China-African marriages

With the steady rise of international cooperation between China and African countries, there are a growing number of Chinese people that have traveled to the continent in the last decade. Many of them travel to Africa with their companies to work on projects such as railroads and other infrastructure projects, such as telecommunications and property development. Others choose Africa to invest in small businesses in the hopes of making a better living for themselves. 

[File Photo: sina.com]

Although most of the Chinese people prefer to stay within their own cultural group and have minimal contact with the locals, others choose to venture out and immerse themselves in the local communities. Some have even opted to marry local women and settle in Africa indefinitely. 

Marriages for a man in China can be expensive if he marries into a traditional family. In certain cases, a women's family will expect a house, car, and betrothal gifts sometimes ranging in the tens-of-thousands of yuan. In Africa, however, many cultures only require the gift of a few cows. This is seen as a motivating factor behind why some Chinese men prefer an African bride.

The cultural challenges of an inter-racial marriage are always there, regardless of which countries the spouses come from. In a Chinese-African marriage, the couple has to be willing to experience differences in lifestyles, habits, food, language, and a general outlook on life. 

In Africa, it’s not uncommon to hear a Chinese person speaking a traditional African dialect, sometimes better than English. There are also African women today who can speak flawless Mandarin. This is just one of the results of globalization, as well as a marked decline in racism and intolerance.