Chinese whispers say Kannada, Chini 'bhai bhai'

When the world was celebrating love on February 14, Chung Hung Lim and the members of his small community were far away from the city’s humdrum at a resort in Attibele. They were busy celebrating the Chinese new year.

Robert Chung, as Lim is also called, belongs to the small Chinese community in the city. “The new year was celebrated with pomp,” he says. “We are a small community in Bangalore. Some went on an outing to celebrate the day, some continued to work.”
Robert owns Kim Lee restaurant in the city. His family is one of the 120 Chinese families residing in Bangalore for the last three generations.

Interestingly, the third-generation Chinese (children today) do not speak Chinese. They are rather more fluent in Kannada, English and Hindi. The second generation could only speak Chinese, unlike the first, which could both read and write.

The current dialect is also very different from the one their ancestors spoke. “Children today do not understand the language when spoken at home,” says Robert.

Chinese new year is not the only festival the community celebrates. You may have seen beautiful lanterns hanging outside some homes in August and also tasted yummy moon cakes. Chinese make lanterns and hang them outside their homes and distribute moon cakes as part of the Lantern Festival. Some also fly kites, as is done in China.

Yang Yenethaw, the speaker for the Chinese Association in Bangalore, says not much is known about the community. “This is because we are a small community in Bangalore,” Yenethaw, who is also called Tony Yong, says. Yenethaw is a lawyer with Yang Lawyers, a corporate law firm. His father, CH Yong, moved to Bangalore “for fun” in 1933 and since then he has made the city his home. Traditionally, Chinese men in Bangalore have been known to be shoe makers and dentists, while women are known to be hair dressers. Today, they have moved into various professions.

Four years ago, the community had requested the state government to give them land to bury their deceased in the traditional way. “But nothing has come from the government as yet,” Yang says.

Like any other culture, the Chinese culture has also undergone a lot of change over the years, says Lawrence Liang, a lawyer at Alternative Law Forum. Since Chinese believe in ancestral worship, a cross and a portal is found in every home. “This does not mean that we suffer identity crisis,” he says. “We feel at home here; we can adapt to our surroundings easily,” he says. “Also, we like the climate here.”