Global Guangzhou: Nigerians in Southern China

Wendy Thompson Taiwo discusses her interest in photographing Nigerian traders in Guangzhou in order to document their everyday experiences and also put them into perspective when considering what makes a global city.
Following the tradition of African international students who accepted invitations to attend Chinese universities during the sixties and the decades that followed, New World Nigerians have turned east again, this time to ride out a new global economic high in the world’s second largest economy. Acting as go-betweens who assist in the feeding of the growing hunger for consumer goods back home in Nigeria, large numbers of Nigerian men and women have found ways to capitalize on China’s mass production and semi-lenient entry policies. And while there is hardly any province where you won’t find a Nigerian, most can be found somewhere in Guangzhou, a major trading port on the Pearl River Delta that is quickly becoming a mega city.