We have curated a list of documentaries, narrative films, and TV/YouTube channels related to China-Africa topics that you will find below. 

Documentaries
  • Made in Ethiopia (2024)
    A documentary by Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan that explores Ethiopia-China relations through the stories of three women. 
     
  • Eat Bitter (2023)
    A documentary by Ningyi Sun and Pascale Appora-Gnekindy that explores the stories of and relationship between a Chinese construction manager in the Central African Republic and a local sand diver. 
     
  • TAZARA Stories: Remembering Work on a China-African Railway Project (2021)
    Documentary film, Jamie Monson. Filmed in Tanzania, Zambia, and China, this film features oral interviews with African and Chinese workers who worked on the Cold War-era TAZARA railway project.
     

  • NA China/ 寄生中國 無關上流 (2020)
    Documentary film directed by Marie Voignier. This film documents the experiences of three African businesswomen in Guangzhou as they set up their businesses and grapple with the global economy.

  • 蓝色防线/The Blue Defensive Line (2020)
    Documentary film, CCTV6 Movie Channel. This Chinese state media-produced documentary chronicles the experiences of Chinese UN peacekeeping troops in South Sudan.

  • Africans in Yiwu/ 非洲人在义乌 (2017)
    Documentary film by Zhang Yong, Hodan O. Abdi, and Fu Dong. This documentary focuses on the experiences and relationships of the African and Chinese residents living in Yiwu, a manufacturing city with a large African population. Read a review.

  • Behind the Belt: A Look at China's Cultural Influence in Kenya (2017)
    Documentary film by Philip Man and Jidi Guo. This short documentary film can be viewed for free on YouTube, and the independent filmmakers discuss their project in an interview with the China-Africa Project.

  • The Ivory Game (2016)
    A documentary film by Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani. Available on Netflix in the US, this documentary was filmed in Africa and China and explores the global ivory trade (note that it was made prior to China's 2017 domestic ivory trade ban). Read a review.

  • Guangzhou Dream Factory (2016)
    A documentary film by Christiane Badgley and Erica Marcus. Featuring the stories of African migrants in Guangzhou from Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, this documentary serves as a critique of global capitalism. 

  • China Remix (2015)
    A film by Dorian Carli-Jones and Melissa Lefkowitz. This short documentary tells the stories of three African hip-hop artists making their lives in China.

  • King Cobra and the Dragon (2012)
    A documentary film produced by Al Jazeera – People and Power episode. Researcher Solange Chatelard and filmmaker Scott Corben explore China-Zambia relations in this short documentary for Al Jazeera.

  • When China met Africa (2010)
    A film by Marc and Nick Francis. This documentary examines China-Zambia relations through the lives of three people: a Chinese farmer in Zambia, a Chinese project manager working on a road-building project in Zambia, and the Zambian trade minister. 

Narrative Films
  • 战狼2/Wolf Warrior 2 (2017)
    Action Movie directed by Wu Jing. This blockbuster action film—in which a heroic Chinese soldier protects medical aid workers and Chinese interests in a fictitious African country—was hugely successful in China. It also provoked a great deal of discussion and analysis abroad for its brash nationalism, and is the origin of the term "Wolf Warrior Diplomacy" (now regularly used to describe confrontational rhetoric from Chinese diplomats). See a review from the New York Times, an essay by a Chinese academic, and an analysis of how Africa is depicted in the film by a China-based Malawian scholar for a range of opinions on the film.
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  • 莱索托/ Laisuotuo (2016)
    A short film by Carl Houston McMillan. This short narrative film, about an African immigrant in China and a Chinese immigrant in Lesotho, is available for free on YouTube. Listen to the filmmaker discuss the project with the China-Africa Project.
Channels

  • Wode Maya
    The purpose of this YouTube channel, run by a young freelance Ghanaian vlogger, is to challenge dominant negative narratives about Africa and Africans. He spent a significant amount of time in the PRC, and searching for "China" on his page yields a large quantity of results, including videos on Africans in China and on Chinese in Africa.

  • CGTN Africa
    English-language YouTube Channel for CGTN Africa (Chinese state media), updated frequently with new content. See also CGTN Français for CGTN's French-language channel with lots of reporting from Africa (in particular Francophone African countries).