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Us, not them
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Third generation Chinese in the city listen to rock bands, wait for the U.S. visa, and help the FDI flow in here
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HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES is a long way from Japanese rule, famine, and drought of a China 200 years back. So many Chinese have travelled to India in the wake of these upheavals to possibilities of a good and comfortable life, and in the course of a fortunate fading memory of those times. That long travel is why Robert Kim Lee's perspective on the Chinese here is understandable: "Look, we seem Chinese. But we are born in India. And we are more Indian than Chinese, I think." If Robert, a third-generation restaurateur in his 30s, is so Indian, his children are so much more.
Lawrence Liang, a National Law School graduate with Master's in Law from Warwick, U.K., says the Chinese first came in as plantation labour in Darjeeling, as workers in the tanneries of Calcutta and as sailors to Bombay. The sailors were the ones who came up with the Chinese restaurants. Those who came in during the late colonial times and when India was a nascent republic, for the most part settled down to restaurants and tanneries first in Calcutta. This first generation brought in the beauty parlours gradually. The second generation still holds on to the restaurants alongside the parlours, but the shoe line is gone almost, Chung-Wah's Chung says, because tanneries in Calcutta shut down towards the '80s.
Meanwhile, the shadow of the Indo-China war and citizenship woes of the older generation and lack of professional opportunities for the third generation saw a massive emigration in the '80s and '90s from Calcutta to Canada via Taiwan. Some went to Europe. "There are just about 15,000 to 20,000 of them left. There were about a lakh," says Chung.
Like in Canada and Calcutta and now in Bangalore, the significant change in the Chinese community is the third generation's shift from traditional family professions. There are lawyers, doctors, software engineers, engineering graduates, call centre professionals and architects now. "They are like other young Indians aspiring to go to the U.S. or Europe," says Robert. Yang Yen-Thaw, a lawyer who specialises in FDI, agrees that youngsters in the age group of 25 to 35 are up there. His family, incidentally, was the first to come to Bangalore.
Earlier generations, particularly from Calcutta, would go to Chinese schools, then shift to English ones that made learning either language difficult. But over time, the number of Chinese schools there came down from 60 or 70 to only a couple or more with very few students. The younger generation Chinese begin at English schools there, and here too. And in Bangalore, it is `convent schools' all the way, says Lawrence. And their English is as good as it gets. "How do you think they work in call centres?"
Unlike in Calcutta, Chinese in Bangalore have never been to a Chinese school because there's never been one. Chung says youngsters in Bangalore could be better at English than Mandarin. "In some cases, they may not even comprehend Mandarin because they are born here. What little they know comes from conversation at home." Robert says this happens because they are not exposed to Chinese culture. English is prevalent and helps prospects. "So why would they take up restaurants or shoe-making?"
What sets the third generation apart from flair for English language, Lawrence believes, is the clarity of identity they carry as Chinese-Indian, that they are Indians of Chinese origin. There is in fact the Chinese Indian of Bangalore Society that has 110 families registered with it. "This clarity did not happen in Calcutta. Most of us know Hindi, understand Kannada and speak Bengali. Even marriage patterns have changed. Chinese and Indians marry. The generation is familiar with Bollywood and any popular cultural practice you can think of."
What of China? Chung is a restaurateur and so travels. Friends of his age visit the very few relatives they have in China. The second and third generation here are here. "Not knowing China, not having grown up there, what will you go back to?" asks Peter, who manages the Society.
Lawrence puts the generation in context: "You've never been there, so where's the going back? Our Chinese is different. We find it difficult to understand dialects of people coming from China and Hong Kong. It is like can we grasp Sanskrit here? We even meet Chinese abroad who note our thin towels by us and say oh, they seem Indian. They say this even when we say acha acha in Hindi. And when we speak Chinese, it is Chinese-Indian." But Lawrence is very clear he is Indian, Indian in India and Indian outside. "You know, I do feel nostalgic when I am away."
Yet he has to constantly re-iterate his Indian-ness. Abroad, he has to fill in a form that asks him where he comes from and when he says Indian. You don't look Indian, they tell him.
Though this is the Huawei generation in a sense, one that is looking ahead and doing well, the re-iteration of Indian will be around for some time.
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You've never been there, so where's the going back? Our Chinese is different. We find it difficult to understand dialects of people coming from China and Hong Kong. It is like can we grasp Sanskrit here? We even meet Chinese abroad who note our thin towels and say oh, they seem Indian. They say this even when we say acha acha in Hindi. And when we speak Chinese, it is Chinese-Indian.
Lawrence Liang
PRASHANTH G.N.
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