"Sound of Friendship": Music Iconography in Twentieth-Century Africa–China Relations

Abstract

Abstract:This essay examines the role of music in twentieth-century Africa–China relations by analyzing musical performances' contribution to the production and circulation of knowledge about Africa in China through musical imagination. Drawing on archival and multimedia sources, this essay focuses on the figure of Zhu Mingying—an influential Chinese musician in the twentieth century—as a case study to analyze how African imagery is deployed and circulated in music making and marketing practices in China, as well as its implications for developments in Africa–China relations. This essay contributes to a growing body of scholarship on Africa–China relations that addresses the humanistic as opposed to popular metanarratives of trade, aid, security, and investment.