KOLKATA: The banners are up, the lion dancers are ready, but for many in Kolkata’s Chinese community, India’s largest, each Lunar New Year reunion brings mixed memories of the ebb and flow of family and friends.

Even after decades in India, the heartbreak of leaving China in search of a better life still hurts, said leather factory owner Liang Chen.

Now, Kolkata’s Chinatown faces more painful goodbyes, as it loses its own younger generation overseas, said Chen.

The local government’s relocation of polluting tanneries out of town broke up the leather tanning industry that was the lifeblood of the Chinese community.

Fierce competition from local manufacturers has hit those still in the industry, prompting many to move to Canada, Australia and even back to China.

The city’s ethnic Chinese population is estimated to have fallen from 20,000 in its heyday, to between 5,500-7,000 now.

Many of those who have decided to stay have turned their factories into Chinese restaurants, Chen said. He fears the changing economic tide might sweep away the community that he helped build.

Pessimism is no way to start the Lunar New Year, however.

The festival’s many customs, observed by millions of Chinese communities around the globe, all link back to the idea of inviting good fortune and prosperity, and chasing away bad luck.

For weeks, adults and children in Kolkata’s Chinatown, known as Tangra, have been rehearsing dragon dances, putting up red flags and banners, and repainting the rows of houses, factories and restaurants that run along its winding, dirty streets.

A day-long strike called by an ally of the ruling Communists in West Bengal on Wednesday and an outbreak of bird flu in the state that has led to poultry products being banned, have failed to dampen spirits, said locals keen to celebrate.

Lunar New Year is no time to be gloomy, said Liang Chen. “Now it is time to forget our worries and celebrate,” he said.

—Reuters