The communion of Chinese and geeks made Paseo de Sant Joan the most unique commercial hub in Barcelona. Life-size Harry Potter figures, Korean clothing for teenagers, exotic supermarkets, board games, traditional bars, Asian tapas, crafts, manga… And a Masonic library that sets up character creation workshops taught by store clerks. comics. Sometimes the city takes on a life of its own.
Do you know that there are tourists with no interest in the Sagrada Família? neither in the Nou Camp, nor in any conventional attraction. What these visitors from all over Spain and various corners of the planet are interested in is picking up a local board game, reviewing editions of their favorite graphic novel, participating in laser sword fights… and then eating a Japanese dumpling, drinking tea with tapioca, dine on sushi among drawings of bears and kittens. Some buy an alien head, despite the problems that airlines pose. These days the walk debuted manga-style Christmas lights. Between the Arc de Triunf and the Plaza de Tetuán we only found one location available. The geek triangle of Barcelona is today an alternative international reference in a world that was once the subject of insults and is becoming more mainstream every day. This is a multidimensional story, with a lot of timelines that evolved on their own until…
Zongping Li, 40, from the Chinese province of Fujian, says in the Okinawa manga-style restaurant that until recently she worked as a clerk in one of the many wholesale clothing stores run by Asians that were so popular here. “But they moved them to the Badalona industrial estates,” he continues, “because working there was more comfortable and cheaper. And I didn’t want to leave my neighborhood, Fort Pienc. As soon as we had the opportunity we set up this restaurant. My husband loves sushi, and he learned from a great teacher, and so do the people who come to the shopping mall. That’s why we decorate the restaurant in a manga style.”
Thus the Chinese of Fort Pienc began to transform those businesses designed to meet the needs of so many compatriots into others aimed at a broader audience. The intermediation initiative promoted by the Xeix City Council facilitated this leap, so that little by little Asians stopped behaving like an ethnic group and behaved like any other citizen.
José Manuel Martínez opened the Dashu Japanese anime and manga products store in 2022. “We had a stall in the manga room, but we wanted something permanent,” says Martínez. When we found this place, although it needed renovation, we didn’t doubt it: if you dedicate yourself to this you have to be in Sant Joan! You can find all this on the internet, Fnac, El Corte Inglés… The pandemic multiplied the love for board games, comics, series… Today the audience is broader than ever! From Mazinger Z to One Piece! But the atmosphere that this walk gives is unique. The problem is theft. Thieves sell us our products very well on the internet. The other problem is real estate pressure. That’s the bad thing about becoming fashionable in Barcelona. “You never know how long they’ll let you stay.”
Niping Qiuzheng, 53, was also a clothing wholesaler. “Those stores didn’t make sense in the center. They were a nuisance that contributed little to the neighborhood. And when they left for Badalona I set up a chain of bakeries. But my dream was always to have a Mediterranean restaurant, so I passed it on to my brother, except for the one that was here, which I transformed into La Triunfal, in my dream. The widening of the sidewalks was definitive. Suddenly everyone wanted to walk through Sant Joan.”
“The platforms, the superhero movies, the series… popularized geek culture in these years,” says Juan José Peña, in the Kaburi board game store, on the walk since 2000, one of the seeds of the triangle. The geek always liked Big Bang Theory, Marvel, Strange Things… and that culture became widespread, and people decorate their living rooms with figures of their favorite characters instead of vases. “The term geek is no longer pejorative.”
“We were on Girona Street since 2014, here next door,” they say in Goblintrader, a store specializing in board games and miniatures, “but this summer we moved to this location because there is nothing like standing in the heart of the promenade. With the pandemic all this was no longer a minority. People of all kinds come to Sant Joan, friends, couples, families, during the week from the neighborhood, the city, the metropolitan area and beyond. And here we nourish each other. If you don’t have something, you send the customer to another store that has it. “This is how we feed the triangle.”
And at Norma Cómics, another of the seeds of the triangle, José Garrido, one of the clerks, and also a cartoonist and student at the Joso art school, says that on Sant Jordi they came from the Arús public library and suggested giving a workshop on creating characters for high school students, and that he would love to be offered it again… “Paseo de Sant Joan is more than many shops, really,” says Garrido. The thing about them nourishing each other is true.
The Arús library opened its doors on the promenade 128 years ago. “Rossend Arús donated his fortune to the city on the condition that he financed a library for the people,” says the director, Maribel Giner. That’s why we try all the time to get involved in the neighborhood. For Sant Jordi we set up activities for the kids with Norma Cómics. And on March 8 we dedicate it to Chinese women, with women from different generations and occupations.” Businesswomen, translators, writers pass through here… Not long ago Miquel Gallardo, one of the fathers of the historic Makoki fanzine, who died too soon due to an illness, also a distinguished resident of Fort Pienc, brought the cartoonist Quan Zhou.. Zhou, daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born in Algeciras, then moved to Malaga and then Madrid… And she told her story in a webcomic. “We also set up Ikebana and Bollywood workshops…” adds the director. In addition, the Arús has a very geeky Sherlock Holmes collection, with books, pipes, caps, ties, tobacco, false mustaches, autographs of authors who played him, even the sign of a brothel called Sherlock Homes… “Once the Holmes Circle met here and the president liked the library so much that he offered us his collection.”
And so, the Moz-art art school, right next door, where a few years ago you would only find Chinese students, today has students from all over…
