Angela Lewis - Böcker

This book examines the phenomenal growth over recent years of StarTimes, a Chinese pay-TV company with around 30 million subscribers providing satellite television to 20 African countries. The broadcaster, whose markets include demographic groups deemed uneconomic by Western television providers, combines entertainment such as Chinese drama and Kung Fu content dubbed into African languages with Chinese state programming, thus making the station at least partially a public diplomacy instrument. At the same time, the channel provides new indigenous language channels, widened access to television in rural areas, and sponsors African soccer brands. The book considers all aspects of StarTimes: how it fits into China’s development assistance programmes; its structure as a private company nonetheless financed by Chinese banks; and, based on extensive interview research in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, how the station is perceived by media professionals. Overall, the book shows how this major Chinese international media expansion both contributes very significantly to African development in a way which is sensitive to local concerns, and at the same time enhances China’s international image.

This book examines the phenomenal growth over recent years of StarTimes, a Chinese pay-TV company with around 30 million subscribers providing satellite television to 20 African countries. The broadcaster, whose markets include demographic groups deemed uneconomic by Western television providers, combines entertainment such as Chinese drama and Kung Fu content dubbed into African languages with Chinese state programming, thus making the station at least partially a public diplomacy instrument. At the same time, the channel provides new indigenous language channels, widened access to television in rural areas, and sponsors African soccer brands. The book considers all aspects of StarTimes: how it fits into China’s development assistance programmes; its structure as a private company nonetheless financed by Chinese banks; and, based on extensive interview research in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, how the station is perceived by media professionals. Overall, the book shows how this major Chinese international media expansion both contributes very significantly to African development in a way which is sensitive to local concerns, and at the same time enhances China’s international image.

The story of China–Africa relations is one of the most important geopolitical and geoeconomic developments of the past two decades. This book uses the interaction between China and African countries in football to critically examine how engagement through football reproduces unequal outcomes but also positive developments on both sides. A multidisciplinary cast of China and Africa scholars demonstrate how political, economic, social and cultural issues play out through football, illuminating the motivations, processes and consequences of the evolving relationship between China and African countries. From nation states, corporations, institutions, clubs, players and fans, this book shows how the global game runs through Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Algeria, Egypt, Beijing, Guangzhou and the Chinese Northeast, with its ramifications for geopolitics, South–South relations, international sports governance, diplomacy, soft power, international media, labor migration and transnational fandoms.