{"id":271,"date":"2013-02-16T15:14:32","date_gmt":"2013-02-16T15:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/?p=271"},"modified":"2013-02-17T15:37:17","modified_gmt":"2013-02-17T15:37:17","slug":"lesotho-and-the-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/lesotho-and-the-chinese\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho and the Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0The Mountain School\u00a0<\/em>I told the story of visiting a Chinese-owned shop in a neighboring village called Kolo, where a Mosotho woman got into an argument with the Chinese cashier. Chinese are really the only immigrants in Lesotho and, if I could sum up, I’d say the Basotho grudgingly patronize Chinese businesses. I’d also note that while Westerners are almost strictly present in Lesotho in the role of charity or foreign aid workers, the Chinese are there to make money.<\/p>\n

But the Chinese seem to be half-hearted immigrants; they set up businesses or run construction projects but otherwise put few roots down. They are notorious for knowing little Sesotho, and you would be hard-pressed to find a Chinese child anywhere in the Mountain Kingdom.<\/p>\n

So unsurprisingly, though there is some admiration for the business acumen of the Chinese, Basotho mostly are heard speaking with jealousy, suspicion, or resentment of them. Chinese are sometimes given pejoratives such as colonizers, exploiters, imperialists of Africa in the 21st century, and worse.<\/p>\n

The feelings have boiled over into violence in the past, most conspicuously during the riots of 1998, when many Chinese businesses were looted and burned. It seems the Chinese might soon find themselves targeted again. Here<\/a>\u00a0is a broad discussion on the website “Africa Is a Country”\u00a0of recent incidents and current talk on local radio and the reaction from the Chinese embassy.<\/p>\n

Here<\/a>\u00a0also is a short write-up in The Economist that mentions the new Parliament building that China has built for the government of Lesotho. Can you imagine, say, a new Capitol being built for the U.S. Congress by Brazil? What would that mean?<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>by <\/span>\"feather\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0The Mountain School\u00a0I told the story of visiting a Chinese-owned shop in a neighboring village called Kolo, where a Mosotho woman got into an argument with the Chinese cashier. Chinese are really the only immigrants in Lesotho and, if I could sum up, I’d say the Basotho grudgingly patronize Chinese businesses. I’d also note that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8huLi-4n","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":398,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/new-voice-on-the-chinese-in-lesotho\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":0},"title":"New Voice on the Chinese in Lesotho","author":"Greg Alder","date":"May 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"During all my years in Lesotho, I spoke to a Chinese only once. I encountered many Chinese at the shops they own in villages and towns throughout the country, yet I really only conversed with one man who drove his pick-up truck to our school in the countryside one afternoon\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":698,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/quintessential-lesotho-in-one-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":1},"title":"Quintessential Lesotho in one photo","author":"Greg Alder","date":"August 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've been to Lesotho, you'll recognize every silhouette in this photo. A peach tree, a couple of rondavels, a man wrapped in a blanket, the leaf blade of an agave (or aloe, as Basotho call it), mountains, more mountains, and an expansive sky. The scene is quintessential Lesotho. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/quintessential-lesotho-in-one-photo\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2594.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2594.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2594.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2594.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2594.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":422,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/questions-discuss\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":2},"title":"Questions. Discuss.","author":"Greg Alder","date":"June 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Below are a dozen prods. Use them to further consider\u00a0what is in\u00a0The Mountain School.\u00a0Share with\u00a0a friend, a book club, a group of students. 1. If judged through most news stories, we get the impression that Africa is two things: a romantic land of wild animals, and a desperate place\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/questions-discuss\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"The_Mountain_School_Cover_thumbnail 15 percent size","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/The_Mountain_School_Cover_thumbnail-15-percent-size-e1362499365205.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":467,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/facebook-sesotho-style\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":3},"title":"Facebook, Sesotho Style","author":"Greg Alder","date":"October 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Mornin guys? Kele hopotse kao fela n cn't wait 2 c some of u s i knw dt we gna mt.\" What? A former student from Lesotho posted this on Facebook the other day, and that\u2019s my usual reaction to any posting from someone in Lesotho: What? Actually, Facebook for\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/facebook-sesotho-style\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":614,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/lesotho-as-an-enclave\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":4},"title":"Lesotho as an enclave","author":"Greg Alder","date":"March 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There aren't many countries which are entirely surrounded by a single\u00a0other country, as Lesotho is entirely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. There's also San Marino within Italy, and then there's Vatican City within Italy too. That's it. Three in the whole world. Nancy Wright teaches political science at\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/lesotho-as-an-enclave\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":288,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/initiation-ceremony-new-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":5},"title":"Initiation Ceremony – New Men","author":"Greg Alder","date":"February 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the first warnings I received upon arriving in Lesotho was not to hike aimlessly in the mountains, for if you happen upon an initiation school you'll be captured. A group of boys spend about six months in initiation school up on a summit, being circumcised, learning to stickfight,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Boys just become men, freshly returned from the mountain school.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/IMG_1464-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}