New Year brings mixed emotions for Kolkata Chinese

By Bappa Majumdar

KOLKATA (Reuters) - The banners are up, the lion dancers are ready, but for many in Kolkata's Chinese community, India's largest, each Lunar New Year reunion brings mixed memories of the ebb and flow of family and friends.

Even after decades in India, the heartbreak of leaving China in search of a better life still hurts, said leather factory owner Liang Chen, his eyes moist with tears.

"It was sad to leave so many close ones back home for many of us," said Chen, who moved to the city in West Bengal with his family shortly after the Second World War.

Now, Kolkata's Chinatown faces more painful goodbyes, as it loses its own younger generation overseas, said Chen.

The local government's relocation of polluting tanneries out of town broke up the leather tanning industry that was the lifeblood of the Chinese community.

Fierce competition from local manufacturers has hit those still in the industry, prompting many to move to Canada, Australia and even back to China.

The city's ethnic Chinese population is estimated to have fallen from 20,000 in its heyday, to between 5,500-7,000 now.

Many of those who have decided to stay have turned their factories into Chinese restaurants, Chen said.