By Sujoy Dhar, IANS
Kolkata : For David Chen, a 41-year-old Chinese shoemaker from central Kolkata’s Bentinck Street, Thursday is a day of prayers in a Buddhist temple with his family to welcome the Lunar New Year.
The year 2008, according to the Chinese calendar, is the “year of the rat” which will be marked by a spurt in business.
The Chinese New Year celebrations kick off with the New Moon and end on the full moon 15 days later. The last day of the New Year is called the Lantern Festival, celebrated at night with lantern displays. The year is calculated on a combination of lunar and solar movements.
Tangra, Kolkata’s Chinatown, rang in the New Year with the traditional dragon dance, lion dance and firecrackers since the wee hours Thursday.
“I thank god for the past year and will pray for a happy new year. Every year, I come to this monastery on Jessore Road on the northern fringe of the city and pray with my family. I know our people are leaving the city for greener pastures but that is natural for every community. We don’t worry much about it anymore. It is time to be happy and contented,” Chen said.
Sacrifice to the ancestors is central to the New Year rituals when dead relatives and ancestors are remembered with respect because they helped lay the foundation of the fortunes of the present generation.
At Tangra, rehearsals for the dragon dances start almost a fortnight before the New Year. The houses are illuminated at night and are adorned with streamers. Chinatown is a riot of red festoons, buntings and streamers.
“So what if there is bird flu. We are partying with fish, lamb and pork this year,” said K.T. Chang, editor of Overseas Chinese Commerce of India, the only Chinese newspaper in the country.
Patrick Liu, a student of Class VIII in Pei Nei School in Chinatown, however, has different plans. “We have built a makeshift discotheque at a friend’s place. We will dance the night away while our parents pray,” he said.
The Chinese population in Kolkata has declined 50-fold since the India-China war in 1962 when Chinatown boasted of nearly 350,000 Chinese.
They were once an integral part of the city. But large-scale migration started in the 1980s, with many leaving for Canada, Australia, Taiwan and the Middle East.
The population is now down to 700. The Chinese youth is moving out of the city in large numbers as their traditional vocations – dentistry, shoemaking and beauty therapy – have been taken over. Those left behind are not doing too well.
Take Chen Pin Chang, 67, for instance. Space and cash crunch have forced him and his wife to run an informal refectory in a room that also doubles as their home in a rundown building at Chandni Chowk in central Kolkata.
The Changs wait every month 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 reflects that of many Chinese settled here for centuries.
The Chinese first came here to work at the city’s port in the 18th century, though the first immigrant in 1778 started a sugar mill and traded in tea. In the days of the British Raj, Kolkata sent opium and later cotton to China while Canton exported tea and silk.