On the eve of the Lunar New Year, the streets are dotted with red and yellow lights. Large red banners hanging between the buildings read xinnian kuaile and gonghe xinxi (variations of “Happy New Year” in Mandarin). There is a buzz of excitement in the air. At 10 p.m., the loud beats of the wushu drums begin: thang, thang, thang. Four groups of lion dancers appear, parading up and down the streets as small children stare open-mouthed. One lion eats leaves of cilantro and then scatters the leaves all over the audience for good luck. Finally, the lions bow to a small shrine, indicating the show is over and the audience of barely a few hundred people can disperse. This scene would be an ordinary one in southern China. But this is not Chengdu or Guangzhou but Kolkata in eastern India.
When you think of Chinatowns, you think of San Francisco, Bangkok, or London. But Kolkata has been home to an Indian Chinese community since the 18th century. The Chinese community in Kolkata was once thriving, with some estimates pegging its high at 70,000 people. Most of them immigrated in the 19th and 20th centuries, when India was under British colonial rule, setting up community clubs in Kolkata to connect migrants with others from their original home provinces, like Shandong or Hubei, or from their ethnic groups, like the Hakka. At one point, there were even two Chinatowns in Kolkata: in Tangra, where the leather factories were located, and in Cheenapara, the old Chinatown, home to Chinese churches, shoemakers, and community clubs. Even today Kolkata has the highest concentration of Indian Chinese people in the country, though a few of them have moved to other Indian cities.
