Citation

Hsu E. Popul. Space Place 2007; 13(2): 113-124.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/psp.429

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Zanzibar hosts three different groups of Chinese: the so-called huaqiao community with beginnings that can be traced to the 1930s; the government-sent teams of experts who since the revolution of 1964 have consolidated the links to the People's Republic of China (PRC); and a new wave of business people since the late 1990s, individual migrants who engage in various trades and generally are very mobile. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Zanzibar in 2001–2004, I explore the backgrounds of these communities and their social relations, as expressed through kinship ties, businesses, medical services, food exchanges and other means of interaction. With few exceptions, members of the three groups were not much interested in increasing relations between each other. They represent different economic positions and wealth, and different allegiances to the local community and to China. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.