Patricia Hayes

With China’s rise as the new superpower, its presence in Africa has expanded, leading to significant economic, geopolitical and cultural shifts. Chinese and African encounters through the lens of the visual arts and material culture, however, is a neglected field. Visualising China in Southern Africa is a ground-breaking volume that addresses this deficit through engaging with the work of contemporary African and Chinese artists while analysing broader material production that prefigures the current relationship. The essays are wide-ranging in their analysis of ceramics, photography, painting, etching, sculpture, film, performance, postcards, stamps, installations, political posters, cartoons and architecture. Richly illustrated, the collection includes scholarly chapters, photo essays, interviews, and artists’ personal accounts, organised around four themes: material flows, orientations and transgressions, spatial imaginaries, and biographies. Some of the artists, photographers, filmmakers, curators and collectors in this volume include: Stary Mwaba, Hua Jiming, Anawana Haloba, Gerald Machona, Nobukho Nqaba, Marcus Neustetter, Brett Murray, Diane Victor, William Kentridge, Kristin NG-Yang, Kok Nam, Mark Lewis, the Chinese Camera Club of South Africa, Wu Jing, Henion Han and Shengkai Wu.

China and Africa have long shared a history of allegiance and contact points through global political forces from the time of colonialism and the Cold War. With China's rise as the new superpower, its presence in Africa has expanded, leading to significant economic, geopolitical and cultural shifts. While issues such as trade, aid and development have received much attention, Chinese and African encounters through the lens of the visual arts and material culture is a neglected field. Visualising China in Southern Africa: Biography, Circulation, Transgression is a ground-breaking volume that addresses this deficit through engaging with the work of contemporary African and Chinese artists while analysing broader material production that prefigures the current relationship. The essays are wide-ranging in their analysis of ceramics, photography, painting, etching, sculpture, film, performance, postcards, stamps, installations, political posters, cartoons and architecture. Visualising China in Southern Africa confines its focus to southern Africa, yet even within this region, the context is complex. Ethnicity and nationalism, the lingering influence of Cold War allegiances and colonial configurations all continue to play a role. The various visual cultures discussed in this volume emphasise the commonality of these categories, but also point towards other shared histories that transcend the nation-state category. The collection includes scholarly chapters, photo essays, interviews, and artists' personal accounts, organised around four themes: material flows, orientations and transgressions, spatial imaginaries, and biographies. The artists, photographers, filmmakers, curators and collectors in this volume include: Stary Mwaba, Hua Jiming, Anawana Haloba, Gerald Machona, Nobukho Nqaba, Marcus Neustetter, Brett Murray, Diane Victor, William Kentridge, Kristin NG-Yang, Kok Nam, Mark Lewis, the Chinese Camera Club of South Africa, Wu Jing, Henion Han and Shengkai Wu.

"This extraordinary book includes a broad spectrum of information that is focused into an easy-to-understand single best source on the Afterlife.""Death cannot separate us." Unlike all other books on this topic, The Definitive Book of the Afterlife introduces an astonishing new way of looking at the Afterlife. It is very different and profound - a true documentary that shares in-depth information and detailed experiences of dying, death, transition, and existence in the Afterlife - actual experiences "In the very early stages of writing The Definitive Book on the Afterlife, Marshall Smith unexpectedly passed away through a tragic accident. However, he continued to contribute to the book by sharing his personal experiences of dying, death, and the Afterlife. Patricia Hayes, highly experienced in communicating with those in the Afterlife, and having shared this process with Marshall for three decades, documented over a hundred communications with Marshall who, now in the Afterlife, provided detailed information that greatly influenced the content and direction of this book. The information about the Afterlife conveyed in this book comes from Patricia Hayes' decades of first-hand experience with helping others to cross over, and with her frequent communication not only with her husband, but also with her brother, Fred. She shares intimate details of Marshall's dying, including his moment of death, transition, and acclimation to the Afterlife - intimate details that are made possible through their deep love and dedication to their personal and working relationship. Using Marshall's observations and understanding of his existence in the Afterlife, Patricia draws comparisons between the physical levels of consciousness and the levels of consciousness in the Afterlife, so that you will know what to expect and how to function. Practical and easy-to-understand, you discover what the transition process is like, how the Earth and Afterlife are intertwined, how to determine your place in the Afterlife, and, most important, how to communicate with your loved ones who are in the Afterlife while you are still here on Earth. The Definitive Book on the Afterlife transcends religious views of dying to share first-hand, direct experience with the process of dying and death, as well as the realities of being in the Afterlife. One thing is for sure -- you will never look at dying and death the same way again. Inspirational, transformative, comforting, reassuring - it is a must read