Across China: African voices tell of African lives in China

GUANGZHOU, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Already an advisor to the Somali president and a lecturer at a Chinese university in her early 30s, Hodan Osman Abdi wants to influence even more people across the continents.

Her documentary "Africans in Yiwu" is being shown at the ongoing China-Africa Economic and Cultural Week in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, home to about 15,000 African people.

The six episodes tell the stories of 19 people, including Abdi herself, from 15 African countries, all of whom live in east China.

Abdi said she wants to banish the stereotypes and help the Chinese, Somalis and people from other African countries better understand each other.

With the intention of going into business like her uncle who came to China in the 1980s, she arrived in China in 2005 to attend college.

"My face was very unusual on campus at that time, but things are totally different now," Abdi recalled.

During the past 13 years, she has obtained degrees in business administration, education and communications, and become the first woman in her family with a PhD. She is now a researcher at the Institute of African Studies Zhejiang Normal University (IASZNU) in the city of Jinhua, Zhejiang Province.

In the same timeframe, the number of African students on her campus has grown to more than 1,000.

In business, education, culture and everyday life, China and African countries have closer and more diverse communication than ever before, but Abdi thinks the ordinary people still do not know each other very well.

"I'm from Somalia. And the only impression of my country many Chinese people have is still the pirates," she said.

"Africans in Yiwu" was Abdi's first project at IASZNU as a researcher, and was strongly supported by the institute.

"We intentionally select people from many different countries, to represent the diversity of Africa," she said.

One of the core concepts of the documentary is "African stories told by African voices," while the characters' fluent Chinese language make it very appealing to Chinese audience.

Abdi was appointed as an adviser on Somalia-China relations last September by the Somali government. Two months later, she became chair of a new East Africa research center she established at IASZNU.

"Geographically, East Africa is an important region along the Belt and Road, and it's also where the Chinese first landed in Africa," Abdi explained. "East African countries like Ethiopia and Kenya have close economic ties with China."

She hopes that Chinese academics will do more research on East Africa, especially field research.

"China, with its openness and inclusiveness, has made my dreams come true, and made me understand the true meaning of cosmopolitanism.

"I'm hoping that through research and communication, understanding will grow between China and Africa," Abdi said. Enditem