En castellano: Los argenchinos: la colectividad china en la Argentina
I’m currently working on revising my undergraduate thesis on the Chinese community in Buenos Aires for presentation at the Pacific Sociological Association conference in March and the Association for Asian American Studies conference in April. To get myself thinking about this again, I’m writing a series of blog posts on this little-known community. For a more comprehensive account of my research (including citations), please see the thesis itself. I apologize in advance for all of those typos that I didn’t manage to catch the first time around.
I was in Buenos Aires in the latter part of 2009 to do ethnographic research. I hoped to plunge into the Chinese community in Buenos Aires and discover its similarities to and differences from Chinese communities in the United States. In particular, I wanted to know if second-generation Chinese Argentines confronted similar problems with racism, xenophobia, and identity formation that Chinese Americans had. The short answer is yes. The Chinese-Argentine community is still misunderstood and mistrusted. Discrimination against Chinese-Argentines is widespread, and the media tends to portray them as closed community from an exotic culture conniving to get rich off of local people. Chinese who grew up in Argentina were stuck between two worlds, belonging to neither completely.
El barrio chino
While there are some immigrants of Chinese origin in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, most have settled in the nation’s capital, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Unlike in many North American cities, Chinese immigrants are not concentrated in any one district. Some claim that those who run supermarkets live inside them; considering that Chinese supermarkets are spread throughout the city, this would mean that there are Chinese residents in almost every neighborhood.
Most businesses catering to the Chinese community are located in a four-block area in the upper-middle class, largely residential neighborhood of Belgrano. In the Barrio Chino, or Chinatown, there are supermarkets carrying Chinese foods, as well as hair salons, video rental stores, churches and temples, and schools that teach Chinese as a heritage language to immigrant children and children of immigrants. In addition, there are many businesses catering to the local Argentine community, such as curio shops and restaurants serving Chinese food adapted to local tastes. On weekends, the neighborhood is a popular destination for Argentines of European extraction, who come to shop for trinkets and eat dishes like chop suey and egg rolls. Thus, Chinatown not only provides services for the Chinese community, but also serves as an introduction to Chinese culture for non-Chinese local residents.
The video above says the barrio chino is neither barrio (neighborhood) nor chino (Chinese). I agree on the first point. The barrio chino not really a residential neighborhood and the area is only a few blocks. However, it is very Chinese. As far as I can tell there is no Japanese presence in the area, and the reporter confuses mainland Chinese and Taiwanese nationalities with different ethnicities. (I know I just set off a firestorm here. If you disagree with me, let’s discuss in the comments.)
History
Chinese immigrants did not come to Argentina in significant numbers until the 1980s. In the 1980s, Taiwan was experiencing severe population pressure; this pressure, along with a fear of invasion from communist Mainland China, caused many to emigrate from the island. The Taiwanese came to Argentina as entire families, and many brought enough capital with them to open their own businesses. In the 1990s, when the Argentine government instituted monetary policies that made the peso equal in value to the United States dollar, many more Taiwanese came, opening import-export businesses and supermarkets. Another wave of Chinese immigrants came to Argentina in the 1990s, this time from the booming coastal provinces of the Mainland. Like the Taiwanese who came before, many of these immigrants came with capital to invest in import-export businesses and supermarkets.
There is virtually no new immigration to Argentina from Taiwan. According to one of my respondents, after the Argentine economic crisis of 2001, many Taiwanese left the country, either returning to Taiwan or moving on to third countries such as the United States. One of my friends/respondents in Buenos Aires had just moved there from Taiwan about a year before I met him; he was met with shock in Chinatown since no one thought a Taiwanese in his right mind would want to settle in Argentina. Mainland Chinese, however, are still arriving. Many immigrants from Mainland China come to invest and plan to stay in Argentina indefinitely. Others, however, are living in Argentina temporarily solely to gain citizenship, because they perceive that it is easier for Argentine nationals to settle in countries like the United States and Canada than for Mainland Chinese.
Chinese supermarkets
Many Chinese immigrants have dedicated themselves to opening neighborhood supermarkets that cater to the local Argentine community. Chinese-run supermarkets have become so ubiquitous in the city that el supermercado chino (“the Chinese supermarket”) has been shortened to el chino (“the Chinese” or “the Chinaman”); thus, the Chinese and the supermarkets they run have become practically synonymous. Although Chinese-run supermarkets are very popular with busy urban families, many Argentines do not trust them. Some claim that they unplug the freezers at night to save money, that they do not pay their employees fair wages, or that they do not pay taxes or are reimbursed for taxes by the Chinese government. Representatives of the Chinese merchants’ association have vehemently denied these claims, saying that Chinese supermarkets keep their prices low by buying in bulk and using a different business model from most local supermarkets. The ubiquity of Chinese supermarkets has given rise to many Chinese-run businesses that serve them, such as businesses that specialize in selling and repairing freezers and cold cut slicers. The vast majority of Chinese immigrants who do not own their own businesses work for another Chinese immigrant.
Next up: xenophobia and racism against Chinese in Argentina.
Excelente blog!congratulaciones.
¡Gracias!
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Great comment from Facundo on the Spanish version of this post. I translate it here:
“I think Chinese culture is largely unknown here in Argentina. There are a few reasons for this:
(1) lack of information – in school we hardly studied anything related to Asia; for example we did not study Eastern history in relation to Western history
(2) predominance of the “old” Euro-American culture that denies foreignness to the point where we even deny our own culture before European colonization
(3) geographic isolation – from Mexico to Argentina we share the same language and almost the same customs
(4) economic disinterest – in the first half of the last century Argentina attracted European immigrants, in the second Latin Americans; however it did not attract a large number from countries like India, China (until recently), the Philippines, Senegal, Morrocco, etc (countries with great cultural differences) like had happened in the USA or Europe, Singapore, or Hong Kong.
I think mutual understanding is crucial, and this is where the question of xenophobia comes up. Xenophobia exists in Argentina much like in many other countries (including China) in both negative and positive forms. Here I think it’s important for both communities to open themselves up, to be flexible, and to make an effort to understand, be it through art, music, festivals, food, etc.
Often I hear a bunch of generalized statements like “the Chinese shut off their freezers at night.” I’m sure some do, but so do some Argentines. “The Chinese are dirty” as if many Argentines weren’t (example: train lines, highways, sidewalks filled with dog poo). “The Chinese have special values,” – I do business with China and the number of times they’ve tried to cheat me are innumerable. In the end, as you see, there are many preconceptions that go back and forth, which we can bring down with education and mutual tolerance. Both the government and individuals have to do our part.”
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Hi Calvin, I found your blog while doing research about xenophobia in Argentina. I am from Argentina myself but I never had much contact with the Asian community there (I lived in a rural-ish area). Argentina is so diverse that I always assumed they faced little or no discrimination, but I guess its diversity applies mostly to European immigrants (my mom is a mix of Ukrainian and Italian) and maybe to people of local indigenous ancestry.
Personally, I never felt negatively about Asian people so I’m clueless about what the problem might be. I wonder if it could be a cultural misunderstanding. Argentines have an aggressive sense of humor (something I don’t approve of) and it’s common for people to be made fun of based on their appearance. In my school days, I remember being teased about my height and nicknamed “midget.”
Nevertheless, discrimination on the basis of national or cultural origin is not acceptable. I should know, since I’ve been in the United States for many years. When I was in my teens, I was enamoured with this country and (thanks to Hollywood?) I considered Americans very “cool.” But slowly, I became aware that Americans did not share the sentiment. I am still perplexed by the fact that 99% of them consider the act of speaking Spanish to be an actual race, and not only a race but a very, VERY worthless one. The hatred that these folks have for Spanish speakers is nothing short of amazing. I like to read blogs and almost daily I run into a hateful diatribe involving “Latins.” Even a post regarding Eva Longoria will invite abusive language and mockery. Most Americans seem to agree about what makes Spanish speakers undesirable, but I’m still trying to figure out how such a racially and culturally heterogeneous group can be argued to be unintelligent as a whole! It’s as though speaking Spanish demoted a person to the very bottom of society in terms of reputation. This is very disturbing to me and I have even considered legally changing my surname in order to avoid the bad reputation that comes with being “Hispanic.”
I’ve even run into Asian-Americans who’ve chosen to join this club, but I am not surprised that anyone who’s grown up in the States would have this attitude. It’s almost inevitable given Spanish speakers’ media portrayal. I think the fact that the United States is in such close proximity to a poor Spanish speaking country and attracts mostly those in desperate poverty (i.e. I doubt a Mexican citizen who enjoys a “middle class” lifestyle would risk his life in the desert to get here!) and that really biases the image of the “average” Spanish speaker. Of course, peasants also deserve respect but sadly they are not getting it here.
I’m going to have to disagree with my compatriot, Facundo, the previous poster who said that from Mexico to Argentina we share the same culture. What we share is a language, which lends itself to a better understanding of (and familiarity with) each others’ cultures. But we are not all “the same culturally” just as Asia is not all the same. I don’t mean to offend anyone by saying that. My own father comes from Paraguay, a predominantly indigenous nation. He married the daughter of European immigrants and even they had cultural differences. A person from a mainly Indigenous nation is not going to have the same value system or customs as a person growing up amongst Ukrainians.
One of the ways in which Americans show disdain for Spanish speakers is by lumping us all together and referring to those nations where Spanish is spoken as homogeneous. I do not like the term “Latin America” for that reason, it’s always referred to as some type of country. No matter how much time I’ve spent in Cambodia and how many Cambodian friends I have, it would not be wise for me to try to describe Japan and the Japanese based on my experiences in Cambodia/with Cambodians!
Sorry about the long post. At any rate, I’m very concerned about xenophobia in Argentina as I have a baby who is half Asian and I wouldn’t want him to have to go through what I am going through in the United States!
Hi Victoria,
Thanks for your comment! It’s true that in the US people think everything from Mexico on south is one big expanse of sameness. Even though so much of the national territory used to belong to Spain/Mexico (and then the indigenous people before that), this history is conveniently forgotten.