Title: Transnational Aspirations of Zimbabweans and Other Africans In Hong Kong And Mainland China: What Are They?

Speaker: Phillip Thebe (Department of Anthropology, CUHK)

Date: Friday, 23 February 2024

Time: 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Mode: Online

Zoom Meeting Link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/97797479370

Zoom Meeting ID: 977 9747 9370

Passcode: 864036

Abstract:

In this presentation, I explore the transnational migration and life aspirations that Zimbabweans and other Africans in China have harboured. I use two selected stories from my thesis to  give an overview picture of the data and analysis of transnational aspirations related to the good life. Their aspirations are described and analysed with specific attention to transnational trajectories using the transnational aspirations framework (my addition to the body of knowledge), informed by (i) aspirations before going, (ii) aspirations to go, (iii) aspirations during stay, and (iv) aspirations for the future. By so doing, the presentation seeks to capture the types, shapes, and forms transnational aspirations of my interviewees take.

Bio:

Phillip Thebe is an anthropology PhD candidate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) researching transnational aspirations and lived realities of Zimbabweans and other Africans in Greater China. He is a grantee of prestigious scholarships in Hong Kong (HKPFS; ROA), Austria (OeAD’s Ernst Mach Grant), and Belgium (VLIR OUS). He is the 2021 winner of the Centre for a Public Anthropology’s Revitalizing Anthropology student writing competition. Between 2022 and 2023, he was a visiting research fellow at the Department for Migration and Globalization of the University for Continuing Education, Krems. Thebe has published several academic articles in esteemed journals such as The Oriental Anthropologist, the Journal of Asian and African Studies, Illness, Crisis and Loss, and the American Anthropological Association’s Exertions.