"[A] pioneering and landmark study. . . . Based on extensive field-work in China and Africa, the book is characterized by a perfect combination of classical ethnographic structure and relaxed jargon-free presentation. It contributes a model of urban ethnography to professional anthropologists and lays the groundwork for laypersons concerned about the prospect of globalization in the post-Coronavirus age."

Journal of Chinese Overseas

“Compelling stories of corruption and cutthroat competition at the heart of low end globalization in Guangzhou make this the perfect sequel to Mathews’ Ghetto at the Center of the World. The World in Guangzhou is filled with riveting and disturbing tales of racial others, migrants’ dreams of getting rich, and relationships between foreigners—mostly African traders and entrepreneurs—and local Chinese.”

Nicole Constable, University of Pittsburgh

“I continue to be impressed by Mathews’s combination of a long, skillful buildup of local knowledge with a great sense of how to communicate with a wide readership. To understand Guangzhou and the human face of low-end globalization is to understand a lot about today’s world.”

Ulf Hannerz, author of Writing Future Worlds: An Anthropologist Explores Global Scenarios

"...a fascinating portrait of the daily functioning of low-end globalization during the early decades of this century."

newbooks.asia

"Gordon Mathews’ study of Guangzhou, the most important urban center in the probably fastest-growing manufacturing area of the world, addresses the arrival of foreigners to traditionally ethnically homogenous China...Mathews’s peculation about a Chinese Obama who may become the product of this new migration regime illustrates the tensions that play out in today’s world as racial discrimination but also as profit for middlemen bridging the different cultures."

New Global Studies