Susana Ye, journalist and poet: “The extreme right has tried to exploit the Chinese community”

Susana Ye (San Juan de Alicante, 32 years old) belongs to the first generation of Chinese born in Spain.

In 2015, she dedicated the documentary

Chiñoles y bananas

to that group .

She continues working in Human Rights and social justice journalism, in documentary or writing.

Since she was a child she has been a “bookworm” and she always considered poetry as a game (because she is one).

Now, always through the eyes of a daughter of the diaspora, she publishes the collection of poems

Trashumante en quicksand

(El rey de Harlem).

Ask.

You have two families.

Answer.

Yes. I have a white Spanish family and a migrant Chinese family.

My Chinese parents, economic migrants, were always working throughout Spain and since there was no support network in small towns or cities, it was common to look for someone to take care of the children.

Q.

How did you experience it?

A.

I stayed with my routine, my school, and my parents dedicated themselves to saving and working until they achieved stability.

That happened when I was 11 years old, and I returned to them.

So I have two families.

I think having several layers enriches writing, because we tend to have very superficial narratives that do not capture the diversity of realities that exist.

Q.

Sometimes children don't understand some situations...

A.

I lived it completely normally, because it was the only reality I knew.

He was aware that there were compelling reasons.

And the relationship between my families is good: I didn't feel like I was in the middle of two divorced and conflicting families.

My two families came into contact at my parents' restaurant, in El Campello [Alicante], and friendship arose.

Then they say that the Chinese don't interact, they don't socialize... Maybe you have to get closer too.

Q.

The family business was a restaurant, well.

A.

I now denounce job insecurity, even though I have had many opportunities compared to my parents.

They went through all the businesses: they had a restaurant, a neighborhood bazaar, they worked in traveling fairs, as employees in other businesses... That is also my legacy: I am the daughter of each bazaar, of each restaurant.

I haven't lived it, but that doesn't mean I forget it.

Susana Ye, journalist and poet, pictured in the Lavapiés neighborhood in Madrid, on January 24, 2024.Jaime Villanueva

Q.

Is it access to education that differentiates the first generation of Chinese born in Spain?

A.

The difference is not who we are, but the circumstances and possibilities that arise.

My mother and I are almost the same, I realize more every day.

The difference is that she couldn't continue with her studies and I could.

My mother came without knowing the language, without resources, without a support network.

I have all that.

Q.

It sounds very harsh.

A.

Feminist women have to practice radical empathy towards our mothers, because we have not had to live everything that they have had to live.

That's progress.

And I cannot judge my mother from the possibilities and resources I have now.

Q.

Precariousness: “Cooking is a luxury on Sunday afternoons and intensive days,” you write.

R.

_

Things as basic as eating healthy or resting are difficult.

We hear about

jobs

or

coliving

, which try to make

precariousness or poverty

cool .

It is the weakening of the collective labor struggle, we are being fragmented more and more.

They tell us that wanting is power, that you have to manage your stress, that with

mindfulness

you transform the reality that surrounds you.

But, What are you telling me?

Q.

Does it affect young people of Chinese descent?

A.

Yes, many think that it is better to stay in the family business, perhaps modernizing it, if until now it has served to pay the bills.

Many times there are difficulties in jumping to other sectors: you look outside and you find the blow of precariousness.

But it seems totally respectable to me to continue with business, of course.

Q.

“You never rest in the family business,” he says in another verse.

A.

That idea of ​​the culture of hard work in the Chinese community is no longer maintained as much in the new generations.

Furthermore, it has been related to the Chinese, but it has to do with migrant people in general: when you have no mattress, when you have no one to cover you, you have no choice but to work hard.

Working without rest, without vacations, is not something that is done for pleasure.

We are experiencing the weakening of the collective labor struggle, we are being increasingly fragmented

Q.

Explain to me the terms

chiñol

and

banana

.

R.

Chiñol

coined it Shaowei, one of the young people who star in my 2015 documentary. It is a term that speaks of the hybridization of identities between Chinese and Spanish.

Banana

is a pejorative term that comes from the United States, a play on words: white on the inside and yellow on the outside.

It has also been used within the Chinese community to criticize those who consider themselves too Westernized and lose sight of their roots.

Q.

How does the rise of the far right affect the Chinese community?

R.

Vox has tried to instrumentalize the Chinese migrant identity.

He has the typical speech against immigration (“they invade us”) and at the same time he tries to get closer.

He is the myth of the model minority: they use us to persecute and criminalize other migrant communities.

But the Chinese community has been well aware of the trap and has not entered the game.

Q.

How do you feel when you visit China?

A.

There are people who feel a click inside and a strong belonging.

It hasn't happened to me.

In reality, in every country I visit there is something I take with me and something I leave behind.

Before, “I am a citizen of the world” seemed like a cliché to me, but I feel that way more and more.

I am not attached to a passport, a flag or a particular place.

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