Chinese Calcuttawallah - (Edinburgh Studies on Diasporas and Transnationalism) by Kunaljeet Roy & Sukla Basu (Hardcover)

About the Book

​​​​​​Offers a comprehensive ethno-spatial study of the unique Chinatown landscapes of Kolkata.

Book Synopsis

By examining the everyday geographies of ethnic identity, place-making and cultural landscape transformations, as well as tracing the root of the Chinese community's origin through cartographic and archival records, this book depicts multi-cultural landscape formation in Kolkata (Calcutta). The authors capture how Kolkata's vibrant Chinese community has uniquely shaped the 'twin Chinatowns' amidst the city's diverse urban tapestry and gradually modified the adjacent cultural landscape towards a 'little China'. As these neighbourhoods encounter modern challenges of gentrification and global connectivity, the book explores the ways in which the community, particularly its youth, navigates the complexities of maintaining a transnational identity while being deeply rooted in the local cultural milieu. From the continuous ebb and flow of migration to the fostering of hybrid identities, this analysis examines how these transformations impact community cohesion and cultural heritage.

Featuring poignant individual case studies from Indian-Chinese respondents, the book examines issues such as identity, preservation efforts and the effects of socio-economic changes. Research techniques like adopting visual ethnographic 'streetscape' and cognitive 'emotional' cartography depict the everyday geography of the 'twin Chinatowns', illustrating how these communities claim their spaces and build connections on a global scale. Kunaljeet Roy and Sukla Basu reconnect with the essence of Kolkata's Chinese community and showcase how they navigate the challenges of a globalised world while holding onto the threads of heritage that define them as a 'Chinese Calcuttawallah'.

Review Quotes

The work carried out by Kunaljeet Roy and Sudra Basu, by associating the different spaces in the construction of the identity of the Chinese community from India, invites us to a better understanding of this overseas Chinese population in the context of contemporary India. The resolutely geographical approach is part of a humanities and social sciences approach that helps to qualify what are often overly generalised statements about overseas Chinese communities.--Catherine Guéguen, Espace, Nature et Culture, Paris-Sorbonne University

Based on ethnographic observations, Roy and Basu portray vividly the picture of the rarely studied Chinese communities in Calcutta/Kolkata and their changes overtime: migration and settlement, economic activities and occupational profiles, community organizations and ethnic identity, and the impacts of geopolitics, making it a good reading for research and education purposes.--Wei Li, Arizona State University