I arrived in China in 2006 and for the last five years I have been doing research about Africans in Guangzhou, with a focus on transnational/translocal connections and stories: i.e. the relationships Africans are establishing amongst themselves and with Chinese of diverse ethnicities. My fieldwork is mainly based around the area of Dengfeng/Xiaobei (what some people call ‘the Chocolate City’, or ‘Little Africa’) and around Nigerian, Congolese, Angolan, Ghanaian, and Malian communities, churches, and business and leisure organizations. I conduct my research in Chinese, Portuguese, French and English.
Besides Cultural Studies (PhD Lingnan HK | MA – The University of Sydney), my training is in International Relations, Political Science, History, and Journalism (BA UDLAP). In 2009, when I was working as an editor for Xinhua News Agency in Beijing, I became highly interested in the increasing presence of foreigners in China and in the great transformation that that represents for China and the world. Besides administering www.africansinchina.net, I’m an obsessive instagramer and a former twitterati (and I ocassionally Flickr) - you’ll find me as @castillorocas in those networks.