{"id":95919,"date":"2017-06-16T06:05:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T10:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oncubamagazine.com\/?p=95919"},"modified":"2018-10-04T13:06:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T17:06:38","slug":"returning-to-havanas-chinatown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/society-cuba\/returning-to-havanas-chinatown\/","title":{"rendered":"Returning to Havana\u2019s Chinatown\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Faded Chinese letters adorn the facades of buildings in Havana\u2019s Chinatown.\u00a0 On the streets below, Cubans dressed in faux Chinese costumes compete to entice customers into restaurants dazzlingly decorated with red lanterns and gold trimmings.\u00a0 Yet strangely, no Chinese people are to be seen.<\/p>\n

Like the rest of Cuba, Havana\u2019s Chinatown has gone through massive upheaval in the last century.\u00a0 Once home to one of the largest Chinese populations in the Western hemisphere, Cuba now has only about 110 native-born Chinese people. Yet although the Chinese population has dwindled to almost nothing, Chinese culture is thriving in Havana\u2019s \u201cChinatown without Chinese.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chinatown is a tourist hotspot.\u00a0 Many stores and bakeries still retain Chinese-derived names left over from previous owners, though most sell mainly Cuban products and desserts, like flan or tres leches.\u00a0 <\/em>Some of the \u201cChinese\u201d restaurants actually serve Italian food.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all the Chinese people left, the Cuban government kept the exteriors and filled the restaurants they left behind with Cuban people,\u201d said Pedro Eng, an octogenarian Chinese Cuban.\u00a0 \u201cThe Cubans learned to make some version of Chinese food using the ingredients they had, or they made whatever else they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Omairy Lorenzo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At Chinatown\u2019s height in 1875, more than 40,000 people of Chinese descent lived in Cuba. Many were descendants of the 125,000 Chinese indentured servants who were brought to Cuba to work on sugar plantations in the 1850\u2019s. Others came during the early 20th<\/sup> century, fleeing upheaval in China.\u00a0 They opted for Cuba because US laws restricted Chinese immigration.<\/p>\n

Many of the Chinese intermarried with Cubans and opened restaurants and small businesses, including Chinese-language newspapers and theaters.\u00a0 After the government completed the process of mass nationalization in 1968, almost all of these Chinese left, and their businesses closed.<\/p>\n