Chinese-run supermarkets in Argentina

This article is by guest contributor Nancy H. Liu. She is a health researcher, an NIH/Fogarty Scholar in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Beijing.

Supermercados chinos

by Nancy Liu

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A manual for Chinese-run supermarkets

At first glance, this book may seem uninteresting. After all, nobody reads manuals.

But upon closer inspection, you realize that this is a Chinese-Spanish language manual for running a supermarket. Open it and you find the distinctive Rioplatense Spanish of Argentina, with useful phrases such as “Gracias a vos: 谢谢你” (thank you) or “Yo tampoco tengo monedas: 我也没有硬币” (I don’t have coins either).

One finer detail of the book is that it is written in simplified Chinese, addressed to a mainland audience. Yet the name in traditional Chinese at the bottom of the cover indicates something about the author — he is Taiwanese.

The evolution of the Chinese-run supermarkets provides an interesting snapshot of the changing Chinese presence in Buenos Aires. While most Chinese-run supermarkets were originally opened by immigrants from Taiwan, there is a shift towards these businesses being sold to and run by mainland Chinese. This book is further evidence of that trend.

Currently, there are 60,000 to 70,000 Chinese in Argentina. Only about 15,000 to 20,000 of those reportedly identify as Taiwanese. Though the Taiwanese were the first to arrive in Argentina in the 1980s, their population has dwindled in recent years as many left, with a steep drop in numbers occurring after Argentina’s economic crisis of 2001. Meanwhile, the number of mainland Chinese immigrants has proliferated, in step with China’s growing investment in the country and the rest of Latin America.

In Argentina, there are about 4,200 Chinese-run supermarkets and their numbers are growing. A 2008 statistic reported that approximately 14 new Chinese-run supermarkets open up each month.

The increase of mainland Chinese-run supermarkets may serve as a metaphor for the growing influence of China in Argentina’s market. As Argentina’s number two trading partner, especially in soybeans, China has a strong presence. Moreover, with the recent $10 billion Argentinean peso-RMB currency swap, these Chinese-run supermarkets may just keep on growing.

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