The next Meeting on China Studies will take place on the afternoon of September 24, 2025, between 1:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., dedicated to the theme “A Grassroots Perspective on China's Global Digital Power: Using WeChat and WhatsApp in the Chinese-Mozambican Fashion Trade.”

The guest speaker is Johanna von Pezold, from the University of Amsterdam, and the commentary will be provided by Gonçalo Santos, from the University of Coimbra.

⭢ Link Teams: https://bit.ly/EncChina24Set

⭢ Meeting ID: 360 773 174 008 4

ABSTRACT

Combining online and offline data collection during six months of ethnographic fieldwork in Southern Mozambique in early 2021, this paper explores how media and its everyday use in the Global South are impacting on, and are in turn being transformed by China. It specifically looks into the creative and highly personalised ways in which Chinese-made garments are sold and promoted in Mozambique via the messenger service WhatsApp. Examining how Mozambican and West African traders use both WeChat and WhatsApp, this paper shows that the consequences of Chinese interactions with the Global South on the global media landscape transcend the mere spread of Chinese hard- and software. Going beyond official soft power initiatives, the activities of large, often state-backed corporations, and other dominant, state-centred narratives of Chinese influence abroad, this paper demonstrates the key role of (both Chinese and non-Chinese) individuals and their agency in shaping the digital impact of Global China.