Abstract The first two decades of the 21st century have witnessed intensified Africa–China mobility, China’s domestic changes, and its rise as a global power. This article explores how the changes affect African students in China and their implications by comparing two qualitative studies conducted in 2009 and 2019–2023. It adopts a cross-cultural theory of migrant-indigene relations to explain the changing experiences of African students. The paper argues that African students are cross-cultural bridges that connect Chinese and African societies and facilitate mutual understanding. African students’ experiences uncover Chinese universities’ imbalanced internationalization, internal discord between China’s diplomatic and immigration policies, and unconscious racism and nationalism. The experiences also trigger their reflections on Africa’s traditional thoughts on education and development. This article exposes the limitations of using soft power to explain the experiences of African students in China. It enhances migrant-indigene relations theory by revealing the cross-cultural experiences of African students, a distinctive group of immigrants, in Chinese society and the bidirectional influences involved.
Dong et al. (Thu,) studied this question.