Cai Chen‘s PhD research “Boundary bricoleurs: Sino-Congolese couples navigating intimacy and difference in postcolonial Congo” (supervised by Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot) has won the annual competition 2026 for Human Sciences of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences(RAOS), Belgium. He will be awarded during the RAOS academic opening session of 2026-2027 on 15 October 2026 in the Palace of the Academies, Brussels. Many congratulations!

Boundary bricoleurs: Sino-Congolese couples navigating intimacy and difference in postcolonial Congo

Abstract: China’s expanding presence in Africa has drawn sustained attention from media, policymakers, and scholars. Yes existing research on Africa-China relations remains largely focused on macro-level economic, geopolitical, and developmental dynamics, leaving everyday people-to-people encounters underexplored. This thesis addresses this gap by examining Sino-African conjugal relationships—an overlooked form of intimate engagement—from below. Focusing on Sino-Congolese couples in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it shifts the analytical lens from China’s global rise to the lived experiences of intimacy, difference, and power in a postcolonial African context. Based on multi-sited ethnographic research conducted between 2022 and 2024 with ten heterosexual Sino-Congolese couples across Kinshasa, Haut-Katanga, and Lualaba, the thesis explores how partners navigate relationships shaped by intersecting differences of nationality, race, gender, class, ethnicity, and religion. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and informal conversations, it conceptualizes these couples as “boundary bricoleurs” engaged in creactive, multilevel boundary work. As intimate partners, community brokers, and transnational actors, they negotiate asymmetric power relations, mobilize unequal resources, and reconfigure social boundaries in everyday life. By foregrounding conjugal mixedness in the Global South, this thesis offers fresh insights into the grassroots dynamics of Africa-China engagements and contributes to broader debates on intimacy, mobility, and the social organization of difference.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
BelMix (May 25, 2026). [Congratulations] Cai Chen: Prizewinner of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. BelMix. Retrieved June 15, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/169tz