Navigating Identity: How India's Only Chinatown and its Culture are Fading Away

There is a shrillness in the voice of Roshan as he speaks over a telephone call, from Kolkata's Trietta Bazaar. Excited for the Lunar New Year, starting the midnight of February 16, he and his dance troupe are going to perform the Lion Dance, which he proudly claims must be different from the other Chinese troupes in Kolkata, as he knows the nitty-gritty of Malaysian beats to incorporate in the performance. 

Roshan, now 26, started learning the art when he was 16. "Every Chinese kid dreams of taking part in it," he says. However, the next moment, he presents the dismay over how he and his generation might be the last of the Chinese descendants in the historic Chinatown of Kolkata - the only Chinatown in India - to be interested in talking about the dwindling Chinese community in India.

Living in Trietta Bazaar, one of the two major epicentres of the community in Kolkata, he has reasons to think so. He started the Dragon Boat Festival, which included a boat race, but it ended in 2022. "Everyone is working somewhere, or the other, and it is not possible to spare time out for the community events like this," he, who is a fitness coach, says.

For the festival, Roshan, also part of the Indian Chinese Association, which started the festival in 2016, managed to secure dragon boats from abroad with the help of the Chinese Consulate. The festival held its last edition in 2022, with no signs of a revival at the moment, as Roshan informs Local Samosa.

However, for Tangra residents like Albert, who is in his early 40s, even the New Year's have remained "the same" for ages in the area. It is only these performances that, if nothing, have been an ample source of income for Albert, who runs a dance troupe, Tangra INC. "

The settlements that once formed the culture

Just like every year, Roshan is aware that some of his relatives and family members of other families in his area are coming back to celebrate the new year, a culture that has become a norm for those who once lived in Kolkata's Chinatown but moved abroad later, making the New Year the only time for their homecoming. 

Roshan's family was among the first ones to arrive in Kolkata's Tiretta Bazaar in the late 18th century. Located in central Kolkata, it became an early centre for Chinese immigrants to settle, about which Roshan, a fourth-generation settler, says, "They (referring to his own ancestors) must have arrived in the late 1770s and were involved in the leather and masala businesses." 

On his immediate family, he says, "My dad is Nepali, and my mom is Cantonese, not Hakka side of the Chinese (a distinct subgroup of Han Chinese people)." While Roshan's father is a chef owning a Chinese restaurant in Bengaluru, his mother runs a beauty parlour. "A few years back, I got to see the actual place my ancestors came from China!" he says, but can't recall the name of the place, but knows his ancestors settled in Achipur after coming to India.

As the Chinese community later moved to Tangra, located on the eastern side of the city, aiming to establish tanneries in the early 20th century, many from China also settled in this area, making both Tiretta Bazaar and Tangra what is now known as the Chinatown of Kolkata - now dwindling at a fast pace.

'No community culture left than the New years'

Settled in Tangra since his ancestors arrived here in the 1930s, Albert laments that it is only the New Year and that there are no other community events. "Back in time, there was a club the Chinese community here would frequently visit, talk and play games; even that is closed now," he says.  

Reportedly, only about 2,000 people from the community live in Chinatown, compared with 50,000 in the 1960s. However, as both Albert and Roshan argue, there must be at least half of the number shown. The recent SIR process in West Bengal, ahead of the state assembly elections, found 389 of 484 that were categorised as untraceable or absent. 

A voter in India, Albert, has recently taken part in the ongoing process to regain his voting rights after losing his voter ID card in the past. However, his brother left the country a long time back in search of "better opportunities". "Many have migrated, and the new generation is migrating for better education and the livilihood," he says.

Infrastructure, real estate and negligence

The seeds of the migration were sown long before the community's major occupation dwindled. As the Chinese established a tannery business in Tangra alongside their residences, it was a setback when the Supreme Court ordered them to relocate to the Bantala Leather Complex, known as the "leather place". "The houses and the business would exist alongside those that got affected," Roshan says.

The Bantala Leather Complex, approximately 15–17 km away from Tangra, not just hampered the Chinese-owned tannery business in Tangra, as Albert shares, but also led to the emigration of many Hakka Chinese community members to Canada, Australia, and other countries. "It (Tangra) was an economic hub. When that economy shrank, it affected the entire community ecosystem," says Indrajeet Lahiri, a Kolkata-based storyteller in culinary and heritage.

Even the geopolitical tensions like the Indo-China war of 1962 and the backlash against the community have contributed to the reasons for the Indo-Chinese community to leave the country, as per various reports.

Currently, both Trietta Bazaar and the Tangra are dotted with narrow gullies, some of which house age-old, popular restaurants like Kaflouk, as the streets remain dark and dug up at night. By 10 p.m., the roads are not just deserted but difficult to navigate with cars and even more difficult to find public transportation.

While Roshan notes that infrastructure has been a major problem, Albert says there is a surge of realtors in the area. In a telephonic conversation, he says, "There are people (from the community) who are fighting cases against the realtors who have claimed their land." "There are aspirations to make big buildings go up to 10-15 floors."

With the shrinking population, the Chinatown, over the years, have been left untouched by the public officials, about which Albert says, "Every country has a Chinatown, India has this. But it is disappointing that the government has not paid attention to either beautification or preservation. We need to preserve this culture."

The culinary cut and the perceptions

Having said that, and, ironically, even Albert, who primarily runs an Asian restaurant in Gariahat, cannot do much to preserve his culinary culture in order to maintain a livelihood. Citing an example, he says, "We usually eat bland food, but if I don't keep the spices, will they (locals) eat them? So, I have to modify it according to the preferences," he says.

Similarly, talking about Tangra restaurant culture, Mr. lahiri says, "...But the cuisine itself has changed in many places. What most people enjoy today is what we call Indian Chinese, a cuisine that was born in Kolkata but has moved quite far from traditional home-style Chinese cooking. For example, green chilli was never there in authentic Chinese cuisine, but is an integral part here." 

The food storyteller, who runs 'Foodka', a Bengali food vlog and digital series, recalls what Monica Liu, a restaurateur and a stalwart within the Chinese community, once said: restaurant food today is shaped more by customer tastes than by family tradition. "That line explained a lot."

As much as the Chinese dining here has been limited to a wrap of an "Indo-Chinese" version of the food, the initial street food culture has disappeared. Come to Chinatown in the mornings; there are hardly any hawkers of Chinese origin selling Chinese breakfast, as before. "Food is almost done over. No hawkers are there anymore," says Roshan. 

In the early days of the old Chinatown, that is, Trietta Bazaar, Chinese unskilled labourers not only cooked food for themselves but also for others in the community. Popular for breakfasts, it would come alive on Sundays. "I can hardly spot one or two," says Albert, from the loss of a similar culture in Tangra. 

Recounting his early visits to Tiretta Bazaar, long before his 'Foodka' began, he says that the smells, the language, the faces, everything felt intimate and alive. Years later, when he returned with cameras to shoot 'Foodkaseries', he noticed something that, he says, stayed with him. "The food was still there, but the crowds felt different. Many of the original community members were fewer in number, and more visitors were coming from outside the community."

During one shoot, he shares that an elderly stall owner told him his son had settled abroad and wouldn’t return. "He said it without sadness, but there was a quiet acceptance in his voice. That moment made me realise that what we were documenting was not just food, it was history in its final chapters," he says.

With no vocal community members about their culture, the Chinese community has also been subjected to certain presumptions here. The Chinese-Indian community, ever since the 1962 war, to the much more recent events like the Galwan valley clash and various boycotts have suffered biases, which have directly affected the community and their cultures.

Even as Roshan denies any discrimination and biases against him, a Kolkata native and a full-time food vlogger, Shreshtha Sharma says, "I have heard they (the Chinese-Indian community) mix and have flavours of beef and pork in most of their fat oils that they use." On being the source, she says she has heard from friends and the blogger community.

While she usually loves Chinese food and has heard of Golden Joy, a popular Chinese restaurant, she hasn't visited it or Chinatown, which reflects how, even within the city, the community hasn't been part of mainstream conversations or recognition.

Sharma, who hosts the food tables, has yet to host a table with the Chinese-Indian community. However, she says that she would love to host one. "For many years, Chinatown has existed almost like a parallel Kolkata. Loved by food lovers, yes, but not always fully acknowledged as a heritage space that needs preservation," Mr. Lahiri opines.

But where are the cooks who once prepared fppd for the community? Roshan states that they are now limited to serving community members upon request. "Initially, the owners of the restaurants would prepare food themselves. Now, there are people who cook at home, and our community members reach out to them on occasions like weddings."

Meanwhile, for occasions like the ongoing New Year celebrations, it is a mix of authentic food along with the popular culture additions that have become common even for this old surviving community - a balance it has been striking for a long time to navigate its existence in its own homeland.