The many flavours of China

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Presence of the community is slowly fading from the city''s social fabric</span><br /><br />The Chinese New Year is on in full swing. Just that, from a 15,000 plus strong community, there aren''t too many Chinese left in Kolkata to celebrate it the way it was even 15 years ago.Recalls Yeh Chi Yen, vice president of Huan Bao Tanneries Council, "It used to be a huge affair. We would visit a large number of families in the Tangra area. Now, we celebrate on a smaller scale." According to Yen, there has been an exodus of the community for academic and professional pursuits to USA and Canada. <br /><br />The splendor associated with the Chinese new year celebrations no longer exists. The parades, the lion and the dragon dances (believed to keep away bad luck) aren''t performed anymore. "Many of the quaint customs are no longer followed but we try to maintain the spirit of the New Year," added Yen. <br /><br />But China is much beyond the Chinese community in the city. You will find different flavours of China in the bylanes of the city even today. Chinese cuisine, mushrooming restaurants, shoes, hairdressing salons, feng shui and even the popular Chinese dentists have been a part of the city''s culturescape for years. <br /><br />Even today, out of every ten restaurants which open in the city, at least two are Chinese. "The profit margin is substantially more in a Chinese restaurant. The ingredients are easily available and people here have a huge passion for Chinese food," said Ricky Dewan, owner of a chain of Chinese restaurants in the city. He added, "Even Chinese cuisine has come a long way. With Mongolian and Thai cuisine gaining popularity, Chinese food has become a part of an Oriental package where people are willing to experiment," he added. <br /><br />A large number of Chinese-owned tanneries are situated in Tangra and, of course, there is still the craze for Chinese shoes. Only that, the authentic chrome leather, customised, hand-made shoes are becoming increasingly rare as hardly any skilled Chinese workers live in the city today. The dwindling community has left its mark everywhere. The Timai Chinese High school in Tangra, which would bustle with 1000 students, has about 50 students today. Even the tanneries have been asked to shift from Tangra. As a result, many of their Chinese owners have decided to sell them off. <br /><br />Confessed a 40-year-old Tom Lai who works in an advertising agency, "Ours is a much fragment community over here. We have several sects within the community which are quite different from one another. Most of us have moved away from our traditional family businesses or have migrated abroad. "<br /><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">madhurima.nandy@timesgroup.com</span></div> </div>