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Sweetly, simply Chinese
Chinese restaurants, Chinese cuisine and Chinese beauty tips? what would Lucknow be without them? Chung Fa Restaurant, Jone Hingh Beauty Parlour, Rajuma Dentist? are almost landmarks in Lucknow and that?s not just for the Chinese who have made the city their home since the last sixty years. Dr Rajuma and Jude Yep are household names.
Chinese restaurants, Chinese cuisine and Chinese beauty tips… what would Lucknow be without them? Chung Fa Restaurant, Jone Hingh Beauty Parlour, Rajuma Dentist… are almost landmarks in Lucknow and that’s not just for the Chinese who have made the city their home since the last sixty years. Dr Rajuma and Jude Yep are household names.
Actually, there are only 12 Chinese families in Lucknow but that number’s hardly any reflection of their contribution.
Any party, be it for a marriage ceremony or birthday celebrations, is incomplete without Chinese food—chowmein, manchurian, chicken chilly, fried rice, hakka chow, chopsy et al. The soups etc are just so much part of the Lucknow menu now.
“The Chinese have given the city a new fashion push. They have introduced a new sense of syle in the traditional city like Lucknow,” says Jude Yep who runs a famous beauty parlour in the area of Mahanagar.
The first beauty partlour in the city was set up by the Chinese. They were the ones who taught the A,B,C of fashion to the residents of City of Nawabs.
“We were the ones who brought the women out of their veils and told them that they look beautiful without the veil too. We taught them the table and cuisine culture,” says a member of the Chinese community.
Dr Wu Maishin, a practising physician says most of the Chinese in the city are well off. They are either doctors, dental experts, restaurant owners or beauty parlour owners.
He said, “Many Chinese families have migrated to Canada in search of better prospects. Some years back there were nearly 50 Chinese families in the city but most of them have left for Canada.”
On celebrations of festivals by the community he said, “We celebrate only one festival that is the Chinese New Year, with great zeal and enthusiasm. We assemble at a spot with the community members and enjoy the festivities. We prepare special Chinese meals and celebrate. For the rest of year we are not able to meet each other as every one remains busy in work.”
Maishin says, “The Chinese are basically hard working people who just want to live a simple life. They just want to live and let live.”
Regarding the language he says, “We are much more fluent in Hindi than in Chinese, although we can understand Chinese but can’t speak it that well. We are proud to speak Hindi as other Indians.”
Most of the young Chinese have little knowledge of old tradition as they started converting to Christianity earlier we used to follow the Buddhism he added.
Another member of Chinese community says, “The young Chinese boys and girls are more ambitious but still marry within their community. They are not hesitant to marry outside their communities but still it’s rare. Most of the Chinese find partners amongst the Chinese people residing in other parts of India Like Kolkata, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and parts of West Bengal.
The Chinese community members have no association or a body which could arrange meetings and increase dialogue between the Chinese families. The 12 Chinese families are living in different corners of the city. They don’t have any community center of a place of their own for the community members. As the job opportunities in the city are decreasing with each passing day in the city the Chinese community members are going abroad in the search of greener pastures.
