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发表于 2004-5-9 23:20:42
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Hakka Out Of India
http://www.asiawind.com/forums/read.php?f=1&i=6527&t=6527
Hakka Out Of India
Author: Kobo-Daishi (---.dialup.bol.ucla.edu)
Date: 05-09-04 04:21
Dear all,
The following is a May 7, 2004 South China Morrning Post article titled “Thick Skinned” that I am posting in its entirety because it will soon be archived:
India's sole Chinese enclave in Calcutta thrived as a tanning centre for more than a century. But with the impending closure of its factories, Hakka owners must decamp or diversify.
by Amrit Dhillon
As "guest people" - the English translation of Hakka - residents of Calcutta's Chinatown are living up to their name. They are packing up, preparing to move their century-old leather tanneries out of the congested, pulsating-with -humanity alleys of the enclave to an industrial estate on the city's outskirts. Chinatown's character will never be the same.
At present, Chinese tannery owners and workers live, work and socialise in Tangra. Acting on a Supreme Court order passed last year that the 200 tanneries were polluting the area, contaminating the water with chemicals and making the air fetid, the local government has ordered the factory owners to move.
Some of the owners plan to continue living in Tangra and will commute to Bantala, the new leather-processing complex about 20km away. Others will move lock, stock and barrel to Bantala.
The people of Calcutta - the only Indian city with a Chinese enclave - are worried about the impact of this drastic move on their precious Chinatown. For years, the Chinese tannery owners have struggled against the idea of moving. When environmentalists protested at the pollution, they offered to install effluent-treatment plants. No one was impressed.
Then a private citizen lodged a "public interest petition" in the courts, sealing their fate. The tanneries should have moved last year but the owners have procrastinated, reluctant to leave a place full of memories.
But when the government of West Bengal cut the power supply to some tanneries, they knew time had run out.
Paul Chung, president of the Indian Chinese Association, is unhappy. He hopes the move will not mean the end of Chinatown, but the facts are bleak. About seven years ago, there were 20,000 Hakka Chinese in Calcutta. It was a vibrant community, with its own schools, social clubs and newspapers. Now there are closer to 7,000. The younger ones, underwhelmed by the idea of a career in tanning, have moved to Canada, the US and Australia. A retired teacher, Mr Chung says he is lucky his four daughters have stayed. "I will never leave India. I was born here. My parents are buried here. This is my home."
Others have seen their children move out. "Chinatown is being deserted by the new generation," says school principal S. M. Hsiung. "The Lee Club used to be alive with all sorts of activities. Now it's deserted. All the young do is dream of settling in developed countries."
For a man who has worked hard to preserve the festivals, traditions and ceremonies of his community, the impending disintegration upsets Mr Chung. "You know, in Tangra, we speak the purest form of Hakka anywhere in the world," he says. "Even in its original home, it has been diluted by infiltrating dialects. But here the only two non-Hakka words are the Hindi accha good and aloo potato ."
Of Chinese people, Hakka are among the most vehement when it comes to upholding their customs. If their protests about being forced to move have been muted, the reasons are varied. It's partly because the community is so small that it has no political godfathers, and the Chinese are still viewed by Indians as foreigners. Many who had lived in India for decades were only given Indian citizenship about five years ago.
Another reason for the acquiescence is the community's attitude. "It's one of our characteristics that when things get impossible, we get going," Mr Chung says. "That's why we're known as nomads. We don't make any noise or fuss - we just leave."
Despite being ultra-conservative, the Hakka Chinese are known for their tendency to migrate, even to the most remote parts of the world. One anecdote has it that the northern-most restaurant in the world, closest to the Arctic, is Chinese and run by a Hakka.
The Chinese presence in India dates back to the fifth century when traders, Buddhist monks and imperial envoys came to the different Indian kingdoms. The first was the Buddhist monk Fa Hien, who travelled to Bodhgaya, where Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment. On his return home, he wrote an account of his pilgrimage, which in later centuries inspired other Chinese to follow in his footsteps.
In about 1830, a Chinese-born Vietnamese envoy to Bengal, Li Van Phuc, met Chinese residents in Calcutta. He put the number at several hundreds and described the people as very poor. Most had come from Fujian and Guangdong.
The first Chinese settler in Calcutta was Young Atchew, in about 1780. He tried to set up a sugar mill but lost his grip on the business because of inadequate funds and unskilled labour. Following his death, his associates and workmen remained and their numbers were augmented when sailors from a Chinese ship abandoned their vessel and opted to stay in the city.
With every fresh influx, the community renewed its cultural links with "Mother China" and maintained its distinct identity and separateness.
The second round of migration was precipitated by Mao Zedong's revolution - most were Cantonese. They settled along Chitpore Road and near Chhatawala Gully in north Calcutta. A labyrinth of noodle kitchens, Chinese homes and opium dens was born.
Despite being permanently settled in India, the 1962 war between India and China sparked tremors of anxiety among the Chinese in Calcutta and elsewhere (there are a handful of Chinese families in every major Indian city, but the total number is estimated at 9,000).
The war was brief and bloody, and confined to the border, but it left Indians feeling betrayed and humiliated; many Chinese with a Chinese passport had to register with the authorities, and some were detained. But this was a brief interlude. Life soon returned to normal and the Chinese continued the professions with which they had become associated. Ask an Indian woman who cuts her hair and she will invariably give a Chinese name. Ask an affluent Indian consumer where he buys good hand-made shoes, and the answer will be a Chinese shoemaker.
Dentistry, carpentry and teaching were other popular professions. But it was leather that quickly became the chief trade of the Hakka community because the Chinese were able to skirt Hindu taboos about working with the skins of the sacred cow. Only low-caste Hindus tan leather. Upper caste Hindus would rather chop their hands off.
Of course, the tanneries have added their quota of filth to a city notorious for dirt and decay. And while the narrow alleyways of Chinatown do have heavily polluted water running through them, appearances are deceptive. Behind high walls or in the deep recesses of factories built like miniature fortresses, wealthy families live in palaces.
The tanneries are the heart of Chinatown. Once they move out, the enclave's oxygen supply will be choked. Some owners are not moving to Bantala. "I'm too old to start again. I have neither the money nor the energy," says Patrick Chew, 53, at his half-century-old tannery. "My sons aren't interested in this business. They're on their way to Canada and Australia."
If there is one thing that might save Chinatown from going the way of the Indian tiger, it is the Calcuttan passion for Chinese food. They are widely considered the best in the country.
Many tannery owners are moving their leather business to Bantala and transforming their cavernous tanneries into restaurants. John Lee's tannery is now called Hot Wok. "I know the people of this city love Chinese food. So instead of losing a tannery, we turned it into a modern restaurant."
Chen Khoi Kui, secretary of the Chinese Tannery Owners' Association, is another staying put in Tangra to open a restaurant. "I realised I had to diversify," he says. "There is a lot of potential here. Tannery owners can develop shopping plazas, nursing homes or pharmacies."
Mr Kui's three children have stayed on in India, although they went abroad for a higher education. He was born in Calcutta. He says although the Chinese in India, like Chinese all over the world, are basically insular - living by the dictum "we don't want to know about your business and don't ask about ours" - their emotional bond with India is strong.
"I will never leave. This is my motherland. No other place in the world can give me this feeling," says Mr Kui.
XXXXX
Interesting bits from the above article:
The people of Calcutta - the only Indian city with a Chinese enclave - are worried about the impact of this drastic move on their precious Chinatown.
--
About seven years ago, there were 20,000 Hakka Chinese in Calcutta. It was a vibrant community, with its own schools, social clubs and newspapers. Now there are closer to 7,000. The younger ones, underwhelmed by the idea of a career in tanning, have moved to Canada, the US and Australia.
--
"The Lee Club used to be alive with all sorts of activities. Now it's deserted. All the young do is dream of settling in developed countries."
--
"You know, in Tangra, we speak the purest form of Hakka anywhere in the world," he says. "Even in its original home, it has been diluted by infiltrating dialects. But here the only two non-Hakka words are the Hindi accha good and aloo potato ."
--
If there is one thing that might save Chinatown from going the way of the Indian tiger, it is the Calcuttan passion for Chinese food. They are widely considered the best in the country.
--
"I will never leave. This is my motherland. No other place in the world can give me this feeling," says Mr Kui.
XXXXX
It’s a shame that India doesn’t develop faster so that the young Chinese wouldn’t have to emigrate to the US, Canada and Australia.
Has any of the Indian Hakkas been to your World-wide Hakka Meetings?
Has anyone bothered to digitally record the “purest” Hakka speech? With computers and the like someone should do it and put it out on CD-ROM. It shouldn’t be too expensive since everyone has PCs with recordable CD-ROM and DVD drives now.
It’s a shame that the Hakkas have left India. But, it’s good that they were able to relocate to the US, Canada and Australia.
And it's obvious that Mr. Kui loves his “motherland” of India. :-)
Kobo-Daishi, PLLA.
From http://www.asiawind.com/forums/read.php?f=1&i=6527&t=6527 |
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