Qifan Zhang

I was born in Guangzhou and grew up near Xiaobei Road—an area known as the largest African community in China. The neighbourhood is home to many African nationals who came to China for trade, business, or study, along with their families. As a result, from kindergarten through secondary school, I formed close friendships with children and families from more than 30 African countries, including Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, and South Africa. My first English teacher was from Kenya, and she taught me to speak English with a local flavour shaped by her accent and cultural expressions. These early experiences sparked my enduring curiosity about China–Africa cultural differences and interactions, inspiring my desire to travel to Africa and study these dynamics in person. Since my first trip to the continent, I have conducted fieldwork in countries including Mozambique, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, focusing on grassroots China–Africa engagement in agricultural cooperation and the lived experiences of transnational interaction. 

I earned my bachelor's degree in Globalisation and Development studies from the Beijing Normal–Hong Kong Baptist University in 2023. In recognition of my research on Chinese migrant cultures in Africa, I was awarded the Mr. Fung Sun Kwan Scholarship of Excellence as an undergraduate student in 2021. And I got my Master of Arts degree in (Transnational) East Asian Studies at Yale University in 2025. 

My doctoral study will trace how overseas Chinese communities have acted as intermediaries in producing and circulating portrayals of Africa in Chinese publicity. I look forward to engaging in interdisciplinary conversations across history, anthropology, and media studies at Oxford.