History of Sinology/Chapter 21

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Chapter 21: Africa and Latin America — Emerging Chinese Studies

Introduction

The expansion of Chinese studies into Africa and Latin America represents one of the most significant developments in world sinology in the twenty-first century. Neither continent possesses a tradition of sinological scholarship comparable to those of Europe or East Asia. Yet both are home to rapidly growing networks of Chinese language programmes, Confucius Institutes, research centres, and individual scholars who are laying the foundations of what may, in time, develop into mature scholarly traditions. This chapter examines the state of Chinese studies in two African countries — Benin and Burundi — and in Argentina, drawing on original contributions from scholars in each country, and supplements these case studies with an overview of developments across both continents.

I. Africa: Chinese Studies in a New Frontier

1.1 Overview: The Expansion of Chinese Language Education

Africa’s engagement with Chinese language and culture has expanded dramatically since the early 2000s, driven by China’s growing economic presence on the continent and the global proliferation of Confucius Institutes. By 2019, China had established sixty-one Confucius Institutes and forty-eight Confucius Classrooms in forty-six African countries, enrolling more than 15,000 students. South Africa leads the continent with six Confucius Institutes and three Confucius Classrooms; the Chinese language has been incorporated into South Africa’s national education system. Nigeria’s Confucius Institute at Nnamdi Azikiwe University has trained over 50,000 Nigerians and supplied approximately 30,000 Chinese-speaking professionals to enterprises across the country. Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania have also become significant centres of Chinese language education, with China supplementing its Confucius Institute network through the establishment of “Luban Workshops” for technical and vocational education.

Despite this quantitative expansion, the development of sinology as an academic research discipline — as distinct from Chinese language training — remains at an early stage across much of the continent. The contributions from Benin and Burundi examined below illustrate both the progress made and the challenges remaining.

1.2 Benin: The Confucius Institute as Catalyst

Dr. Vignon Maurice Gountin of the University of Abomey-Calavi has provided a detailed account of the development of Chinese studies in Benin. The Confucius Institute at the University of Abomey-Calavi (IC-UAC), Benin’s first and Africa’s tenth, was inaugurated on 25 March 2009, the result of a partnership between the university and the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (Hanban), with Chongqing Jiaotong University as the Chinese partner institution.

The Institute began with interest classes enrolling approximately 150 students per year. In October 2013, a BA programme in Chinese was launched, with twenty students in the first cohort. By 2015–2016, three consecutive year-groups totalled nearly 100 students. In November 2016, a Chinese teacher-training programme was approved, reflecting the aspiration to develop local capacity for Chinese language instruction. The curriculum encompasses general Chinese language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing), Business Chinese, Engineering Chinese, translation, Chinese history, and Chinese culture. Cultural activities — calligraphy, painting, martial arts, tea ceremony, folk dance, song — are integrated into the weekly schedule.

The teaching staff has grown from four in 2009 (three Chinese, one Beninese) to nineteen by 2016–2017 (ten Chinese, including six volunteers, and nine Beninese local teachers). Beyond the university campus, Chinese language classes have been extended to over seventeen public and private schools in Cotonou, Porto-Novo, Lokossa, and other cities, reaching a cumulative enrolment of over 10,000 learners by 2016.

Gountin’s analysis identifies several challenges: the negative perception of Chinese as an impossibly difficult language; the absence of government policy mandating or incentivising Chinese language study; the reluctance of some private school administrators to prioritise Chinese; the shortage of qualified local teachers; and the inadequacy of teaching facilities, particularly at off-campus sites. His recommendations include expanding the teacher training programme, introducing Chinese language electives at national secondary school examinations, strengthening partnerships with large secondary schools in major cities, and improving the conditions of employment for local Chinese teachers.

1.3 Burundi: From Confucius Institute to Sinology Research Centre

Burundi offers a remarkable case study of how a small, resource-constrained country can develop an organised sinological research capacity within barely a decade. As Etienne Bankuwiha (班超) of Nanjing University and Burundi University has documented, the origins of Burundian sinology lie in the Confucius Institute of Burundi University (ICUB), founded in 2011 through a partnership with Bohai University in China and operational since May 2012.

The ICUB has trained over 20,000 Burundians in Chinese language and culture and facilitated more than 100 scholarships for study in China. The key moment came in September 2018, when Ferdinand Mfititye (弗迪南) became the first Burundian local teacher of Chinese at the ICUB, followed in 2019 by Etienne Bankuwiha. Together, in December 2020, they published a Chinese-French teaching manual, J’aime apprendre la langue chinoise, and in mid-2021, with four colleagues who had returned from master’s programmes in China, they formally established the Centre Burundais de Recherche en Sinologie (Cresino Burundi) — one of the few dedicated sinology research centres in sub-Saharan Africa.

Cresino Burundi operates through five research laboratories: International Chinese Education, Teaching + Skills, Chinese Literature, Chinese Audiovisual Tutorials Production, and Sino-African Relations. Its members have published articles in journals including the Revue de l’Université du Burundi, the Cameroonian Journal of Sino-African Studies, the American Chinese Language Teaching Methodology and Technology, and Chinese journals such as Time Report and Cultural Industries. Research topics have ranged from strategies for promoting Chinese language teaching in Burundi and the impact of COVID-19 on Chinese language learning to the reception of Chinese culture in Burundi and the distribution of Jia Zhangke’s films in France.

In 2021, Burundi University began the process of establishing a formal Department of Chinese, which would include courses on Chinese language, society, thought, and culture. This institutional development, Bankuwiha argues, will ensure the continuity and deepening of sinological research in Burundi, building on the foundation laid by the ICUB and Cresino Burundi.

1.4 Other African Developments

Beyond Benin and Burundi, Chinese studies are developing across the continent. In South Africa, Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Chinese Studies, founded in 2004, has become one of the leading research institutions on Sino-African relations. The University of Cape Town, the University of the Witwatersrand, and Rhodes University offer Chinese language and China studies courses. In Nigeria, the Confucius Institute at Nnamdi Azikiwe University (2008) and the Chinese Studies Centre at the University of Lagos have trained thousands of students. Egypt’s Confucius Institutes at Cairo University and Suez Canal University, along with Al-Azhar University’s Chinese department, serve a growing student population. In East Africa, the University of Dar es Salaam’s Confucius Institute and the University of Nairobi’s programmes represent the expansion of Chinese studies in the Swahili-speaking world.

The challenge common to all these initiatives is the transition from language training to genuine scholarly sinology — from teaching students to say nǐ hǎo to training researchers capable of reading classical Chinese texts, conducting fieldwork in China, and contributing original scholarship to international debates about Chinese history, philosophy, politics, and society.

II. Latin America: From Missionary Sinology to Contemporary China Studies

2.1 Historical Roots

As the chapter on Iberian sinology has shown, Latin America was drawn into the orbit of China studies as early as the sixteenth century, when Spanish missionaries travelling to China via New Spain (Mexico) created a “third pole” of East-West cultural exchange. The sinological traditions established by José de Acosta, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, and others in colonial Mexico left a lasting, if attenuated, legacy. In the modern period, Latin American engagement with China has been shaped by immigration (particularly of Chinese labourers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), political solidarity (the recognition of the People’s Republic of China by Cuba in 1960, Chile in 1970, and other countries in subsequent decades), and, most recently, the explosive growth of Sino-Latin American trade and investment.

2.2 Argentina: A Continental Leader

Argentina possesses the most developed institutional infrastructure for China studies in Latin America, as the detailed survey by Dr. Jorge Malena demonstrates. The country’s engagement with Chinese studies operates at three levels: universities, think tanks, and professional networks.

Universities: The National University of La Plata (UNLP) established a Centre for Chinese Studies (CEChino) in 1996 — one of the earliest dedicated China research centres in Latin America — which in 2016 launched a postgraduate programme in Chinese Studies (Especialización en Estudios Chinos). The University of Buenos Aires hosts the Group of East Asian Studies (GEEA, founded 2001), the Centre for Argentina-China Studies (CEACh), and the first Confucius Institute in Argentina (at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, 2009). The University of Salvador (USAL) has offered oriental studies courses since 1967, including Chinese history, literature, and philosophy. The Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) introduced an Executive Programme on Contemporary China in 2018 and, in 2022, a postgraduate specialisation in China Studies in the Global Era (Especialización en Estudios sobre China en la Era Global), directed by Dr. Malena — the first postgraduate programme of its kind at a private university in Argentina.

More than a dozen other Argentine universities conduct research or offer courses on China, including the National University of Lanús (UNLa, which established a postgraduate diploma in Contemporary China Studies in 2015 — the first at a public university), the National University of San Martín (UNSAM), the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF), Austral University, and the National University of Córdoba (UNC). Several of these institutions host China-focused research centres or study groups, and several maintain partnerships with Chinese universities.

Think Tanks and Networks: The Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI), founded in 1978, established an Oriental Affairs Committee in 1989 with a dedicated China Working Group, currently chaired by Ernesto Fernández Taboada. The Sino-Argentine Observatory, directed by Patricio Giusto, brings together young researchers, academics, and politicians studying the Argentina-China relationship. Other organisations include the Latin American Centre for Political and Economic Studies of China (CLEPEC, 2013), the Argentina-China Former Fellows Association (ADEBAC), and the media platform DangDai (2010), which publishes a magazine and website covering Argentina-China relations.

Research Funding: Argentina’s National Agency for the Promotion of Science and Technology (through FONCYT) and the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) provide funding opportunities for China-related research. CONICET has established a joint international research centre with Shanghai University and a joint centre with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. A Bi-National Sino-Argentine Centre for the Study of Policies and Innovation and Technology has been created in partnership with the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.

2.3 Other Latin American Developments

Mexico: Flora Botton Beja, professor at the Centre for Asian and African Studies at the College of Mexico, is widely regarded as the founder of sinology in Mexico and one of the most distinguished sinologists in all of Latin America, with over sixty years of engagement with China studies. The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) maintains a China-Mexico Studies Centre, and several other Mexican institutions offer China-related courses and programmes.

Brazil: Brazilian sinology has developed more recently but is growing rapidly. Giorgio Erick Sinedino de Araujo, a translator, sinologist, and former diplomat, has been a prominent figure in efforts to build sinological capacity in Brazil. The University of São Paulo, the University of Brasília, and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro are among the institutions offering Chinese studies. Brazil hosted a landmark event in 2024 when the first Congress of Latin American Sinologists was held, gathering over fifty scholars from across the region to discuss the future of Chinese studies in Latin America. The establishment of a Latin American Sinologists Council aims to enhance collaboration and support the growth of the field across the continent.

Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia: These countries have also developed university-based China studies programmes, often within broader Asian studies or international relations frameworks. The Pacific Alliance countries have been particularly active in developing economic and trade-oriented China expertise. Confucius Institutes have been established at numerous Latin American universities, providing the institutional backbone for Chinese language education across the region.

2.4 Challenges and Opportunities

As Malena’s survey of Argentina reveals, the institutional setting for China studies in Latin America is extensive but fragmented. There is “not necessarily an institutional nucleus or network at the centre of these initiatives,” and the dispersed nature of programmes “can sometimes lead to the duplication of efforts and can hinder collaboration among institutions, instead fostering competition.” University positions with institutional backing for China-related work are difficult to obtain, and salaries are low. The field remains heavily oriented toward social science perspectives — economics, international relations, political science — with comparatively little work in classical sinology, Chinese literature, philosophy, or linguistic research.

At the same time, the opportunities are significant. China’s emergence as Latin America’s second-largest trading partner (and, in several countries, the largest) has created powerful demand for China expertise. The growing number of Latin American students in Chinese universities, the expansion of Confucius Institutes, and the development of regional scholarly networks such as the Latin American Sinologists Council suggest that the institutional foundations for a strong Latin American tradition of China studies are gradually being laid.

III. Comparative Perspectives

Africa and Latin America share several features as sites of emerging Chinese studies. In both regions, the primary driver of growth has been China’s expanding economic footprint — through trade, investment, infrastructure projects, and development assistance. In both, the Confucius Institute network has served as the principal institutional vehicle for Chinese language education. And in both, the transition from language training to scholarly sinology remains the central challenge.

Yet important differences exist. Latin America, with its much longer history of contact with China (dating to the sixteenth-century Manila galleon trade), a larger and better-established university system, and stronger traditions of social science research, is further advanced in the development of academic China studies. Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil possess genuine research communities with the capacity to produce original scholarship. In Africa, by contrast, Chinese studies remain at an earlier stage of institutionalisation, with the notable exceptions of South Africa’s Centre for Chinese Studies and the remarkable initiative of Burundi’s Cresino Burundi.

Both regions would benefit from greater investment in training scholars who can read Chinese-language sources, conduct fieldwork in China, and engage with the full breadth of Chinese civilisation — not merely its contemporary economic dimensions. The intellectual rewards of such an investment would be considerable: an African or Latin American sinology that brought its own distinctive perspectives — post-colonial, Global South, culturally pluralistic — to the study of China would enrich world sinology immeasurably.

Bibliography

Bankuwiha, Etienne (班超). “History of Sinology in Burundi.” Unpublished manuscript, Nanjing University / University of Burundi.

Gountin, Vignon Maurice. “The Development History and Current Status of Sinology in Benin” [贝宁汉学的发展史与现状]. Unpublished manuscript, University of Abomey-Calavi.

Guo Cunhai 郭存海. “Chinese Studies in Latin America: Review and Prospect” [拉丁美洲的中国研究:回顾与展望]. Journal of Southwest University of Science and Technology (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 37, no. 5 (2020): 1–6.

Malena, Jorge. “The State of China Studies in Argentina.” Unpublished manuscript.

Villagrán, Ignacio 毕嘉宏, and Zhang Jingting 张婧亭. “China Studies in Argentina: Review and Prospects” [阿根廷的中国研究: 机构变迁与研究现状]. Journal of Latin American Studies 41, no. 4 (2019): 25–39.

References

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