Arise Africa, Roar China: Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century

by Yunxiang Gao

This book explores the close relationships between three of the most famous twentieth-century African Americans, W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and Langston Hughes, and their little-known Chinese allies during World War II and the Cold War—journalist, musician, and Christian activist Liu Liangmo, and Sino-Caribbean dancer-choreographer Sylvia Si-lan Chen. Charting a new path in the study of Sino-American relations, Gao Yunxiang foregrounds African Americans, combining the study of Black internationalism and the experiences of Chinese Americans with a transpacific narrative and an understanding of the global remaking of China's modern popular culture and politics. Gao reveals earlier and more widespread interactions between Chinese and African American leftists than accounts of the familiar alliance between the Black radicals and the Maoist Chinese would have us believe. The book's multilingual approach draws from massive yet rarely used archival streams in China and in Chinatowns and elsewhere in the United States. These materials allow Gao to retell the well-known stories of Du Bois, Robeson, and Hughes alongside the sagas of Liu and Chen in a work that will transform and redefine Afro-Asia studies.

Genres: China, History, Africa, Nonfiction, Politics, African American

408 pages, Hardcover

Published December 28, 2021

About the author

Dr. Gao Yunxiang (高云翔) is professor of history at Ryerson University. Her research focuses primarily on trans-Pacific cultural history in the twentieth century through a multilingual approach.

Reviews

[Carlos Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating biographical sketch of five key cultural/historical figures of the 20th century - WEB DuBois, Paul Robeson, Liu Liangmo, Chen Si-lan and Langston Hughes - connects the dots between the black liberation movement in the US and the Chinese struggles against Japanese occupation and to build a new China. There are more detailed biographies available of all the protagonists (with the possible exception of Chen), but none that goes into so much depth connecting the dots between the global anti-racist struggle, the global anti-fascist struggle, post-colonial Africa, and the Chinese Revolution. Very much a worthwhile read.

[Will Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book which transports the reader back in time through the lives and loves of five fascinating protagonists. I really enjoyed the narrative style, the subject matter, the authorial voice and most of all the fascinating way in which these tales of sometimes almost 100 years ago are so relevant for today. Excellent book, thank you!