The Oldest Chinatown in South Asia

India has a long history of commercial and cultural contacts with mainland China. Chinese communities had, therefore (mostly temporarily) settled in different ports along the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea since at least the early centuries of the Common Era. However, the socio-cultural space that we now call “Chinatown”, emerged globally as a result of the large-scale migration of Chinese communities in the 18th century, especially from South China. These migrations were brought about by a rapidly weakening central authority, and a sharp decline in the economy. The expansion of European maritime commercial network in the South China Sea opened up new opportunities for trade and for seeking newer, lucrative markets in other parts of Asia and the world.

Calcutta, the fledgling capital of East India Company’s territories in India was probably the oldest of all Chinatowns situated outside Southeast Asia that came up during this period. Commercially, Calcutta had a lucrative market for Chinese products like tea, silk, and porcelain. A narrow, winding street adjacent to the Armenian Church in Calcutta is still known as Old Chinabazaar Street and is reminiscent of this early demand of Chinese goods in the city. We find regular advertisements in Hicky’s Gazette about the arrival of ships from Canton and sale of “China goods”.

Turnbull, MacIntyre and Dawley begs leave respectfully to acquaint the ladies and gentlemen of Calcutta, that their investment of China goods imported in the Rumbold, is not exposed to sell for ready money, and upon the most reasonable terms, at the house formerly occupied by Mr. Slight near the court house.

Hicky’s Bengal Gazette or the Original Calcutta General Advertiser, No. XIII (April 1781)

The Temple of Tu Ti Kong or the Spirit of the Land in Achipur. This is the oldest surviving Taoist temple in India established in 1778 when the first Chinese settlers arrived in Bengal.

From the available information from the documents and oral traditions among the Chinese community in Kolkata it appears that the first Chinese settlement came up in a hamlet named Achipur, near Budge Budge (Bugee Bugee in early Colonial writing), 33 km south of Calcutta. Achipur gets its name from Ah Chew (Atchew, in British sources), the founder of this settlement who arrived in Calcutta from Guandong province in 1778. Ah Chew or Yang Dazhao (Daijang) was a tea trader, and in exchange of the tea he brought with him, he received a land grant (about 650 acres for Rupees 45 annual rent) from Governor General Warren Hastings to settle down at Achipur. Ah Chew set up a sugarcane plantation and a sugar mill, and he brought labourers from Guandong to work in his plantation and the mill. Thus a small Chinese settlement came up along with a Chinese temple, which is still visited by the remaining Calcutta Chinese community during the Chinese New Year. Ah Chew, would remain in Achipur until his death in 1783 but and it appears from a petition he filed with the Governor General’s Council in 1781 that Calcutta’s Chinese diaspora then mainly consisted of runaway sailors. Ah Chew estate was finally sold off in 1804 and the community it appears, had soon entirely abandoned Achipur visiting the temple and Ah Chew’s grave, only on special occasions.

Yang Dazhao (Daijang) or Tong Ah Chew’s grave by the river in Achipur. The Calcutta Chinese community still frequently visit his tomb to pay homage.

The Chinese diaspora that settled in Calcutta’s Old Chinatown in Tiretta Bazar in the late 18th century were from different districts of Fujian and Canton. These communities were specialized carpenters, cabinet makers, opium dealers and iron-workers, and their skills were in demand in Calcutta port and among the European households in the city. The second wave of migration arrived with the Hakka Chinese in the 1850s, displaced by the Punti-Hakka Wars (1856–67) and the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64). The Hakka Chinese initially settled in the Old Chinatown and became famous as cobblers and leather workers, opening shoe stores along Bentinck Street and Bowbazar. In 1910 the first Chinese-run tannery was established in Tangra (in South Kolkata) which became lucrative during the World War I, due to an increased wartime demand in leather. This resulted in the relocation of the Hakka Chinese population to Tangra. The Old Chinatown saw the arrival of a large refugee population from South China in the 1930s and 1940s due to the Japanese Invasion, Second World War and the post-war civil war between Kuomintang and Mao’s Communists. The Calcutta Chinese community in general and in Old Chinatown, in particular, went on a steady decline since the Sino-Indian War in 1961–62. During the war, many were deported to China, or sent to the internment camp at Deoli in Rajasthan.

The Toong On Temple in Kolkata’s Old Chinatown. The original temple and community centre was enhanced into this red-brick neo-classical influenced structure by the Au family who started the Nanking Restaurant on its ground floor. The community centre and the temple continued to exist on first floor. Nanking became an incredibly posh and the most famous Chinese restaurant in the city with a clientele that boasted British Civil Servants in high positions, cricketers, and movie stars. There were a couple of set backs for the restaurant post independence, finally shutting down in the late 1970s. This magnificent structure lay largely vacant now (Photo: Rohan Shyam Chowdhury).

The general economic decline of Calcutta also resulted in the emigration of the newer generation for greener pastures in Europe, North America, and Australia. Now the Old Chinatown is home to about 1000 Calcutta Chinese who carry the legacy of the world’s oldest Chinatown outside Southeast Asia. Several Chinese temples still survive where these communities worship the patron deities of War and Craftsmanship, along with the deities of their ancestral village in Guandong province. A handful of the older members still regularly meet at huiguan (Chinese community centres) over games of Mahjong.

Mahjong in progress inside the Gee Hing Club on Sunday morning. The game is dying a slow death among the young generation Chinese in Kolkata because Mahjong blocks are not produced in India. It is expensive to import a new set has to be imported from Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore or San Francisco. (Photo: Rohan Shyam Chowdhury).

Here’s a Bengali Language documentary (with English Subtitles) that we made through Heritage Walk Calcutta around the Chinese New Year in February 2018, on the Chinese Community in the city.

Heritage Walk Calcutta run’s one Chinatown Walk every month. Here’s an interactive map, if you want to visit the oldest Chinatown in South Asia on your own: