‘The big brother we appreciate’ or a ‘mafioso’? The emergence of stereotypes concerning China and the Chinese in Angola

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the process of emergence of China-related stereotypes in Angola, which have started to appear with an increasing number of Angolans establishing direct and non-direct contacts with the Chinese. The article investigates this issue based on the content of China-related articles and netizens’ opinions published online from 2010 to 2015 in Angolan media (altogether 5005 cases) supplemented with coded results of 61 in-depth interviews. The results of qualitative and quantitative analysis suggest that the general image of the Chinese held by Angolans is rather positive. However, the influx of Chinese migrants into this country and a relatively high number of problematic situations involving members of the Chinese diaspora have resulted in gradual worsening of the image of this specific group. Such problematic issues include the low quality of engineering projects, maltreatment of Angolan workers and a possibility of Chinese neo-colonization of Angola.

Media Use and National Image: How Americans and Chinese Perceive the U.S.–China Trade War

“…For this study, we define national stereotypes as “stored beliefs about characteristics of a specific country that are socially shared” (Herz and Diamantopoulos, 2013: p. 402). Although there has been limited empirical work on the origins of national stereotypes, most are formed either through direct experience with the relevant national groups or indirectly through education or the media (Jura et al, 2018; Schneider, 2005).…”