Helpful, friendly Hangzhou

Rohit Mahajan

THE daughter of Dr Zhang Chun Yan is thrilled at the sight of this Indian in Hangzhou. “She loves India and wants to meet you,” says Zhang, director of China Design Museum at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. The little girl, evidently, hasn’t been indoctrinated to dislike nations or people or ideologies. She’s seen the forts and palaces of Jaipur and the Taj Mahal in Agra and is glad to meet someone who’s come from there.

Zhang has visited India and has friends in arts schools and museums there, and fluently speaks about the art of Rabindranath Tagore or the philosophy of design of Le Corbusier. Her daughter being an Indophile is not too surprising. But in general, too, in Hangzhou, it doesn’t appear that the Chinese people think that Indians are their enemies.

In stadiums and trains, at venues and at malls, it appears that the Chinese people are excited by the sight of visitors from India — little children smile and point fingers at you and want to take a selfie; young adults test and practise their English language skills by engaging you in conversation. When you seek directions to a stadium or a restaurant, people stop and make efforts to help you.

Other visitors from India for the Asian Games confirm that this is the essence of their experiences, too. They say the Chinese people have been very polite to them and have gone out of their way to help — even walking a kilometre to lead strangers to a stadium or a hotel.

It’s as if all the people we come across at the Asian Games here have been instructed to be nice and polite to all visitors from across Asia. Perhaps they’re all trained to be nice and friendly with foreigners? You could be forgiven for thinking that maybe in a Big Brother state, people from various segments of society could be, at the flick of a switch, made to behave in a certain way with certain people.

You, thus, turn to people of your own kind who have been living in this country for decades — and whose experiences might vary from yours.

Vishal Jain moved to Hangzhou in 2002, soon after getting a degree in the US, to set up an office for his family’s textile business. “I’ve not had a single bad experience here,” says Jain, born and bred in Mumbai. “I came here for just a little while to set up an office, and it’s been 21 years already! Whenever I’m in Mumbai, I start missing Hangzhou and want to come back.”

Chandigarh’s Gaurav Chadha, a Hangzhou resident for two decades, says the two cities are similar. “Life is beautiful here,” says Chadha, who runs a textile trading company. “It’s a tourist kind of place, like Shimla, and the pace of life is slow. People like foreigners to visit their city.” Chadha, 47, says life in bigger cities such as Shanghai is hectic. “It’s like Mumbai, where people don’t have any time for you,” says Chadha. “But in the hills or in Chandigarh, you’re going to meet people who are more relaxed and would be willing to talk with you and help you, if you need it.”

In a city of over 1.2 crore people, Indians in Hangzhou are just like a drop in a sea — just about 200 of them! One of them is Mona Bapna, originally from Mumbai, who moved to Hangzhou 20 years ago. “The people of China are very polite, kind and respectful, especially to foreigners,” says Mona, who has been running an Indian restaurant here for seven years. “I have not heard of a single case of racism here,” says Mona. “You see, in the US or Europe, we all have been in uncomfortable situations, facing racism. But not here. In fact, you find that the Chinese people have a lot of respect for Indians — often more than they have for people from the US or Europe.”

This, she says, was quite evident at the peak of the Covid pandemic; their animus for the West, she said, was in reaction to ‘western propaganda’ against China.

Since the Beijing Olympics, it seems the Chinese people have become friendly and helpful. “No, that’s not so — they were always friendly,” says Mona. “It’s just that now, due to technology and smartphones, they can actually communicate with foreigners.” They were not rude earlier — they just could not understand English.

But surely, there must be some hatred for India, due to the tense situation at the border? “No, the average Chinese person doesn’t care,” says Jain. “They don’t talk about the past, they don’t talk about what happens between politicians. They just want to work hard and succeed. They have bigger issues — they want to grow big, to prosper. They don’t think or talk about India.” 

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