Hyderabad, January 27: By tradition and culture, they may be Chinese. But they are very much Indian or typical Hyderabadis when it comes to their lifestyles. At a time when Gen-X is more interested in hakka noodles or Schezwan rice, Chinese in Hyderabad prefer daal-chawal or Hyderabadi biryani in their meal.
“I love being called a Hyderabadi as I am born and brought up here. I never visited China in my lifetime. I do speak Chinese and follow the traditions taught by our forefathers, but I am a true Hyderabadi,” said SY Liu, president, Hyderabad Overseas Chinese Friendship Association (HOCFA), who also owns Nanking, the oldest Chinese restaurant in the City. The 53-year-old restaurant was started by his father.
The HOCFA is the only Chinese association in the twin cities. Established in 1997, the association celebrates two major festivals — Chinese Spring festival in January and February and Moon festival in September. Apart from that, they take part in all local festivals.
“I very much celebrate Chinese festivals. We recently celebrated our New Year. Every year, the New Year celebrations take place at my farm house. We have the Dragon dance, firecrackers and lip-smacking dishes like chicken chow with vegetables, fish dumplings in grass noodle soup, sticky rice cake, prawn crackers and more. It’s a special dinner for us and members from the association join us during the festivities” adds, SY Liu.
There are around 50 to 60 families consisting of 250 to 300 people. “Most of us are self-employed and run our own restaurants. We shut the restaurants for one day to celebrate the festival. It is not easy to take time out for week-long celebrations,” he says.
“Our relationship with the City can be traced back four to five generations. We celebrate Indian festivals like Diwali, Holi and Dussera etc in a big way compared to our Chinese festivals. Many youngsters from our community who are settled in Hyderabad cannot read or write Chinese. They are more fluent with the local languages,” said Alex, owner of the famous City Chinese restaurant, Alex’s Kitchen and Secretary of HOCFA.
Many of them own restaurants such as Nanking, Haiking and Chung Hua, apart from shoe and beauty parlour businesses. Quite a few have entered into inter-racial marriages with Hyderabadis. One third of the families converse in their mother tongue and the rest speak Hindi or English at home. Today, the children of the current generation are working in the IT sector and BPOs.
——-Agencies