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sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Friendly Outsiders ? Exploring the dynamics between Chinese entrepreneurs and Moroccans in Derb Omar, Casablanca

Auteur : Lee, Shu Qiu

Université de soutenance : Universiteit Leiden

Grade : Master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (MA) 2018

Introduction
A Moroccan friend of mine, who is a movie director, insisted that the story behind the making of Moroccan Mint Tea (in Moroccan Arabic أتاي (would be the perfect opening to my thesis, once he knew that the purpose of my stay in Casablanca was to investigate the Chinese entrepreneurial community in Derb Omar and their interactions with local Moroccans. In fact, he has a point. A crucial ingredient to the Moroccan Mint Tea is Chinese Gunpowder green tea. It is widely believed that the tea was first brought into Morocco as a tribute from Queen Anne of England in return for the release of a number of English prisoners and became popular across the society when British merchants were left with an excessive amount of tea from China due to the closure of the Baltic ports during the Crimean War (1853-1856) and they managed to create new markets in Tangier and Essaouira. 1 Although it is not the result of direct interaction between China and Morocco, the beverage that is central to Moroccan food culture nowadays certainly indicates a symbolic connection between Morocco and China. Long before the modern states of the Kingdom of Morocco and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were established, there has already been a subtle Chinese presence in Moroccans’ everyday life

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