Chinese Madrid

Talking about China in Madrid is talking about Usera, the neighbourhood with the largest concentration of the Chinese community in Spain.  Since the 1970s, a large contingent of Chinese citizens has come to Madrid in search of a better world than the one in their country of origin.  The Chinese community in the region of Madrid is still growing and according to official data from the National Statistics Institute, the number of people registered has gone from 33,489 in 2008 to 59,757 in 2018.

Just in Madrid capital, according to the City Council register, there are 38,547 Chinese people and a quarter of them live in the Usera neighbourhood, where they maintain their customs and age-old traditions.  It is a kind of “Chinatown” integrated in a popular neighbourhood in the south of Madrid. It is easy to see due to the large number of Chinese shops and if you go to the Chinese Pensioners Centre in Usera, you can see how its members usually meet in the afternoons to play table-tennis or to play traditional music.  

However, the Chinese Cultural Centre in Madrid is not in Usera, but it can be found in the Salamanca neighbourhood, more specifically at Number 73, Calle del General Pardiñas.

It is the best place to enter into the Chinese culture.  Here, you can receive Chinese, kung fu, tai chi, oil painting, oriental painting, cooking, Chinese protocol courses, etc. They are usually in high demand, so it is necessary to be alert in order to get a place.  It is easier to get into the library, the exhibition hall or the auditorium where films are screened in original version or talks and conferences are given.

The building where the Chinese Cultural Centre in Madrid is located, a public institution attached to the Government of the People's Republic of China, has a surface area of 3,000 square metres and is divided into two blocks (A and B ), connected by a central courtyard. The first one is home to the exhibition hall, the gallery, the tea room, the library, the conference room and the classrooms, whilst the auditorium, Kung fu and dance room, the music hall and the kitchen are located in the second block.

It was the fifth centre that the Chinese government opened in Europe, after the one in Paris. It opened its doors in October 2012 to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Spain and China. It is the largest of the cultural centres yet to be opened in Europe.  

Finally, it must be remembered that the Casa Asia cultural centre also devotes part of its programme to China, among other cultures belonging to the Asian region.  

Each tear, the arrival of the Chinese New Year  is celebrated with numerous activities whose epicentre is the Usera neighbourhood.

The celebration of the Chinese New Year, which dates back more than 4,000 years, coincides with the beginning of the cultivation cycle, the farewell to winter and the welcoming of a new season, from where it also gets the name “Spring Festival” (2020 is the Year of the Rat, which begins on 25 January).

Dance, film, gastronomy, music, sport or literature are some of the ingredients that see in the Chinese New Year each year, with a programme made up of around one hundred cultural events, where the most traditional proposals, such as the age-old martial arts exhibition   or the procession of giant dragons and lions, are combined with the performances of alternative rock bands, literary installations or talks that show the vitality of the Chinese community in Madrid.

The two most popular events are the spectacular light ceremony and the street parade that goes through the streets of Usera in a lively parade (with the traditional giant dragons and lions and lanterns) in which Cantonese, Macao and Hong Kong associations are present to enjoy traditional music and raise awareness amongst the people of Madrid of the secrets of the Chinese culture and the Han ethnic group, to which most of the Chinese population resident in Madrid belongs.  

In Madrid, there are many Chinese restaurants where you can savour the rich Chinese gastronomy throughout the year. However, each year, coinciding with the start of the Chinese New Year (January - February), China Taste is organised in Madrid, a festival of traditional Chinese gastronomy.

For a month, fans of Chinese haute cuisine can savour traditional dishes that enable them to travel to Chinese kitchens without leaving the city, on a route of the best restaurants in this speciality. Furthermore, it is affordable for all, as each restaurant participating in this charity event, serves a menu consisting of a starter, first course, second course and a dessert whereby the price ranges between 23 and 65 euros.  

As a unique thing, we can say that there is only one Hong Kong restaurant in Madrid and perhaps, for this reason, it is called The One. Located at Number 81, Calle de Lagasca, it boasts of offering one of the most cosmopolitan and varied cuisines of the Asian giant. Indeed, the gastronomy experience in Hong Kong has given the city the names “gourmet paradise” or “world food fair” due to the wide variety.

Dawei Ding, journalist, philologist and expert in international relations, he is the founder and director of China FM, the first radio station in Europe that broadcasts 24 hours in Mandarin Chinese, on low frequency in the Community of Madrid (FM97.4) and via Internet worldwide.

Part of the Radio International Group, it is a general broadcaster with an informative and opinion programme that emerged in order to act as a communication platform for more than 260,000 Chinese inhabitants who live in Spain.