‘I’m not the Chinese on the corner’: Barcelona’s shopkeepers reclaim their names

The sign in the window of Bar Montserrat in Barcelona, which reads: ‘I am not “the Chinese on the corner”. You can call me Cai Qin/Jessi.’ Photograph: Bar Montserrat

Within its caramel-coloured walls and neat row of bar stools, there’s a sense that something has shifted at Barcelona’s Bar Montserrat. As Cai Qin Chen darts between serving coffees and taking orders, she’s heard her name called out more often in recent weeks than ever before.

“We noticed it right away,” said Chen, who with her husband, Xin Chen, has owned the small bar in the Poblenou neighbourhood for 16 years. “Perhaps people aren’t seeing us as foreigners any more, but rather people who are part of Spanish society.”