Mu Tao
Professor, Department of History, East China Normal University
The Chinese perception of Africa and its people has undergone an evolution—from simplistic to more comprehensive, and from emotional to more rational.
I. Ancient Chinese Perceptions of Africa
Accurate records of Africa in ancient China began with the Jingxing Ji (《经行记》), a travelogue written by Du Huan during the Tang Dynasty. In AD 751, the Tang Dynasty clashed with the Arab Empire in the Battle of Talas. Du Huan, who served in the Tang army, was taken captive after its defeat and spent over a decade in regions spanning Central Asia, West Asia, and North Africa. His Jingxing Ji documented his experiences, including descriptions of the people of “Molin Country,” noting their dark skin and living habits: “The people are black and wild in manner. There is little rice or wheat, no grass or trees. Horses eat dried fish, and people eat hulmang.” Hulmang refers to Persian dates. The place is plagued by deadly miasma and epidemics. Scholars have identified “Molin Country” as present-day Mogadishu in Somalia. By the 12th century, during the Southern Song Dynasty, records of Africa had extended further south to what is now Zanzibar. One entry noted: “The local products include elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns. There are also many wild people on the islands, their skin black as lacquer and hair curly. They are lured with food, captured in great numbers—sometimes tens of thousands—and sold as ‘fan slaves’ (蕃奴).”
In the early 15th century, Admiral Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty led seven expeditions to the Western Seas, visiting the East African coast on four occasions. His companions—Ma Huan, Fei Xin, and Gong Zhen—produced detailed accounts of these regions in works such as Yingya Shenglan (《瀛涯胜览》), Xingcha Shenglan (《星槎胜览》), and Xiyang Fanguo Zhi (《西洋番国志》). The accounts offered more detailed descriptions of the East African coast, focusing primarily on coastal city-states in Egypt, Somalia, and Kenya. For example, Fei Xin’s Xingcha Shenglan describes Mogadishu (then known as Mugutushu) as follows: “Men wear their hair in four braids hanging down and wrap cloth around their waists. Women coil their hair on top of their heads, lacquer it to shine, wear multiple strings of beads from their ears, silver rings on their necks, and tasseled pendants on their chests. When going out, they use single cloths for covering, wear veils of blue gauze, and leather shoes on their feet.”
Particularly noteworthy is the Da Ming Hun Yi Tu (Amalgamated Map of the Ming Empire), completed in 1389 during the Ming Dynasty. It reflects a rudimentary understanding of African geography, portraying the continent as an inverted triangle, with the general course of the Nile River and a central region featuring large lakes. The map also shows a large lake at the center of the African continent, which may have been drawn based on Arab legends. According to these accounts, “farther south beyond the Sahara Desert lies a vast lake, far larger than the Caspian Sea.” The Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa is also depicted, with finely rendered coastlines and a distinctly recognizable geographic outline.
II. Shifts in Chinese Perceptions of Africa During the Late Qing Period
Compared to ancient times, Chinese perceptions of Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries underwent notable changes. As globalization accelerated and exchanges between China and other countries increased, Chinese media—especially newspapers and books—began offering more extensive coverage of Africa. Two major shifts can be observed in this period: First, intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty began to link China’s fate with that of Africa, recognizing that both regions suffered under colonial domination and oppression by Western powers. Newspapers such as Waijiao Bao (《外交报》), Qingyi Bao (《清议报》), Dongfang Zazhi (《东方杂志》), and Shen Bao (《申报》, 1872–1949) played a notable role in disseminating information about Africa. Notably, these media outlets provided relatively in-depth analyses of Africa’s 19th-century reform and self-strengthening movements, including Muhammad Ali’s reforms in Egypt. They also offered focused coverage of Ethiopia’s war of resistance against Italian invasion and the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa.
III. Media Enthusiasm for Africa in the 1950s–1980s
Amid the backdrop of the global Cold War, Chinese media in the 1950s—such as People’s Daily, various other newspapers, and China National Radio—primarily focused on covering the African national independence movements. During key historical moments—including the 1955 Bandung Conference, Premier Zhou Enlai’s visit to Africa in 1963, and the construction of the TAZARA Railway in the early 1970s—Africa received enthusiastic and extensive media coverage. At the same time, numerous publications about Africa’s general situation and independence movements were issued in large numbers. These included: Africa: From Darkness to Dawn by Wu Bingzhen (New Knowledge Press, 1956), The Egyptian People’s Struggle for Independence and Peace by Wu Xiu (Popular Reading Press, 1956), Chronicles of African Nations (World Affairs Press, 1957), The National Liberation Struggles in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria by Fan Yong (Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1957), and The Algerian People’s National Liberation Struggle by Yan Jin (World Affairs Press, 1958).
In April 1961, Chairman Mao Zedong, during a meeting with a group of African friends, stated: “As for me, I don’t know much about Africa. We should set up an institute for African studies to research its history, geography, and socio-economic conditions. Our understanding of Africa’s past, present, and geographic location is quite limited, so we really need a simple and clear book—not too long, perhaps just 100 to 200 pages. We can ask our African friends to help and aim to publish it within a year or two. The content should explain how imperialism came to Africa, how it oppressed the people, how the people resisted, how those resistances failed, and how they are now rising again.” This statement directly led to the establishment of dedicated research institutions and the training of professionals in African studies.
In July 1961, the Institute of West Asian and African Studies was established. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a series of works on African countries and regions, as well as biographies of African leaders, were translated and published. Initially printed for internal use among officials, these books were later made available to the general public, further deepening Chinese understanding of Africa. In terms of mass communication, widely circulated documentaries such as TAZARA Railway and Chinese Doctors in Tanzania, along with the 1973 comedic crosstalk Ode to Friendship by Ma Ji and Tang Jizhong, became household names. These works elevated the China-Africa friendship to a higher level and cemented the perception of Africans as “brothers” and “friends” for the Chinese people.
IV. A Comprehensive Understanding of Africa Since the 1990s
Since the 1990s, with the deepening of China’s reform and opening-up and the intensified Sino-African exchanges—particularly the rapid development of economic and trade relations—Chinese media coverage of Africa has surged, resulting in an explosion of publications, online articles, and short videos. Consequently, public understanding of Africa is no longer fragmented or one-dimensional; it has evolved into a more multi-faceted and comprehensive perspective.
In speeches, writings, and academic works from both government and scholarly circles, there has been a broadly optimistic and positive view of Africa’s role in contemporary international politics and economics—particularly its support for China’s core interests on the global stage, the prospects for Africa’s development, and the current state of China-Africa relations. Research on Africa has become increasingly in-depth, leading to the formulation of the concept of a “China-Africa community with a shared future” as a vision for future cooperation.
However, at the societal level, certain negative perceptions of Africa—especially sub-Saharan Africa—continue to persist. Reports have at times exaggerated issues such as poverty, underdevelopment, the prevalence of diseases like HIV/AIDS, and ongoing conflicts. With the rapid growth of China-Africa interactions, particularly among the general populations, discrepancies in perception have occasionally resulted in friction—especially in the age of the internet.
Therefore, it is the unshirkable responsibility of scholars, the media, and related sectors to promote objective publicity and reporting on Africa, so that the public may gain an accurate and objective understanding of the continent. The same applies in reverse.