Berlin's Little Vietnam - Dong Xuan Center

After World Wart II, Germany experienced its Wirstschaftwunder 'Economic Miracle' period of rapid reconstruction and development. In order to fuel the 'miracle' Germany needed workers. A lot can be written about these workers, known then as Gastarbeiter (guest workers) and I'm trying to keep this entry short! Bascally what you need to know, particularly after the division of the country into East and West Germany, the West invited the Turkish to help out, and the East invited their communist Vietnamese comrades to help out.

After the Gastarbeiter agreements ended with the respective countries, they were supposed to go home. With not much in the way of opportunities for the Turkish workers back in their homeland, many stayed. Many of the Vietnamese however did return to Vietnam.

This short history is very evident in Berlin. The entire district of Kreuzberg is heavily influenced by Turkish culture and this extends heavily also into neighbouring Neukölln. The Turkish influence is felt all over the city. Although figures vary, a rough estimate is that there are approximately 200,000 Turkish in Berlin (this figure is also sometimes estimates at 500,000!) - out of a population of 3.5 Million Berliners.

Contrast that number (say 200,000) with the estimated Vietnamese population of around 20,000 and its easy to see why the Vietnamese influence is not so evident.

As with many cities there are many 'Asian' restaurants that hint at the cultural demographic and supermarkets as I wrote in a previous post about Asian supermarkets in Berlin. But, without a specific 'Chinatown' in Berlin there hasn't appeared to be a centre of Asian culture here.

That was until the situation started bothering me - surely there was some kind of Vietnamese enclave. It would be a shame if there wasn't given the Gastarbeiter history and the strong remaining presence of the Turkish.

Well, it turns out there is such an Vietnamese ethnic enclave. A huge complex of 5 large market halls and some periphery buildings. This is called the Dong Xuan Center, in Lichtenberg.

Lichtenberg, being the neighbouring district of Friedrichshain is not far from us. Easily accessible with the M5 tram (stops right at the entrance) or for us an easy 4.7km ride.

Once entering the gates you just pick a hall and go for a walk. But after being there, there is a more methodical way to do it...

Using this layout, taken from the Dong Xuan Center website (which is worth reading through some of its history), and entering from Herzbergerstraße,a way to do see it all would to go immediately to the right, walk up Halle 8, then enter Halle 6 and walk through to end up at the end of Halle 3. Then you can go 'down' Halle 3, 'up' Halle 2 and 'down' Halle 1 to end up back at the gate and have seen everything.

Really, though it doesn't matter, apart from a bit of backtracking, its easy to see the whole thing even if you don't have a plan!

So what is at this place?

Hairdressers

Restaurants

Hairdressers next to restaurants

 A few Asian grocers

And an over-abundance of horrible HORRIBLE fashion.

An interesting thing is that the Center is a combination of wholesale and retail stores. This one got me by surprise when the first store I went through didn't have any prices. I asked the store guys and they told me in broken German / English / Vietnamese that they don't sell to the public. So that's how I learnt the word Großhandel (wholesale) and the difference between that and Einzelhandel (retail). Schooled!

Looking at the signs on most of the shops they will say if they are wholesale, retail or both.

The halls al say Großhandel at the entrance, so that's nothing to go by!

Regardless of wholesale or retail, there is just SO MUCH CRAP here. Plastic crap, bad fashion and crappy gift things and crappy things for your house and many 'gift stores' which have so many crappy things in them.

A shop full of plastic flowers? Dong Xuan has got it covered.

Want a tattoo, some permanent make-up and a 'Dung' massage...covered!

And the latest nail supplies 'direct from London'. You can get it here.

Maybe you aren't such a good cook? No problems, sprinkle some 'Super Seasoning' (Monosodium Glutamate MSG) and you will get great results, and maybe a headache and nausea too. (I'd never seen MSG for sale before).

So is this place worth the visit? For me it was definitely worth a visit...ONCE. I thought it was incredible that the place existed, and I am happy that it does so that it can in some way preserve the story of the Vietnamese contribution to the German economic miracle.

Reasons not to go back? There's nothing for us here product wise that we either want or can get cheaper at a more local store. What about the restaurants? Surely they are authentic awesome Vietnamese food houses? Well the food might be authentic, but the setting isn't so nice (for a meal) and the prices are probably higher than our local Friedrichshain mom and pop Vietnamese kitchens.

All in all though, a decent half-day-trip, by no means something a tourist should put on their itinerary but probably somewhere every Berliner should check out on a 'Don't know what to do day'.

Asian supermarkets in Berlin

Not long ago I wrote about how difficult it was to find international goods at German supermarkets in the post Are German supermarkets culturally insensitive?

Since then, in an effort to recreate a culinary dish from 'home' that isn't really a thing in Berlin - fish and chips, we had to 'make do' with what was available...and make it ourselves. Recipe to follow in another post at a later date.

Now, fish and chips is a fried food situation; fried fish, fried chips - fish and chips. Without a fryer we used a saucepan to heat the oil and this all worked fine. The tricky thing was removing the chips one they were fried - no frying basket!

So, in a long winded way of getting around to the point, we needed a 'thing' to retrieve the chips from the hot oil as the pasta scooper and tongs just don't cut it. This led me to think that there is a utensil used in Chinese cooking, sometimes called a 'Chinese Spider', which would be perfect.

In the hunt for this utensil we went searching first in the local stores, like Mäc Geiz, Euro Shop and other kitchen stores - and this search resulted in nothing suitable, only bad compromises. HOW HARD IS IT TO GET THIS THING!?

The logical step then was to see if there were any Asian supermarkets in Berlin, and of course there are! A search of the best one in Berlin resulted in 'Go Asia' located in Turmstraße, Moabit. This is not particularly close to us, but we wanted to check it out and went cycling there in the rain.

Indeed, Go Asia is an excellent Asian supermarket. Quite large and with lots of noodles, rices, pastes and heaps of stuff we have no idea what to do with.

They even have some 'Kentucky Fried Chicken' knock off stuff!

And for those into the latest Afro-American hair products (why in the Asian store?), covered!

But what about the Chinese Spider? ...well mixed news on that one. They had one that was WAY too big, and WAY too expensive (20 Euros)...meant for a proper Asian restaurant kitchen with big woks. Not suitable for our little fish and chips.

The visit wasn't a total waste though as we picked up some green curry paste, some red curry paste and a couple of other things to try.

We also discovered another Asian supermarket directly under the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) at Alexanderplatz. Much smaller than Go Asia but stocking most of the same packaged items (and in some cases slightly cheaper).

Just like Go Asia, they only had the huge novelty sized Chinese Spider :(

I was starting to think that I was going to have to make my own Spider! However, we thought we would try one more place - another Asian Supermarket in our own Friedrichshain neighbour hood - Hoa Mai on Frankfurter Allee.

Similarly sized to the Alexanderplatz market we thought it was going to be history repeating.

BUT! not so, this place stocks quite a few different items (like motorcycle locks?!) and more utensils INCLUDING various sizes of Chinese Spiders!! WOO HOO! They had the big one, a small one, and one just a little bigger than the smallest one, the perfect size that we were after.

So what does this elusive thing look like...this:

This one cost 2.50 Euros. Not too bad we thought.

With out new Spider safely in the backpack we thought we really need to have fish and chips tonight. Unfortunately the Hoa Mai fish section seemed rather dubious (all fish frozen and looking very 'freezer burnt').

So we popped off to the nearby Aldi (at the Ring Center) and got our fish and the frozen chips. Success.

After all of this mucking around, I return back to the original question of 'Are German supermarkets culturally insensitive?' and this tour of Asian supermarkets got me thinking:

Maybe, the Germans just stick to what they know they are good at and let the specialists take over the deficits. Maybe doing something in a mediocre fashion (i.e. stocking an incomplete selection of Asian groceries) is more insensitive than just leaving it out all together (aside from the very basics)? Hmmm.

German has a word 'Feinkost', which roughly means; delicatessen, gourmet foods, fine foods and speciality foods. When the word is used, it is used as in 'I am going to the Feinkost' - 'I will buy specialist foods at the Feinkost'. So - if the word and such places exist, then why should the big supermarket chains tread on their market segment? Isn't it a classic 'corporate move' to put the little speciality guys out of business by offering their goods at prices the small stores can't compete with?  Maybe we should appreciate that the lack of an all catering mega corporate supermarket lets the Feinkosts survive! :)

Now we are on the lookout for other nations Feinkosts!

Berlin Film Extra

Finally, it's official, I am a working Berlin Film extra! (with one role to my name).

Backstory - Not long after we moved to Berlin, there were reports in local media that George Clooney was directing a film here (The Monuments Men). The reports went on to say that the film studio was holding an open casting for extras, because they needed about 3 to 5 thousand people! It sounded like an interesting opportunity so we registered on the company website an uploaded our own pictures (rather than attend the casting call in person).

Unfortunately nothing came of that, I had read a later report that they got all the extras they needed from the in-person castings.

With that filming over we didn't think much of our film career after that - until I was contacted in October for use as a film extra. This was for a Hollywood film called 'The Business Trip' and I was asked to play the role of a protester. When you are contacted you are asked if you are available on the days they stipulate - and in this case I was not available for all of them. I didn't here back from them after that :( On the day I wasn't available we were walking by Gendarmenmarkt and the filming was taking place there!!

I was contacted again in January to play a part in an international film called ELIXIR, as a guest at a fashion show. I said I was available and they replied saying that there was a rewrite and the number of extras required had been cut and I wasn't needed. Then they contacted me again and said if I was still available I was required again. I said yea, and then they told me they would get back to me with the details for the next day's shoot. 

They then rang at about 11pm that night to say there was another rewrite and they had abandoned the scene. They apologised profusely saying that they weren't always this disorganised and they hoped I would stay with the company. The person on the phone also said that I should go to their office to have professional photos taken (rather than my self taken shots) as their head of casting had decided they wanted in-house photos only from now on. A couple of weeks later we got an email asking us to come in for the photos.

The office was in Moabit, and not quite the glitzy place you might expect.

Inside we said who we were, and as we were already registered we didn't have to pay the usual 5 euro registration fee. We filled out a form and then waited to have our photos taken. We only waited about two minutes.

A walk through to the back room and a photographer was there ready to take our photos. Four quick photos and we were done in no time.

About three weeks later I was contacted again to be an extra in a international produced crime drama TV Film series thing with the working title 'The Team'. This time it all worked out (finally!). 

I had won the coveted role of extra playing: 'Guy walks past house'.

I was told to report to a production manager in Schöneberg somewhere, and thankfully the meeting time was a respectable 10:45am (not the super early 6am start the Elixir film wanted).

I arrived to see the production vans, reported to the production manager who told me to help myself to some catering and coffee and then wait in the extras bus.

This setting was pretty industrial and I couldn't see how I could be performing my role of 'Guy walks past house' here - but hey, movie magic eh?

In the bus were a couple of other extras and some other people associated with the filming. All up there were five of us as extras (2 guys 3 women), all playing the 'walking past house' role. We waited in the bus to be called and filled out our payment information - an extra gets paid 55 Euros for up to 10.5 hours work, and then there is some extra payment if you work over that time. I was expecting a lengthy day, but was hoping not 10 hours or more!

After a bit of a wait some people came in to check out the outfits we had brought. As an extra you are expected to bring 2-3 outfits and they were checking that we had appropriate 'winter' stuff. I had three outfits ready, but they were happy with what I was already wearing, the other guy had to change his jumper and that was 'wardrobe' completed. We then were asked to follow another guy as we walked out of this area, around the corner to a much more residential area. Here it made more sense how we could make the 'walks past house' part work.

In the street there were all kinds of production people and only two actors. The scene was these two actors having an argument - they would run out of the house and the guy would try to take the womans car. They would have an argument at the car and he would run away.

The five of us were met by a staging guy who positioned us around the street. The two older members of our group were placed together as a husband and wife, another girl across the street and I was placed with the other girl. We were each told marks of when to start walking. The couple were to start when they shouted 'action', the girl next to me would start walking when the guy ran out of the house, I would start when the woman chased after him, and the girl across the street would follow me.

They did this scene about 10 times, and each time 'action' was shouted, the five of us would also have to start walking (10 times!). Nothing changed in each of the takes other than where they placed the cameras. It was quite funny as they didn't always manage to block the street completely so there were other people muscling in on our 'walking past house' role, but overall we had clean takes.

It was so easy!

After less than an hour, and our 10 takes, the staging guy came over to tell us that it was over for the extras. We could go! I was so surprised that that was all we were needed for. 55 Euros each x 5 people for less than two hours work. Makes you realise why movies cost so much to make!

We all went back to our bus where we passed our payment forms back to the production manager and that was it...all over!

Not a bad pay day at all and a truly unique experience for me.

I fully expect to be hitting the big time now that the Berlin film industry has seen how well I can walk in a straight line (past a house!).

Should I feel bad about shopping at Primark?

Primark is an Irish fashion chain, which currently has one outlet in Berlin (with another one 'coming soon' to Alexanderplatz). Its most prominent characteristic is that its prices are ultra cheap. Its second most prominent characteristic is that people go absolutely nuts in there, shop like crazy and park their social manners at the front door. It's always a crazy frenzy in there!

We have been to Primark Steglitz a few times and I've always felt a nagging conscience of guilt as I shop there -

• How is this stuff so cheap?
• Where are the clothes made?
• Are people being exploited in bringing us these bargains?
• I question myself over the frenzy I witness of mass consumption
• I wonder how bad this is in a sustainability sense.

When I go to Primark, I spend about 10% of my time shopping and the other 90% people watching. It amazes me how people grab the large mesh sacks at the entrance and then proceed to seemingly thoughtlessly fill them up to the brim. I've seen people walk by the clothing racks, and without stopping, pull items off the hangers and into their mesh sacks. One swift move and hardly a glance at what they had just 'bagged'.

Are these people weighed down by their conscience like me? Doesn't seem like it!

On our last trip to Primark we picked up a reasonable amount of stuff for about 13.50 Euros, Shoes, undewear, tights, 3 x tops. Granted a few of these items were on sale.

Still, 13.50 Euros for all of this stuff made me feel bad, that something was rotten along the consumption chain somewhere. I looked through all the clothes to see a place of manufacture but there is none, just a tag with Primark's head office address in Dublin. I don't think the stuff is made in Ireland!

Back at home I thought I should do a bit of investigating to satisfy my curious mind. Now I'll admit my little research project is by no means exhaustive, but it was enough for me to reach my own conclusions. Here's what I found.

How is this stuff so cheap? 
This one is pretty obvious, the clothing is all made in third world countries, where wages are much lower. Additionally, Primark buy and sell in bulk which means they can get better manufacturing prices from their suppliers and also their profit margins per item are likely lower than their other fashion competitors. Finally, Primark say they spend no money on advertising, have no online shopping and also work to keep their other overheads low.

Where are the clothes made?
According to Primark, the clothes are predominately made in China, India, Bangladesh and Turkey.

Are people being exploited in bringing us these bargains?
This is the big one, with persistent rumours of sweatshops and under-age labour operating in these low wage countries (not just for Primark, but any company that sources products from these countries).
Another thing that made news was the building collapse in 2013 in Savar Bangladesh. Some of Primark's clothing came from this factory and the collapse further tarnished the Primark name as sourcing products from exploited workers in poor conditions. No further commercial news followed up anything in regards to Primark's operations, leaving the mud to stick.

In my initial research I started looking for the exploited worker, the under-age labourer - almost expecting to find it. And I did. I was disappointed as I watched a 2011 BBC 'Panorama' program which showed two under-age boys working on Primark garments. Our 13.50 Euro batch of clothes felt so ill-gotten.

But I looked into it further and found out that this BBC program had been fabricated and the two boys filmed and the garmets they were working on were a complete set up - the report was false.

In response to that BBC report and the Bangladesh building collapse, Primark set up and Eithical Trading website (www.primark-ethicaltrading.ie).

Reading through their ethical trading is intersting to learn a bit more about the garment industry in the 'third world'. Most of all, the answers I was seeking were answered by Primark's code of conduct which they claim suppliers and factories must follow in the production of Primark products (http://www.primark-ethicaltrading.ie/howwework/ourcodeofconduct). You can read more at the website, but the core principles are:

• Employment is freely chosen

• Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are respected

• Working conditions are safe and hygienic

• Child labour shall not be used

• Living wages are paid

• Working hours are not excessive

• No discrimination is practised

• Regular employment is provided

• No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed 

In order to follow up on their code of conduct, audits are carried out on a number of factories by both internal and external auditors. According to Primark's website, among the 'Ethical Trading Initiative' alliance of over 70 companies, they are apparently considered 'leaders' in this field.

So, after checking through all this my conclusion was maybe Primark isn't as bad as I thought.

Primark was always in my mind no different from other companies that manufacture goods in these low wage places. It was the pricing of their goods that made the company seem that it must be worse than the others - but not my opinion is that at least Primark passes their savings on to the consumers. Primark's 2.50 Euro t-shirt probably costs a similar amount for initial manufacturing as other 'high street' brands' yet they charge 2 - 50 times more! presumably keeping the profits for themselves. 

In this instance, of the other companies who charge moderate to premium prices for third world produced goods, who is really getting exploited? I reckon it's us, the consumer!

So, you are probably thinking, okay Mr Vagabond Bohemian, sounds like you a now a cheerleader for Primark...good on you, you've changed your tune.

And to that I say, whoa! not just yet. It's not all roses.

This brings me to my final point....

Mass consumption and sustainability

Primark is part of a trend in the industry called 'fast fashion' - this is a model of disposable fashion, targetting the latest styles, manufactured at the quickest pace to get into stores quickly and priced as low as possible. Some other brands that adopt this model are H&M, ZARA and Topshop.

But Primark has an 'Environmental Sustainability' tab on their ethical trading website - you say...

Pish posh!, the first rule of sustainability is REDUCE, and fast fashion is the very antithesis of reduction. Yes, I'm glad they are at least making some effort to make their processes less harmful and wasteful, but I am still against the model of fast fashion.

You only have to spend time standing in Primark, watching the people go 'Lord of the Flies' on one another and relentlessly buy, buy, buy! for stuff I'm pretty sure they don't really need. So I'm not cool with that.

Conclusion

After all of this, what's my conclusion? Basically, Shopping at Primark is no less ethical than shopping at any other retailer whose products are made in low wage countries. These days, that's almost every one of them - even premium brands have their products manufactured in China, Thailand, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India and Turkey. It's the way of the world. Until there is global equality that will always be the case.

So what's the alternative if you have a problem with the 'exploitation' of third world conditions? Then you can shop at places that make their clothes in Western Europe, America and other first world countries....and pony up huge amounts for basic items of supposed better quality (And that topic is outside the scope of this article).

So my final thoughts are that for me, someone that goes to Primark to pick up some basics - some socks, a t-shirt or a jumper now and then, that's fine. I can stop feeling so guilty and just be happy I'm not getting super ripped off by some other corporate machine.

Are German supermarkets culturally insensitive?

One thing that Germany doesn't do well is provide many options for multicultural cooking. In supermarkets it has been my experience that the 'international section' is extremely limited. You really need to shop around to find the things you need.

On the hunt for some Garam Masala I went to search at our local mega-supermarket. I didn't find the Garam Masala, but some other interesting spices.

It struck me as a comical false reductionist approach to have a spice simply labelled 'Asia'. I can't believe that the diet of a few billion people can be summed up into this small plastic bottle, for 2.99 Euros. The back label instructed that the spice was suitable for wok dishes, noodles and rice. I guess that covers it!

But not to be too culturally insensitive, the Fuchs company do tailor a product directly to just the cuisine of 1.3 billion people...

And the Fuchs company also makes a slightly different version of the 'China' and 'Asia' flavours (such variety?!) and also extends the false reductionism to Greece, India and Mexico!

No wonder the 'international section' is virtually non-existant - you can achieve almost any style of cooking with just these five plastic bottles!

It did make me wonder a bit about German society and whether the limited cultural offerings are a reflection of the greater consensus as a whole and how 'Multikulti' it really is.

And no, I didn't buy the 'Indian' spice in lieu of the non-existent Garam Masala. I'll have to extend my shopping radius out of the standard sausage and sauerkrat realm of the ubiquitous discount supermarket sphere.