'Sun Nien Fai Lok' of Tiger

"You want your cities clean and green; stick to Delhi. You want your cities, rich and impersonal; go to Bombay. You want them high-tech and full of draught beer; Bangalore’s your place. But if you want a city with a soul, come to Calcutta." – Vir Sanghvi

Let's start with a poem. It has two of the most famous Bengalis associated with it. I guess all of us Bengali speaking people must have read it somewhere. When Satyajit Ray was a little child, he went to Shanti Niketan. Tagore wrote a poem for him and said, you will understand its meaning someday when you are old enough:

বহু দিন ধ’রে বহু ক্রোশ দূরে

বহু ব্যয় করি বহু দেশ ঘুরে

দেখিতে গিয়েছি পর্বতমালা,

দেখিতে গিয়েছি সিন্ধু।

দেখা হয় নাই চক্ষু মেলিয়া

ঘর হতে শুধু দুই পা ফেলিয়া

একটি ধানের শিষের উপরে

একটি শিশিরবিন্দু।

There are many such dew drops which escaped my view till now. When you chase names, you lose on appreciating actual beauty. Recently, I have started understanding Kolkata as a ‘diaspora city’, a new world has opened in front of me. I don't have to travel far now to experience amazing grace now - the grace of nature, the grace of cultural amalgamation.

A ~500 meter walk from my residence takes you to the New China Town of Kolkata situated in Tangra, which is roughly 75 years old. Among the dwindling numbers of Chinese population left there still lives the spirit of the famed holy dragon. It reinvigorates more profusely once a year on the first day of the Chinese Lunar Year calendar.

This year, it is the - 'YEAR of the TIGER'. One should say Sun Nien Fai Lok to their fellow Kolkatans in Cantonese, to wish them new year greetings. But, before doing a deep dive into these festivities, let's read a story from the pages of ancient Chinese folklore first.

Wing ta lao wo chey:

… and the tale to be told, begins thus -

Once upon a time long long ago, China was ruled by - the Jade Emperor. He was popular as the first god or, the Heavenly Grandfather. One day, the Emperor decided to pick 12 best performing animals as his 'guards of time' and to reward each of them by awarding one year to their name. To rank the top performing 12 from first to last, he asked all animals to race till the Heavenly Gate.

The next day, all the animals joined the race. The RAT was an early riser. He started real early. But, on his way, he was blocked by a river. He didn't know how to swim. Hence, had to stop there. After a while came the OX. When he was crossing the river, the RAT jumped into OX's ear. The OX was a diligent fellow. He didn't mind. After crossing the river, they competed again and the RAT reached first with OX being a close second.

For the 3rd & 4th place competition was heating up. The TIGER was faster and he was a good swimmer too. But, the RABBIT was a smart and hard working fellow. He wouldn't just

give up. He got across the river by hopping on stepping stones and a floating log. But, he still couldn't beat the TIGER. The

TIGER ran a good race, faltered due to the current in the river and was sent it a little off-course. Still he competed bravely. Even with help from an unknown person (later revealed) the RABBIT couldn't reach before the TIGER. So, TIGER came third and RABBIT was fourth to reach.

The dashing DRAGON came fifth. He was a kind creature & could have reached earlier but,

stopped in between to go off route to extinguish a fire endangering the innocent lives. Once it got back on course, it saw the RABBIT struggling to cross river and used its breath to blow it safely to shore. The RABBIT never learned who came to its aid and the DRAGON was content to finish late.

When the DRAGON reached, the Jade Emperor took notice of his beauty and suggested to make his son sixth. But being lethargic the DRAGON's son didn't come with him that day. At the same time the HORSE was going to finish sixth. However, he hadn’t noticed that the SNAKE was saving energy by

wrapping itself around his leg to hitch a ride. With the finish line in sight, the SNAKE uncoiled itself and frightened the HORSE. The SNAKE also claimed to be the DRAGON's adoptive son to slither into sixth, leaving its carrier, the HORSE, to take seventh place.

In the meantime, there was a team bonding happening in between the SHEEP (or, some say it was a GOAT), the MONKEY and the ROOSTER. They piloted a small raft across the river. On the other side it

was a dash for the finish. The GOAT came eighth, followed by the MONKEY and ROOSTER in ninth and tenth place respectively.

The DOG was running ok too. Everyone thought he will finish earlier. But, once he reached the river, due to its playful nature it became more interested in splashing about in the river rather than crossing it and wasted a lot of time there. In the meantime

others kept overtaking it and finished earlier. When he was nudged back to his senses by the Jade Emperor, he started running again and eventually ended up in the 11th place.

The last one was the puckish PIG. He was even worse than the

DOG. He ate everything. So he kept stopping for food and then with a full belly became sleepy and dozed off. It somehow managed to wake and make it over the line in last place. At last these 12 animals became guards of time in the Heavenly Gate.

No CAT? Why So?

The CAT and RAT were neighbors. It asked the RAT, to keep him informed of when the race starts. But on that morning RAT left quietly without informing CAT. When CAT woke up the race was over. So they became mortal enemy. Some say this is not true. The CAT and RAT got as far as crossing the river together on OX's head, but RAT pushed CAT into the water. So it didn't get back to the Heavenly Gate in time. Who knows which version is true. Don't know how William Hanna & Joseph Barbera got wind of this animosity to create Tom and Jerry :D .

The Nomenclature

The is the year of the TIGER as I said before. 31st January 2022 being the chúxī – i.e. the day of family reunions and the 1st February the chūyī - i.e. the day of family visits or, Chinese New Year (CNY). It is also called the Spring Festival. Mostly, the CNY festival lasts for 16 days, starting from CNY’s eve to the Lantern Festival (I am yet to find its occurrence in Kolkata).

The places & the significances of various festive celebrations

The main attractions are the dragon dance and the lion dance. People in groups on the streets of Old and New China Town viz. around Tiretta Bazar in central Kolkata and in Tangra on the eastern fringe of the city respectively celebrate these days. Though the Chinese establishments have truncated significantly, still the young people hold energetic lion & dragon dances, going around the neighborhood. Public cultural programs are also organized with Kolkatans from all background, caste, creed or religion in attendance to enjoy the show.

Lion Dance

In Chinese mythology, lion is the representation of Joy, courage, stability, superiority and Happiness. Lion dances by masked performers accompanied with noise of crackers; music of beating drums, cymbals and gongs bring luck and to get rid of the devil. It is said this dance chases away ghosts and evil spirits. Every movement in this dance mimics various moods and demonstrate similar physical gestures allowing the Lion to look life-like combining art, history and kung Fu moves.

The dance is performed by two performers, one at the head of the lion, one at the tail of the lion. The head of the lion enhances vitality and longevity, while the tail sweeps away bad fortune and unpleasant things from last year. A mirror is attached to the head of the lion. Mirrors are believed to expel negative energy by reflecting it backwards. The climax of this dance is the "Cai Qing" or 'Picking the Green', followed by ‘the act of blessing’ by the lion (refer to the video links provided in 'The Experiences' section to see this specific actions in display).

Dragon Dance

Dragon represents wisdom, power and wealth. The movements in a dragon dance symbolizes historical roles of dragons demonstrating power and dignity. This dance is also known as longwu or, longdeng which is performed involving a team of performers using poles to rhythmically move a dragon prop. In China during the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). This dance was used to entertain foreign diplomats visiting the Chinese court. The dragon is considered to be one of the most auspicious creatures in Chinese culture. A dragon prop comprises the head, body and tail.

The body is usually divided into sections of odd numbers. By connecting these sections, the body of the dragon becomes flexible enough to twist and turn during a performance. When the performance starts, a man holding a long pole with a longzhu (dragon pearl) affixed to the top, stands in front of the dragon’s head. He swings the dragon pearl from side to side, while moving in tune to the sounds of the dragon drums or, longgu and accompanying music. The dragon, held by its many bearers, chases the pearl and attempts to capture it, but is never successful. And so the dance continues, with the dragon pearl teasing the dragon and the dragon showing off its antics while trying to catch it. Sometimes, the performance includes two to three dragons all chasing the same dragon pearl. As the dragon pearl eludes the dragons each time, the dance gets more complicated and impressive as the dragons appear to intertwine but are never entangled.

The Experiences

#1

Day: 31st January 2022

Time: 9:30 PM - 12:30 AM

Place: Area near Chinese Kali Temple, New Chinatown, Tangra.

Search in Map: Matheswartala Road, Tangra, Kolkata.

Event: Chúxī

Celebrations: Street Lion dance competition.

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Different dance groups were starting and ending from/at a temple hiding behind the lanes from the famous Chinese Kali temple. The procession lead through the streets, bringing joy and happiness to the people.

Respects were being paid to all temple and its deities located en route. Apart from the dance performers, there were fan bearers & the funny, smiling person or ‘uncle’. The UNCLE represents the God of Smiles. This ritual demonstrates how one should approach the ineffable - with good humor and dexterity. All the performances ended with Cai Qing and the act of blessing by the lion.

#2

Day: 1st February 2022

Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Place: Pou Chong Sauce KIM head quarter hotel, Old Chinatown, Tiretta Bazar.

Search in Map: 14/1 Chatawala Lane, Kolkata.

Event: Chūyī

Celebrations: Lion dance & Human Pyramid.

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At the beginning, it was quite e similar to last night. But, it had something additional - the "Human Pyramid Lion doing Cai Qing (picking the green)". We saw lettuce being used along with other food like chocolate which were tied to a piece of string which also has a red packet attached containing money. The string was hung above the door (from the first floor) while the lion was dancing on ground floor.

To reach the first floor height, a human pyramid was created with three layer of people. Then the large lion dress was laid over the human pyramid once it was stable. At climax the huge lion ate both the leaves and the red packet. All the while the musicians were playing a dramatic rolling crescendo. Then suddenly the lion exploded back into action again, spitting out the leaves, symbolizing ‘the act of blessing’ by the lion. Spitting out leaves signifies there will be an abundance of everything in the coming year.

Then the lion dancers went on the first floor, to a room to have customary gifts like oranges symbolizing wealth or tangerines symbolizing luck. They were preparing for further dance routines. We (myself and Arnab) had to leave without completely seeing this activity as it was getting late for office.

#3

Day: 4th February 2022

Time: 2:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Place: Pei May Chinese High School ground, New Chinatown, Tangra.

Search in Map: G9XR+85J, Tangra, Kolkata.

Event: Chinese Food Festival

Celebrations: Special cultural performances and an acrobatic Lion Dance.

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When I reached for the first time it was 2:30 PM-ish. The school ground was set up with food stalls and performance stage. But there were hardly 20 people. Food stalls were mostly empty of any items, the stage lighting was missing too. It was officially supposed to start at 2 PM. I glanced around to come to this conclusion - Indian Chinese follows BST (Bengali Standard Time) too :( i.e. as a society we are not really punctual about anything. The school ground was only 600 meters from my home. Hence, I returned back to join office.

My next venture was around 6:40 PM. This time, I made at right on time for the first cultural performance of the night - by the 'Innovation dance group'. They performed on the tunes on 'Om Mani Padme Hum'. Followed by some traditional Hindi movie song and dance performances. Then, there was a brief adjournment of activities due to sudden downpour for about 40 minutes.

In the meantime, I went around the food stalls to have my fill. There were some Chinese food stalls, some vegetarian food stalls and some more well known counters of Rolls, Kebab etc. I picked a Chinese food stall to try my luck with a plate of Shumai, a traditional Cantonese dumpling. I returned to the same stall again some 30 minutes later to try another type of fried dumplings. The payment was done only via coupons. No cash was allowed on food stalls. There was a separate coupon counter, one has to purchase coupons of value Rs 100/- or Rs 50/- from there with cash to be used at all the food stalls. I forgot to mention before that entry to the school ground was paid. Each individual had to purchase minimum of Rs 250/- coupons before entering from an outside counter. The coupon worth Rs 50/- was teared of by the checkers while entry. Rest Rs 200/- one can use to buy food from the stalls.

The final performance of this day was the most pleasing one (including 31st Jan, 1st Feb). A famous group called 'India Hong De' performed a 15 minutes long 'Acrobatic Lion Dance'. The whole set was started of by four lions each having two people in it. It quickly switched over from the stage to the nearby standing poles. This time two large lions were jumping over pole to pole in a coordinated way. The climax coincided with bursting of crackers and sky launched display of fire works to bring the night into a close.

I had unforgettable memories from my outings during these three days, in three different places, seeing another side of Kolkata. I blamed myself for not exploring these wonders so close to my home earlier. I promised myself to explore more about these cultures in future. Who knows, may be soon enough I would be updating this space with '#4'. Do check back after a week or so...

Update: [02/18/2022]

#4

Day: 13th February 2022

Time: Early morning till mid-noon (for me 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM)

Place: Bogong-Bopo temple and Memorial of Tong Atchew, Achipur, Budge Budge.

Search in Map: Budge Budge, Pujali M, West Bengal 7001389.

Event: Chinese New Year Visit to Ancestor's Temple

Celebrations: Prayers, cultural performances (this year - none) and burning of paper money.

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The following Sundays from the new year's day till the next Amavasya, the local Chinese populace of Kolkata visits their oldest temple near Budge Budge in Achipur to offer their prayers and celebrate for one last time. This year the celebrations were muted. Chinese families visited Achipur sporadically, no cultural performances were arranged due to the social distancing norm. I visited Achipur this year to cover the ancestor worship rituals. If interested one can read about it in details here. I was able to record the surroundings and some customs.

The Temple:

The Memorial of Atchew:

This marks the end of this year Chinese New Year celebration. I hope to cover another, someday in near future.

References:

1. Oxfeld, E. (1993). Blood, Sweat and Mahjong: Family And Enterprise in an Overseas Chinese Community.(The Anthropology of Contemporary Issues). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

2. The locals of Chinatown - Tangra and Tiretta Bazar.

3. Instagram page of Pou Chong Sauce KIM head quarter hotel for knowing event timings in old Chinatown.

4. YouTube channel of Globetrotter alpha (a local from Tangra Chinatown) for knowing event timings in new Chinatown.

5. Wikipedia.

6. স্ফুলিঙ্গ (Sfulingo - Spark) a book of poetry by Rabindranath Tagore.

7. Childhood Days: A Memoir - Satyajit Ray.