Quan Zhou

Living as a Chinese and a Spaniard

Spain is a fairly small country in Europe. Maybe you don’t know where it is, or maybe you do know the flamenco dance, which is a world heritage, the olive oil, the paella and the jamon serrano. Nowadays, we are pretty popular among tourists.

In 2017, the population of Spain was 46,5 million people, and 4,5 million were foreigners; from those foreigners, only 207.000 are Chinese.

When the Zhou family arrived in a little Spanish town in the 90s there was just one other Chinese family there. And they were not precisely friends, they were rivals because they also had a Chinese restaurant so we were competitors.

My family found out that Spanish people didn’t eat plain rice, and they drank very cold water and even colder beer. They really liked to get very tanned, and they looked at the Zhou’s restaurant with a lot of curiosity. Sometimes they came inside to eat. So there was no other Chinese people to make friends with or build a community with. The Zhou’s were isolated as foreigners amongst Spanish people.

This is where my fist graphic novel “Gazpacho Agridulce” starts, which means “sweet and sour tomato soup”. It is the story of a Chinese family fresh off the boat, 35 years ago in Spain. It examines how identity is made, how Chinese immigrants get along in a different country, and shows the experience of raising a family far from their own country and traditions.

“Andaluchinas por el mundo” is my second graphic novel, an inward and outward trip focused on the three daughters of the Zhou family. You get to know how it is to be a young adult from an immigrant family in a world that is rocked by the financial crisis. I introduce their dreams and also their struggles, and how the society accepts women of Asian descent woman and their mixed-identity.

Both of the novels are based on true events in the life of the Zhou’s.

The “Gazpacho Agridulce” graphic novels were warmly received in Spain and critically acclaimed by the Spanish media. Their different point of view, Spanish yet Chinese, was new to the Spanish public. How Chinese people perceived Spanish traditions, and also how the Chinese people lived their lives was also all new to them. The books were also very warmly received by the Spaniards of Chinese descent.

周泉

以中国人与西班牙人的身份生活

西班牙是一个位处欧洲的小国家。也许你不知道它的具体位置，也许你只听过世界文化遗产弗拉门戈舞，橄榄油，西班牙海鲜饭和火腿。如今，我们国家成为了游客的热门选择。

2017年，西班牙人口为4650万人，其中外国人占450万人;在所有的外国人中，只有20万7千个中国人。

当周氏家族在90年代到达一个西班牙小镇时，那里只有另一个中国家庭。但他们并非朋友，而是竞争对手。因为对方也开了一家中餐馆，所以我们成为了竞争关系。

我的家人发现西班牙人不吃白米饭，他们喝凉水和冰啤酒，沉迷于把皮肤晒得黝黑。他们好奇地看着周氏餐馆，有时会进来吃饭。当时没有其他的中国人可以交朋友或建立起社区，周氏在西班牙人中被孤立为外国人。

以上是我的第一本漫画小说“Gazpacho Agridulce”的灵感来源，书名的意思是“糖醋番茄汤”。 小说讲述了一个中国家庭在35年前扬帆出海，前往西班牙的故事。它探讨了身份如何形成，中国移民如何在异国他乡相处，并展现了中国人在远离自己的国家和传统习俗的环境下成家立业的经历。

“Andaluchinas por el mundo”是我的第二部漫画小说，主要讲述周氏家族的三个女儿的心路历程和成长经历。读者将逐渐了解到在一个受金融危机冲击的世界里，来自移民家庭的年轻人是如何成长的。我阐述了他们的梦想和斗争，以及社会如何接受带有多重身份的亚裔女性。

这两部小说都是根据周氏??族生活中的真实事件改编的。
《糖醋番茄汤》图文小说在西班牙受到了热烈欢迎，并受到西班牙媒体的广泛好评。主人公的不同观点，带着华裔身份的西班牙公民，这些对于对西班牙读者来说是新颖的。中国人如何看待西班牙传统，以及中国人如何在异国度过自己的生活对他们来说也是新鲜事。这些书也得到了华裔西班牙人的热烈欢迎。