Black voices in the China space

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Keisha Brown, Mark Akpaninyie, and Leland Lazarus about initiatives they're involved with to increase black representation in China-related fields. Keisha Brown is a historian of modern China who is an assistant professor in the Department of History, Political Science, Geography, and Africana Studies at Tennessee State University. Mark Akpaninyie is a researcher focusing on China's Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese investment abroad, and China-Africa relations. Leland Lazarus is a foreign service officer stationed in Barbuda, who recently joined Sinica for a discussion on China's influence in the Caribbean.

8:24: Disciplines within China studies that need black voices

10:45: Underrepresentation within China studies

20:31: Black role models in East Asian academia

44:59: Right-wing populist parallels in America and China

51:35: Engaging communities of color in China studies

Recommendations:

Keisha: Asian Studies and Black Lives Matter, a digital dialogue conducted by the Association for Asian Studies, and the podcast Code Switch, by NPR.

Mark: A Chinese-language Black Lives Matter syllabus created by Amani Core.

Leland: The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, by John M. Barry.

Kaiser: How the pandemic defeated America, a story in the September issue of The Atlantic, by Ed Yong.