Only decades ago, the population of Guangzhou was almost wholly Chinese. Today, it is a truly global city, a place where people from around the world go to make new lives, find themselves, or further their careers. A large number of these migrants are small-scale traders from Africa who deal in Chinese goods--often knockoffs or copies of high-end branded items--to send back to their home countries. In The World in Guangzhou, Gordon Mathews explores the question of how the city became a center of "low-end globalization" and shows what we can learn from that experience about similar...

Only decades ago, the population of Guangzhou was almost wholly Chinese. Today, it is a truly global city, a place where people from around the world go to make new lives, find themselves, or further their careers. A large number of these migrants are small-scale traders from Africa who deal in Chinese goods--often knockoffs or copies of high-end branded items--to send back to their home countries. In The World in Guangzhou, Gordon Mathews explores the question of how the city became a center of "low-end globalization" and shows what we can learn from that experience about similar...