China Town

Anindita Mazumder

While China had sent itinerant tradesmen, monks and travellers over the centuries, the first Chinese settler to Bengal was Yong Atchew who arrived at around 1780 at Achipur in Hooghly, a village which was eventually named after him. Warren Hastings had granted Atchew some 650 bighas of land at an annual rent of     Rs 45 in order to set up a sugar plantation and mill. Nearly 110 workers came at his call and by 1782 he had 2,000 maunds of sugar ready along with good quantities of arrack – a popular spirit. However, his enterprise was plagued by labour problems and Hastings issued a warning notice against those trying to entice away his cheap labour. Atchew died in 1783.

The next batch of Chinese migrants comprised ‘Macao ship deserters’ – Chinese sailors who were virtually kidnapped or Shanghaied into service deserted the ship and waited for a friendly vessel to take them home. Thus the Chinese had made forays into the colonial city. The original Chinatown – the only one in India – was located near the oldest part of the city – around lower Chitpore – spreading over Bentinck Street, Phears Lane. Today, though overtaken by the new Chinatown at Tangra, it comes alive for quite a few hours at dawn for an open air bazaar which still serves the best and cheapest Chinese breakfast in the city. Sauces and fresh ingredients for Chinese cuisine are also sold here.

Around 65 years after Atchew’s death Colesworthy Grant observed that the 25 Chinese shoe makers of Kasaitola (Bentick Street) “manufacture with much taste and modest charges”. Moreover, all carpenters attached to the ships in the country were Chinese and in matters of skill and ingenuity the Chinese mechanics and artisans claimed precedence over all other Orientals, he added.

By mid-19th century the Chinese in Calcutta had established themselves as a skilled, industrious, sober, honest and above all, clean people. The only charges brought against them were related to the fearful addiction to opium smoking which led to occasional midnight brawls mainly over gambling with serious consequences. Among the Chinese, the Hakkas dominated, being primarily involved in tanneries and shoe-making, followed by Cantonese who took up carpentry or to running restaurants while the Hupey took up dentistry. Laundries were run by a small group from Shanghai.

India under British rule was considered safe by the immigrant Chinese as long as they did not meddle in local politics and remained loyal to the government. “The English government is a very good one; it lets us manage our own affairs and helps us if anyone else tries to injure us, its policeman leave us alone and its small causes court has been established specially for our convenience,” wrote Charles Alabaster, an English traveller while  quoting an immigrant. Many Chinese came to visit their relatives in Calcutta and then took up apprenticeship in shoe making or carpentry. Often, the men came alone and chose to marry fellow Eurasians women in the Grey town. The first Chinese temple at Kasaitola was set up by the shoe-makers though it cannot be traced anymore today. The next one was set up by the carpenters in Bowbazar area. They were also credited for introducing the rickshaw to ferry goods before migrants from UP and Bihar took over.

Visiting the city in 1970s Geoffrey Moorhouse observed: “Lower Chitpore conceals what is left of Calcutta’s old Chinatown. A generation or so ago the whole of Bowbazar between here and Chittaranjan Avenue is said to have echoed to the clop of wooden sandals and the ivory click of mah-jong pieces, to have been largely peopled by men and women in blue boiler suits and said to have boasted at least one opium den.” The growing Chinese community had set up their own schools such as Moi Kwang and Pei May in Bowbazar and Tangra respectively in order to teach the children Mandarin and traditional values before the parents discovered Western education and decided to move on. It is no surprise English medium schools like Grace Ling Liang or Sacred Heart Chinese School survived though the number of Chinese students has dwindled over the years.

Post- independence, after the Corporation took up large scale development work, setting up multi-storey blocks for business, the Chinese moved to east to Tangra and set up tanneries and a piece of China in East Calcutta complete with Chinese temples, dragon architecture, festoons, colourful signboards and aroma of Chinese food . The Chinese continue to be a closed community at Tangra and little is known about the life beyond the high walls of the tanneries cum residences, fortress like gates and padlocks. The Chinese New Year is heralded in February with house cleaning and repayment of debts, fire crackers, dragon dance and traditional music while during the moon festivals moon-shaped cakes are offered.

Structural reminders of the community’s presence exist in the old Chinatown though in a state of decay including the once grand Nanking restaurant at the Tiretta Bazaar, occupying the ground floor of Tong Oon Church. Apart from the more favourably located Sea Ip Church in Chatawallah Gully dedicated to Kwan Yin – the goddess of mercy, there are five other churches in and around the Bowbazar area, where joss sticks and candles are still lit. Moorhouse described Sea Ip temple and its curious architecture –“with its antique Chinese weapons, cooking, its chapel, curved roof top with two large porcelain fish standing on their tails on top.” Most of the Chinese are Buddhist, even Catholic or Protestants and even Muslims.

There were fresh influxes during the Kuomintang rule, World War II and Mao’s revolution. The Chinese community grew following the revolution in 1949 and then shrunk following emigration to Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and the US following the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962. The war changed the official attitude of Indians towards the Chinese and the latter were looked upon with suspicion. Many were repatriated, and many more lost their employment or herded into camp in Rajasthan leading the Chinese population to dwindle in Calcutta. The next blow came when Supreme Court ordered the removal of tanneries to Bantala. But the industrious Chinese community was able to reverse the decline and set up restaurants serving Indo-Chinese cuisine gratifying the Bengali weakness for gastronomic adventures. And they continue to make the annual pilgrimage to Atchew’s grave and the shrine set up by him.