, Shaaban, Xiaban Luobote Shige Xuanji [Mashairi Ya Shaaban Robert], translated by Yuanyuan, Luo and Zhenhuan, Wu. East China Normal University Press.Google Scholar
Anshan, Li. 2023. “China’s African Studies in the 21st Century: Achievements, Challenges, and Breakthroughs.” Guoji Zhengzhi Yanjiu [Journal of International Studies] 44(5): 9–27+5.Google Scholar
Anshan, Li and Hui, Jiang, eds. 2016. Chinese African Studies Review 6: Special Issue for African Literature. Social Sciences Academic Press.Google Scholar
Dan, Li. 2021. “Deviations of the Studies of African English Literature in the West and its Alienation from African Indigenous values.” Journal of Henan University (Social Science) 61(1): 96–102.Google Scholar
Yongcai, Li. 2009. A History of South African Literature. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.Google Scholar
Yongcai, Li. 2022. A History of Nigerian Literature. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.Google Scholar
Shuzhen, Ling. 2022. “The Image of China in African English Literature (1949–2000).” Shehui Kexue Zhanxian [Social Science Front] 327: 188–95.Google Scholar
Shaonan, Liu and Liang, Xu. 2024. “Between ‘Science’ and ‘Politics’: Knowledge Production in International African Studies in the Twentieth Century.” Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 39(3): 47–60, 242–43.Google Scholar
Mo, Lou. 2022. “Triangulating Africa: Contemporary Art as a Terrain for Creating China–Africa Connections.” Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 9(1–2): 69–89.10.1386/jcca_00056_1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jun, Ma. 2023. “Emerging from the ‘Edge of No Man’s Land’: A Preliminary Discussion on the Conflicts of Modernity in Swahili Drama.” Regional and Country Studies (2): 182–205.Google Scholar
MacGarry, Michael. 2024. “On Relational Aesthetics and the Wealth of Nations.” Paper presented at Yale Africa-China Symposium: Cultural Dimensions, Maputo, March 14–15.Google Scholar
Macharia, Keguro. 2015. “Visiting Africa: A Short Guide for Researchers.” The New Inquiry Feb. 21. URL: https://thenewinquiry.com/blog/visiting-africa-a-short-guide-for-researchers/Google Scholar
Madureira, Luís. 2016. “Uma coisa fraternal: Mia Couto & the Mutumbela Gogo Theater Group.” In A Companion to Mia Couto, edited by Hamilton, Grant and Huddart, David. Currey, James.10.1017/9781782048213.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miceli, Sonia. 2019. “Os triângulos de Ruy Duarte de Carvalho.” In Diálogos com Ruy Duarte de Carvalho, edited by Marta, Lança, Oliveira, Ana Balona de, Sanches, Manuela Ribeiro, and Chaves, Rita. Buala/CeC.Google Scholar
Monson, Jamie. 2013. “Historicizing Difference Construction of Race Identity in China-Africa Relations.” Paper presented at Making Sense of the China-Africa Relationship: Theoretical Approaches and the Politics of Knowledge, a Conference Held at Yale University, New Haven, November 18–19.Google Scholar
Lewis, Nkosi, Nwoga, Donatus, Duerden, Dennis, and Serumaga, Robert. 1972. “Interview with Chinua Achebe.” In African Writers Talking: A Collection of Radio Interviews, edited by Africana, Cosmo Pieterse.Google Scholar
Pepetela, . 2011. “Angolanos olham para o Brasil, mas brasileiros não olham para Angola, diz escritor.” BBC.com. Sept 8. https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/noticias/2011/09/110908_angola_entrevista_jcGoogle Scholar
Huadong, Qiu. 2023. “Objects, Souls, and Ethnography—Expansive Realism and Bounded Fiction, with a Discussion on Contemporary African Literature.” Xiaoshuo Pinglun [Fiction Review] 6: 6–9.Google Scholar
Rocha, João Cezar de Castro. 2015. Cultures latino-américaines et poétique de l’émulation: Littérature des faubourgs du monde? Translated by François Weigel. Pétra.Google Scholar
Rocha, João Cezar de Castro. 2017. ¿Culturas shakespearianas?: Teoría mimética y América Latina. ITESO.Google Scholar
Rošker, Jana S. 2010. “The Concept of Structure as a Basic Epistemological Paradigm of Traditional Chinese Thought,” Asian Philosophy 20: 79–96.10.1080/09552360903577626CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, L.C.F., and Teles, M.A.H.. 2022. “Entrevista com José Eduardo Agualusa: a literatura quebrando muros.” Acta Scientiarum: Language and Culture 44(1), e59266: 1–7.Google Scholar
Xiaomeng, Sun, ed. 2021. Jiki Magari: An Anthology of Modern Hausa Lirature. Translated by Li Chunguang et al. East China Normal University Press.Google Scholar
Xiaomeng, Sun. 2022. “A Study on the Evolution of Indigenous Hausa and Swahili Literature during British Colonial Rule in Africa.” Waiguo Wenxue [Foreign Literature] (2): 12–24.Google Scholar
Huijuan, Tan and Lianggong, Luo. 2016. Meiguo Feiyi Zuojia Lun [African American Writers: Introduction and Criticism]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.Google Scholar
Volland, Nicolai. 2017. Socialist Cosmopolitanism: The Chinese Literary Universe, 1945–1965. Columbia University Press.10.7312/voll18310CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuan, Wang. 2024. “O terrorista elegante: National Revolution and Counter-Terrorism Discourses in Lusophone African Literature,” Dangdai Waiguo Wenxue [Contemporary Foreign Literature] 45(4): 60–67.Google Scholar
Yuan, Wang. 2025a. “The Dance of Concept and Practice: Pepetela and the Formation of African Animist Realism.” Wenyi Lilun yu Piping [Theory and Criticism of Literature and Art], forthcoming.Google Scholar
Yuan, Wang. 2025b. “Global History of Things and the Spatiotemporal Possibilities in Lusophone African Literature.” Waiguo Wenxue Yanjiu [Foreign Literature Studies] 47(1): 103–15.Google Scholar
Waruru, Maina. 2019. “Nine African Unis Sign Agreements in China.” The Pienews. July 16. https://thepienews.com/african-unis-sign-agreements-with-chinese-institutions/Google Scholar
Workers’ Commentary Group of Capital Iron and Steel Company. 1975. “Douzheng he Shengli de Shipian [Poetry of Struggle and Victory].” In Mozambican Combat Poetry, translated by Wang Lianhua and Xu Shiquan. People’s Literature Publishing House.Google Scholar
Tianzhen, Xie. 2009. “Extraordinary Translation in Extraordinary Times: On Literary Translation in Mainland China During the Cultural Revolution.” Zhongguo Bijiao Wenxue [Chinese Comparative Literature] 2: 23–35.Google Scholar
Feng, Yao. 2023. “How to Third Worldize Our Research Methodology? A Critique on Post-colonial Criticism and Colonization of Research Topics in African Literary Research.” Journal of Shanghai Normal University (Philosophy & Social Sciences) 52(3): 26–34.Google Scholar
Yoon, Duncan M. 2015. “‘Our Forces Have Redoubled’: World Literature, Postcolonialism, and the Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau.” Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry 2(2): 233–52.10.1017/pli.2015.11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoon, Duncan M.. 2023. China in Twentieth-and Twenty-first-century African Literature. Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781009300315CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jingyuan, Yu. 2025. “The Translation and Scholarship of African Literature in China.” Journal of Transcultural Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1515/jtc-2024-0016.Google Scholar
Junqing, Yuan. 2022. “The Foundation of African Literary Studies and the Scholars’ Consciousness of Subjectivity: A Discussion Starting from Zhu Zhenwu’s New Book The Origins and Development of African English Literature.” Fudan Journal of Foreign Languages and Literature (2): 134–39.Google Scholar
Mingqing, Yuan and Lifang, Zhang. 2023. “How Far Is African Literature to Us: Afro-Asian Literary Movements During the Cold War.” In Feizhou Zhedie: Richang Shenghuo de Wenhua Zhengzhi [Africa Unfolding: Cultural Politics of Everyday Life], edited by Ying, Cheng and Lifang, Zhang. Peking University Press.Google Scholar
Zhenwu, Zhu and Dan, Li. 2022. “The Africanness of African Literatures and New Patterns in Human Civilization.” Social Sciences in China 43(3): 113–27.10.1080/02529203.2022.2122210CrossRefGoogle Scholar