Taking the Road Less Travelled

Sino-Africa relations are criticized as a form of neo-colonialism on one hand and commended for their investment in African economies on the other. This article provides analyses of artwork featured in the Making Way' exhibition, which, by bringing together a combination of Chinese and South African artists, seeks to forge new paths in conceptualizations of migration, diaspora and identity. The intricate identities of Chinese communities who reside in contemporary South Africa are often overlooked. The geo-political similarities between these two nations form the basis of the curatorial thematic links. Artists such as Chen Qiulin, Hua Jiming, Maleonn, Lebogang Rasethaba, Kudzanai Chiurai, Athi Patra-Ruga, Gerald Machona and Doung Anwar Jahangeer reveal that seeing makes way for a discursive window to the world' and that notions of socio-cultural identities are constructed through modes of perception.