Research (Week 7): A day with Margarita at the Buddha Ba

Margarita owns the Buddha Ba, a fusion-style tea-house and art gallery. She is an example of a first-generation immigrant success story. She came to Argentina in 1973 with only 700 US dollars and ran a ceramics factory. 30 years later, she bought a run-down English-style house on a corner of Chinatown and launched this space.

"This space is the dream of an immigrant," she said. "I want to give back to this country which has received and treated me so well."

During the 4 hours I was there, 2 television channels that were doing stories on Chinatown came to interview her. It seems like Argentine interest in Chinese culture is really taking off. Since many people have done articles on the space, I asked Margarita her thoughts about integration and preservation of Chinese culture in the 2nd generation. Then we sat down and talked with the editors of the Horizonte Chino about the image of Chinese people in Argentina. Pablo Liu, the account manager, told us his plans to launch a television series called "Mi Vecino Chino" - My Chinese Neighbor. He wanted to facilitate understanding between Chinese and Argentines. They also discussed how to get the second-generation Chinese more involved in local community politics.

Pablo asked me if I wanted to stay and help him with his projects. Sounds tempting...

Research (Week 6): Independence Day & Graduation

Today is July 9th, Argentina's independence day. I went to Plaza Manuel Belgrano to watch Carlos Lin host the neighborhood's celebration. Representatives from all walks of society attended, and performances included a neighborhood youth choir, tango show, and flag raising ceremony.

Mr. Lee from the Buddhist Association was also there. "In order to integrate into their society, we have to attend their events," he told me. "We have to take action." Antonio Chang was also there to represent the Asociation Barrio Chino. He also served as photographer.



Carlos was very professional. Many of the community leaders praised him afterwards, and he was invited on the spot to host another performance by the choir later this week. Later, I went with him to Radio Colonia to watch him announce. The title of the show was Carburador, and he would announce it as Ca-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-burador with a long trill that I still can't pronounce.



After a few hours at the radio, he had to go to the international airport to host a ceremony about the unveiling of a new wing. He said he was a bit nervous as the president and other government officials would be there.

Later, I went to the graduation ceremony of one of the Chinese schools. It was quite amazing how these Argentine-born Chinese kids keep in touch with their culture.

Research (Week 6): A family to work with

Finally found a family to work with on the sending-kids-back-to-China issue. Shi Yunqin is a mother of 2. She has two sons, one 15 and one 5. Both were sent back, but the elder son also has behavioral problems since he was left in China for a much longer period of time. The younger son was brought back earlier and she now realizes the value of educating and taking care of them personally.

She said that I could go to their supermarket on Sunday and interview the whole family. "I want you to tell this story so other mothers don't make the same mistake," she said.

Research (Week 5): A Regretful Mother

Found another mother to talk about the sending-kids-back-to-China issue.

In 1991, Xue Pin-Zhu and her husband moved to Japan to work for 9 years, leaving her elder daughter in China. Now, the whole family has moved to Argentina, with a younger son. She said that the long separation has caused behavioral problems in the older daughter. First of all, the daughter suffered emotional trauma of being abandoned by her parents.

"When she wrote essays in school, many of them were about how she hoped that it could be her parents that came to pick her up from school," Xue said.

Also, since they were separated for so long, the daughter does not listen to her or communicate with her much. They are not close. Now, Xue has another younger son that is 5 years old. "I've learned my lesson," she said. "I'm not going to leave this child's side."

Yaming Hsu is an accountant that serves many recent mainland immigrants, and also is active in a church that serves the same group. He said that he knows countless cases like this. "Many immigrants actually have a child here in order to obtain residency," he said. "Then they don't have time to take care of it and send it back, sometimes alone on a plane. How can you do this to a child?"

In addition to not having the time to take care of the children, these immigrants all believe what others in their circle say, how Argentine education is poor, Argentine hospitals are bad, and other negative things about having their kid grow up in Argentina.

Hsu said that the Argentine hospitals have noticed that after the child is born, they disappear. They never come back for immunization and other checkups. He also said that the government has actually passed a law in which they will revoke the parent's residency if they discover that the child is sent back for a long period of time before they turn 5.

"All they want to do is to make money," he said. "You can't buy family. The future of these kids is very worrisome."

Hsu then told me of an international organization, Family Keepers, that deals a lot with such issues. Will try to set up and interview with them.

Research (Week 5): Rhyck Huang

Conducted a full interview with Rhyck Huang. He's part of the generation of young Taiwanese that left Argentina shortly after the financial crisis. Rhyck, now 33, came to Argentina when he was 8. While he speaks Spanish better than his Chinese, he has never felt comfortable being in Argentina.

After high school, he didn't want to work in his family's supermarket, so he went to Canada to attend college. When he came back in 2002, after the financial crisis, he realized that most of his friends his age had left. He worked as a manager in a Chinese-owned store for a while, and decided to move back to Taiwan.

"There are more opportunities Taiwan if you know English," Huang said. "Here, it's hard for a person of Chinese descent to find work with an Argentine company."

Despite living most of his life in Argentina, Huang still feels difficulty with integration. "Our generation doesn't have the language problem our parents did, but many of us still feel that it's hard to become part of Argentine society," he said. "When I went back to Taiwan, I felt like I was part of it. I would fight for my rights. In Argentina, I still feel like a foreigner."

Research (Week 5): Carlos Lin

On Friday, I met the only television / radio announcer of Chinese/Taiwanese descent, Carlos Lin. He invited me to a government-sponsored show at the Teatro Colon, and later we went to Chinatown for lunch.

Carlos was born in Bolivia and his family moved to Buenos Aires when he was 2. He speaks decent Chinese, but cannot read or write. He seems to be one of the more successful integration cases, being active in both worlds. His wife is Argentine, and he does producing and announcing work for the national television channel Canal 7 and Radio Colonia, both jobs having nothing to do with Chinese. He said that he didn't have much contact with the Chinese/Taiwanese community up to a few years ago, when he was invited to host the Chinese New Year celebration in Barrio Chino.

He has since become quite involved in Chinese activities. He now works with the Barrio Chino Association and helps plan different events with Antonio to promote Chinese culture and understanding. He is also planning on starting the first Chinese television station in Argentina.

He was in a hurry and I didn't have time to do a full interview, but we have one scheduled for next week. He seems like a good candidate for a more photo-oriented project.

Work (Week 5): Periodismo Social

Since there hasn't been much to do for Artemisa Noticias, I started doing some work for Periodismo Social. They publish a few books per year on social issues, and the latest one is about how people view television. So on Thursday, I accompanied the director Alicia Cytrynblum to Canal America to shoot some behind-the-scenes photos of television productions.

Here are some of the shots.