There was a time when the mention of the Chinese-Pakistani brought to mind those rows of Chinese dentists’ shops in Karachi’s Saddar area or the many Chinese restaurants dotted around the city with pretty red lanterns producing soft light. They all came to settle in Karachi as it was a business city full of opportunities.

But today, though the dentists’ shops are still around, most of the Chinese dentists themselves, having sold off their practices to local practitioners, have left for greener pastures. Visit a Chinese dentist’s shop today and you’ll usually find no Chinese person there. You will be informed that it is still very much his clinic but he is vacationing in the US, Canada or Australia. The mythical ‘he’ always seems to be on vacation though.

The four or five Chinese dentists who are still around refuse to speak to anyone looking to get their views on anything other than dentist-patient talk. “We don’t want to make statements, which may seem like political statements,” says one near Bohri Bazaar.

That leaves the restaurants. Well, believe it or not, most Chinese restaurants here also have been sold to Pakistanis, who run them the best way they know how to while others have also shut down.  

Chinese-Pakistanis are hopeful of making new connections with those arriving to work on CPEC projects in Pakistan

Still, there are a handful of Chinese businesses still running whose owners also have no qualms about airing their views. They say they are glad to be around and experience the fresh wave of Chinese arriving in Pakistan because of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Joseph Yu of the popular China Town restaurant says that CPEC would prove beneficial for all Pakistanis, of course, though the ones of Chinese descent will enjoy the presence of Chinese visitors somewhat more because they happen to speak the same language and enjoy the same kind of food as them.

“It’s like how a Pakistani living in the United States for years would feel on seeing more Pakistanis moving into his surroundings. So obviously we are very happy. We welcome it,” says Yu. “You can do so many things to welcome them such as cook their favourite dishes,” he says, pointing out that his chef at the restaurant has studied food sciences and is a graduate from the Sichuan University in China.

“Most Chinese-Pakistanis can speak Mandarin. Having been born in Pakistan, I am a first generation Chinese so I can speak Urdu and English. But I am also fluent in Mandarin so getting along won’t be a problem for me,” he says.

About his own family and how they came to settle in Pakistan, Yu says that his father was a merchant in the 1930s, who would bring silk fabric from Shangdong to what is now known as Pakistan through the Silk Route. “My father brought silk here and from the money he got after selling it, he bought and took cotton back to China. That’s how the trade went on,” the son explains.

"It’s like how a Pakistani living in the United States for years would feel on seeing more Pakistanis moving into his surroundings ... You can do so many things to welcome them, such as cook their favourite dishes.”

Frequent trips to the new territory allowed him to interact with a few other like-minded Chinese. Together they decided that Pakistan could be a suitable place to settle down. They joined hands and opened a Chinese restaurant in Karachi, the first of its kind in Pakistan.

“They were some seven or eight of them who went into partnership for the restaurant, which they named ABC,” he says. “Sadly, the restaurant has been closed down. One by one, like falling wickets in a cricket match, the partners departed from this world. Soon there was no one left to run the restaurant so it closed down eventually,” he says.

“Now the old migrants to this country are also leaving one after the other. My Chinese-Pakistani friends leaving this country also often ask me why I am also not leaving, but I simply don’t have the desire to go. I was born here. I consider Pakistan my country,” he argues.

And yet, Yu feel a sense of isolation with his cousins, too, now having moved abroad. “But just like spring follows autumn, there is now going to be a fresh new wave of Chinese people coming to Pakistan because of their work. I am so looking forward for that to happen,” he adds.

Peng Qureshi is another Pakistani of Chinese descent who has made this country her home. “I came to Pakistan in 1979. I was 23 years old then,” she smiles. “I have a son and a daughter, who are half-Pakistani. My son is married to a nice Pakistani girl. She is [renowned beautician] Mussarat Misbah’s daughter. They are settled in Lahore. I also have a little granddaughter, Zoya whom I call by her Chinese name ‘Zoe’. I teach her Chinese,” she says.

“I speak Mandarin and Cantonese because in Malaysia and Singapore, we speak a lot of Cantonese,” she says, adding that she is Malaysian-Chinese. “But my grandfathers were from Canton in China.” She explains that both of her grandfathers — her father’s father and her mother’s father — had migrated to Malaysia when young. “Back then, there was a kind of CPEC-like attraction going on there, which had its own pull,” she laughs.

Peng, whose maiden name is Foong Yin Peng, came to Pakistan 38 years ago when she met her husband. About the new Chinese coming to Pakistan as a result of CPEC, Peng believes that it would be very good for Pakistan, especially the Pakistani youth.

“Chinese, normally, are very hardworking people who never lose their focus. It is good to have a change here for our Pakistani youth in particular because I find them a bit slow, and not focused enough,” she says. “See, when the Chinese people come here and you work with them side-by-side, you too might get influenced by them. The hardworking spirit might rub off on you and you can become as disciplined as the Chinese.”  

“The Chinese say work till you die. Do not retire. If you retire, you get old very quickly,” she adds.

She also thought that the change would be great for business. “CPEC is all about trade and business. There will be lots of investment opportunities opening up in Pakistan with many private companies coming here, too,” she says. “Already, this girl keeps calling me from mainland China to know if I would be interested in marketing their products,” she laughs.

The writer is a member of staff.

She tweets @HasanShazia

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 12th, 2017