Special section article China Town malls in South Africa in the 21st century: Ethnic Chinatowns or Chinese state projects? T Tu Huynh Jinan University Abstract In recent years, wholesale centers that sell Chinese goods and which, most often, are owned by Chinese nationals or ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs, have proliferated across South Africa at the same time as the increase in migration of individuals and capital from China. Because these centers also provide for retail sales, they are referred to as malls. While many of these malls have names that suggest their possible connection to China, the few that are named ‘‘China Town’’ stand out. The latter, it is argued and demonstrated here, make claims to China’s global ascendance and shed light on a conflicting relationship between Chinese diasporic communities and Chinese state pol- itics. China Town-named malls are more than merely spaces of commerce; they also present an analytical space to think about how diverse types of Chinese actors become implicated in and negotiate their identity and relationship to China’s shifting global image and politics. Keywords China-in-Africa, China Town, Chineseness, migration, South Africa Introduction China’s ascendance to a position of global power in the 21st century is unequi- vocal. On the one hand, research focused on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) role in the rapid transformation of the country’s economy since the late Corresponding author: T Tu Huynh, Jinan University, School of International Studies & Academy of Overseas Chinese Studies, No. 601 Huangpu Avenue West, Second Social Sciences Bldg, Room 614, Guangzhou 510632, China. Email: huynh.2.t@gmail.com Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 2018, Vol. 27(1) 28–54 ! Scalabrini Migration Center 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/ journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0117196818760405 journals.sagepub.com/home/amj