Yunxiao Chen
Walking through the streets and neighborhoods of Barcelona, Madrid, Andalusia, or some other major Spanish cities as a Chinese, nearly every minute you can catch sight of at least one familiar face. As I stare out the window of the bus at the flowing streets, now and then I see some single or clustered shops that have plaques with Chinese characters and common Chinese shop sign design styles that readily lead me to an illusion of traveling through some Chinese city that is similar to my hometown.
Some of the young encountered may just be international students and visitors, and those who walk briskly and adroitly with light belongings are probably the “Huaqiao” or “Huayi”. The former term refers to Chinese citizens residing abroad, and the latter one means they are not Chinese legally but ethnically.
Oh, yes, Chinese people are everywhere!
According to Statista, one of the global leading data providers, Chinese immigrants account for the largest number of foreigners from Asian countries registered in Spain in 2021, which is 230,054, more than twice as much as the number of second-place Pakistan. And it ranked the 7th among all the nations. In 1961, there were just 161 Chinese nationals in Spain.
Although it is said that a small number of forerunners reached Spain around the Mid-19 century, a time of the Qing Dynasty, it was until the early twenty century, during the First World War, that the large-scale migration from China to Spain took place. Back then, the French government employed a batch of Chinese workers. They gradually moved to other European countries, like Spain.
That was the story of people from Qingtian, who were the earliest Chinese to arrive in Spain. Qingtian is a county in southeastern Zhejiang Province, known as “a famous hometown of overseas Chinese”. Areas in China where a crowd of locals emigrates abroad are called “Qiaoxiang”. As a mountain city with a population of about 570,000, it has over 330,000 Overseas Chinese distributed around the world nowadays. Qingtian used to be poor with limited natural resources for agricultural development. But Qingtian people were good at crafting decorations by utilizing local stones, and they started to trade with Europe in the late Qing Dynasty, indicating that Qingtian people were just the aforementioned pioneers to venture into Europe.
Born in Qingtian, Mr. Shen has lived in Spain for almost 28 years long with several years in other two countries in Europe. He belongs to the first generation of immigrants for his parents stay in China, and his children were born in Spain and have naturally become Spanish residents. The first generations are like a “belt of transition”, spending some time of their life in origins where the elders stay and shifting to another nation where they give birth to their descendants. They must balance two different cultures and environments.
The assistance of relatives offers the primary channel for Chinese moving to Europe. Two uncles of Mr. Shen went to Europe first and gave him a hand. “We Qingtian people are very united,” said Daixi Shen. “We help each other with money, material resources, and manpower.”
He also said proudly, “We Qingtian people rely on three knives to make a living, going out into the world. They are kitchen knives, razors, and carving knives, representing catering services, haircutting, and hand engraving respectively.”
According to Mr. Shen, catering is considered to be the foremost industry for Chinese immigrants to make a living in Europe. Besides, Todoa Cien or Bazar Chino featured in selling cheap daily supplies are also a common means of livelihood for them.
Many sons and daughters of Qingtian returned to their hometowns and built European-style buildings there. Churches, cafés, wineshops…various European businesses flourish everywhere.
In contemporary China, the interflow between the homeland and the countries of immigrants is directly related to China’s reform and open-door policy implemented in 1978. Owing to this policy that partly aims to actively engage in the global market and continue to learn from the West, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a wave of emigration in China, mainly in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong Province.
Contemporary stimulative factors were Spain’s economic progress, democratic transition, and open foreign policy. In the 1970s, Spain established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. Spain’s economy developed rapidly in the 1980s. While the EU migrants were unwilling to take the low-paid, heavy, and unsafe jobs in agriculture and construction, Spain imported labor from other countries who began their fortune-seeking journey by taking those thankless works. Mr. Shen was initially an ordinary worker in a restaurant where he learned various skills, accumulated experience and wealth, and learned Spanish by himself little by little. He was cooking in the kitchen when I told a waiter that I hoped to talk with someone who speaks Chinese. Now Mr. Shen is the president of the Association of Chinese Restaurants in Barcelona and the general secretary of the Catalan Federation of Overseas Chinese Associations. He also owns a Chinese restaurant in Barcelona.
Wenzhou of Zhejiang province also has a large proportion of immigrants. Ms. Qu, born in Wenzhou, came to Spain when she was at the age of primary school. Her parents went to France first, then they transferred to Spain after being informed that there was also a great advancement opportunity.
Another “inelegant” method of entering Spain is paying the “snakeheads” who are able to smuggle Chinese citizens to other countries with fake passports. Fortunately for them, they obtained the legal status as the Spanish Government launched the first amnesty in 1986. 1991 witnessed the second amnesty of Spain which attracted more Chinese living in other European countries at that time. Since then, there have been several small or large amnesties that resulted in the surge of legalized Chinese in Spain.
In fact, for various European destinations, France has an early welcome, where the Chinese immigrants’ integration into the locals is better than the counterparts in Spain. History records also show that, at the beginning of the 20th century, Paris had the largest concentration of Qingtian people in Europe. Due to the intensified competition, some of them went to other countries to make a living. “There is still a long way to go for racial integration. But it’s already on another stage today,” Mr. Shen told us. Alongside the significance of integration, Asian racism and xenophobia are consistent issues in Spain. Chinese-owned shops are referred to as “chinos”, a racist term.
“No one judges you. You live your own life here,” said the masseuse, Ms. Zhao, who settled down in Spain eight years ago and married a local man three years later.
Before being employed in the massage shop, she toiled in a garment factory where the salary was minimal. Despite the peaceful life undisturbed by domestic etiquette and custom, she admitted that living as a foreigner here means being lonely. “Almost no entertainment for us, and I need to work hard,” she explained. “I need to be on duty even on weekends.”
Transferring from China to Spain is a tiny chapter of the human migration history. Under the grand narrative, there are numerous concrete and living stories of people.
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