The (un)making and (re)making of Guangzhou’s ‘Little Africa’ : Xiaobei’s linguistic and semiotic landscape explored

Abstract

Partly as a result of China’s reform and opening-up and the broader trend of globalisation, Guangzhou in Southern China has risen to global prominence as a commercial and business hub. Strategically positioned as a centre of ‘low-end globalisation’, Guangzhou has attracted investors, traders and businessmen from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. In particular, the city’s Xiaobei area established itself as ‘Little Africa’ featuring (once thriving) ethnic economies with many halal restaurants and businesses oriented towards Muslim traders from various ethnolinguistic and sociocultural backgrounds. This enclave represents a transnational space and a typical example of superdiversity rarely seen in the rest of China. The presence of (legal and often illegal) Africans in Guangzhou (where inter-marriage with local Chinese women was not uncommon) was viewed as a problem and threat to the ‘purity’ of Chinese-ness and Chinese civilisation. This led to strict enforcement of immigration law around 2014, where many foreigners left Guangzhou. Various social and top-down language policy changes and more directly the strict Covid pandemic restrictions dealt further blows to the area. Drawing on data in 2013/2014 and 2023, this sociolinguistic study traces the transformations in Xiaobei’s linguistic landscape from a contrastive/diachronic perspective over 10 years, thus shedding light on the (un)making, (re)making and the de-Arabization and Sinicization of Little Africa’s LL in a context of socio-political and language policy changes. Then synchronic LL analysis in 2023 shows how various linguistic and multimodal elements combine to still give the area a unique identity.