About the Competition

​

In July 2023, with the support of the CA/AC (Chinese in Africa / Africans in China) Research Network and Fudan University, CASIN (China-Africa Studies in Shanghai Network) launched the first Global China-Africa Writing Competition. Centred on the theme of humanistic exchanges, the contest encouraged writers from around the world to explore the cultural dimensions of China-Africa relations through short fictional or non-fictional works (between 1,000 and 10,000 words in Chinese or English), offering new literary insights into the diverse interactions and friendships between Chinese and African peoples.

​

The first competition was successfully concluded in November 2024, with one first prize awarded in the non-fiction category and one first prize, two second prizes, and one honourable mention in the fiction category. Chinese and English versions of these outstanding works have been published by the famous Chinese magazine Dandu, the CASIN WeChat public account, and our African partner platform The Elephant in Kenya. The excellent contributors came from various countries, including China, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Uganda, Botswana, Burundi, Madagascar, and Mauritius. Among them, many were young Chinese people working or who had worked in Africa, African students studying in China, and researchers and writers interested in China-Africa relations.

​

The year 2026 has been designated the “China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges.” Building on the success of the first competition, CASIN hopes to continue promoting grassroots cultural engagement between China and Africa by soliciting and amplifying more outstanding literary works that reveal the complex dimensions of interpersonal and intercultural interactions.

​

The winning pieces of the first competition can be assessed via our WeChat Public Account (CASIN) or here: https://www.theelephant.info/series/collective-futures-reflecting-on-afro-asian-experiences/

​​

​

​Our Vision

​

As an organisation dedicated to the study of China-Africa relations, CASIN has long worked to break the boundary between academia and the public, integrate scholarly and public dialogues, and foster the organic development of China-Africa cultural exchange in public spaces.

The main goal of organising the Global China-Africa Writing Competition is to promote a humanistic shift in the understanding of China-Africa relations across different sectors. We hope that, through the power of literary and artistic creation, we can help eliminate the biases and limitations in how the media and the public perceive China-Africa interactions, whether these limitations stem from Western perspectives or stereotypes within Chinese and African cultural contexts themselves. The humanistic turn we seek to encourage promotes a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of interpersonal exchanges between Chinese and African people. It is also our belief that literary works that portray the friendliness and prejudices in such interactions can also reveal to readers the complexity and universality of human nature beyond national boundaries.

​

In other words, we hope that the submitted pieces will focus on cultural exchange between China and African countries, and, beyond grand narratives, highlight the opportunities and challenges in China-Africa cultural interactions through emotional storytelling, whether fictional or non-fictional, and everyday observation embedded therein. In doing so, they will help demonstrate the diversity and complexity of humanistic expressions in China-Africa writing. Specifically, we hope this year’s submissions will encourage literary work that:

​

• Understands and critiques common misconceptions about China-Africa relations in current media discourses, while offering fresh perspectives and insights;

• Does not reduce China or Africa to mere backdrops, nor simplify Chinese or African characters into stereotypes;

• Willingly engages with urgent issues in the everyday interactions between Chinese and African people;

• Presents the lives of Chinese people in Africa or African people in China from diverse perspectives;

• Provides new humanistic understandings of both conflict and friendship between Chinese and African communities;

​

Explores lesser-seen genres in existing China-Africa literature, such as love stories, family narratives, science fiction, time-travel stories, historical fiction, crime and mystery, diary formats, epistolary styles, and other imaginative and stylistically creative approaches that go beyond realism.

​

We hope that this year’s submissions will continue to cultivate the spirit of China-Africa humanistic writing laid down in the first competition and build on that experience by exploring a wider range of genres and styles. We warmly encourage you to share this opportunity with your classmates, colleagues, and friends.

​

​

About the Organiser

​

The Shanghai Network for China-Africa Relations (CASIN) aims to foster a deeper understanding and promote research on China-Africa relations within local communities in Shanghai. It primarily serves two target groups: (1) African students and professionals living and working in the Yangtze River Delta region; and (2) Chinese researchers and practitioners engaged in Africa-related work. CASIN is dedicated to providing a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary platform for research and professional dialogue between these communities. As a local chapter of the Chinese in Africa / Africans in China Research Network (CA/AC), CASIN has received funding support from the Office of Global Partnerships (Key Projects Development Fund) at Fudan University for the period of 2023 to 2025.

​

​

Competition Rules and Key Dates

​

Submission Method: Please send your submission as a PDF file to this email address: 

casinwriting@gmail.com

​

Please make sure that no personal information is disclosed in the actual submission. You may introduce yourself in the email or attach a separate file of a brief biography.

​

Accepting Submissions Until:  2026/01/01

​

Submission Requirement: 

• The submitted works should focus on the humanistic and cultural aspects of China-Africa relations;

• Please indicate whether your submission is fiction or non-fiction in the file name of the PDF file;

• If the original language of composition of the submission is neither Chinese nor English, please accompany the submission with a Chinese or English translation;

• The category of fiction here mainly refers to short stories/novelettes, while nonfiction may include travelogues, (auto)biographies, prose essays and reportage. Please be aware that poetry and standard academic essays are not accepted genres for this competition;

• The submitted work must be original and remain unpublished for the duration of this competition.

 

Word Count Restriction: The submitted work should be between 1,000 and 10,000 words in English or between 1,000 and 10,000 Chinese characters.  Please state the word count of the piece in the final page of the document. Works that do not do so or have word counts that do not fall within this range will not be considered.

 

About the Awards: Fiction and non-fiction will be evaluated separately, and each category will have a final winner and a runner-up. The final winners and the runners-up will receive at least 1000 RMB each (specific amount to be announced later). All winning pieces and a select pool of excellent works will be published online via our online platforms, and there will be an awarding ceremony and dinner offline for the awardees (details to be announced later). We will partially subsidize their travel and accommodation expenses subjective to our financial situation in 2026. There is a possibility that the winning pieces will be selected for edited book publication in the future.

 

Result Announcement: mid-2026 (TBC) 

Award Ceremony: late 2026 (TBC) 

 

Evaluation Method: The judges will read and mark each submission anonymously, and all submissions will then be ranked according to their average mark to determine the winners and runners-up. If the top works happen to have the same mark, the judges will discuss and vote to decide which work shall receive the award(s).

 

List of Multilingual Judges for 2025-2026

• *Flair Donglai SHI (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) (* competition manager, with no right to vote)

• Tungamirai Eric Mupona (Zhejiang University/China-Zimbabwe Exchange Centre)

• Lifang Zhang (Tsinghua University/ Podcast Channel “African Lounge”)

• Kaiyang Xu (China Foreign Affairs University)