Kolkata's Little China cares little for Hu visit
Nov 20, 2006 - 3:08:17 PM
, Reviewed by: Priya Saxena
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During the Sino-India conflict in 1962, those holding Chinese passports had to register themselves and follow travel restrictions. Many had to seek permission every time they wanted to travel outside the city. Such restrictions eased only after the thawing of relations between the two countries. But the past bitterness coupled with economic reasons have made the younger Chinese seek western pastures.
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By Sujoy Dhar, Indo-Asian News Service,
[RxPG] Kolkata, Nov 20 (IANS) In a south Kolkata neighbourhood, 76-year-old Lee waits for diners to wander into his empty eatery while watching a Bollywood rerun on TV. Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India is the last thing on his mind.
'I have heard that he is coming, but I am least interested,' says the owner of Kim Ling eatery. 'Politics do not interest me at all. I am only concerned with earning my bread and butter here.'
Lee was born and brought up in Kolkata and though he has visited his native place in China's Canton province, Sino-Indian ties are way down on his priority list, definitely below Aishwarya Rai on the idiot box.
Lee's story is the same as that of the few thousand Chinese left behind in Kolkata.
Shoemaker David Chen, 45, says: 'I am not interested in the politics between the two countries. I only want peace and it is always better if business prospects look up after such visits.'
Chen, who is the owner of a still surviving Chinese shoe outlet in central Kolkata's Bentink Street, has also been to China. However, he has never wanted to settle in that country.
'My uncle lives in China. I went there to check out my roots, but this is my place. My three daughters are studying here and I am proud that despite being born and brought up in Kolkata, we have maintained our cultural moorings,' Chen, who is also a member of the Indian Chinese Association based in the city, told IANS.
Once a thriving community, the Chinese population here is dwindling fast though the city is still famous for its Chinatown at Tangra in Kolkata's east and the lip-smacking array of Chinese food joints. From a population of nearly 350,000 before the India-China war in 1962, the number of Chinese left in the city now is less than 5,000.
Take the case of Chen Pin Chang. Every evening Chang, 66, eagerly waits for his privacy to be invaded by total but hungry strangers. Space and cash crunch force Chen and his wife to run an informal refectory in a room that also doubles up as their home in a rundown building at Chandi Chowk in central Kolkata.
Though not many know about the existence of this place in a narrow dingy alley, the culinary skill of the couple has engendered a small clientele who hanker after authentic Chinese delicacies.
But for the Changs, the real wait every month is for the money sent by their daughter and son living in Taiwan. Faced with bleak business prospects and now left with only one son in Kolkata, their position is reflective of the many Chinese settled here since centuries. They once formed an integral part of the city's cosmopolitan demography but started leaving for greener pastures in Canada, Australia, Taiwan and even the Middle East since the 1980s.
Chinese migrants had once seen the city's business prospects and conquered trades like food, dentistry, leather, shoe and beauty. But with the traditional Chinese monopoly of these trades long challenged by a new-generation of indigenous people, they are leaving in hordes for western shores.
The Chinese first came to India to work at the city's port when the city was the capital of the British Indian empire. But the first Chinese to arrive is said to be one Yang Tai Chow who came in 1778 to start a sugar mill and undertake tea trade. In British India, Kolkata sent opium and later cotton to China while Canton reciprocated with tea and silk. Trade declined but the connection lingered.
Driven by famine in central China, the Hakka community migrated to this port city. The second round of migration was precipitated by the revolution of 1939-1949. Cantonese Chinese came and settled along Chitpore Road and near Chhatawala Gully in north Kolkata. A labyrinth of streets housed noodle kitchens, Chinese homes and even opium dens. Nanking, once an elegant Chinese restaurant, opened its doors here.
Today the Chinese community has all but abandoned Chitpore Road, which was the real Chinatown of Kolkata. A few Chinese families still live nearby and on some mornings one can still sip piping hot jasmine tea or eat dim sums. But Tangra on the northeastern fringe, where most of the famous Chinese food joints are located, is the new Chinatown.
Despite being thousand of miles away from China, the Tangras have preserved their identity, both in terms of language and family ties. There have been marriages outside the community, but infrequently. Tangra has its own Chinese school and a temple dedicated to ancient Chinese heroes.
In a ramshackle office in Chinatown, 87-year-old C.J. Chen still brings out the Overseas Chinese Commerce in India - the only existing Chinese daily printed in the city.
During the Sino-India conflict in 1962, those holding Chinese passports had to register themselves and follow travel restrictions. Many had to seek permission every time they wanted to travel outside the city. Such restrictions eased only after the thawing of relations between the two countries. But the past bitterness coupled with economic reasons have made the younger Chinese seek western pastures.
For most of the Chinese in Kolkata, the visit of Hu Jintao, therefore, evokes no visible emotion.
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