A Bite of the Big Apple

Let’s move on to the bigger plate. Compared to the six Indian restaurants, there are 17 Chinese ones listed in the survey; four of them among the top choices, in four different cities. There are dozens of other restaurants in the list that offer Pan Asian fare, mixture of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, which should take the Chinese list to 40.

There is, however, one small consolation for the overzealous Indian food fan or political hawk: There is no Chinese restaurant listed in the DC area, the nerve-centre of US politics.

It’s a point that with more Chinese restaurants compared to Indian ones, and a population of more than 2.7 million compared to around 1.9 million Indians, Chinese Americans are bound to score in cuisine. But this 4:1 ratio gets carried over to many fields. Says Rajiv Khanna, President of the India-America Chamber, New York: ‘‘The Chinese put in 80 per cent of the China’s FDI stack, the Indians put in only 20 per cent.” Prod him further on the possible reason, the reply is curt: ‘‘There is no known case of a Chinese losing money in an FDI in China, there is no known case of an Indian making money investing in India.’’

Interestingly, American Indians boast the highest per capita income among all the communities in the US. For all those who came to New York, Jackson Heights — nicknamed Jaikishan Heights — was the starting point. Here in the thriving Little India with its saree shops, Indian grocery stores and restaurants, is a touch of home. A place to have a cup of masala chai and network with other Indians sniffing in the fragrance of fresh-fried samosas. Once settled, most inevitably move out to suburbs of Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey, spawning more Little Indias.

The Chinese population in the US constitute 2.7 million today, excluding the 1.45 million Taiwanese. The largest Chinatowns are located in San Francisco and New York, and the Big Apple now has two more Chinatowns in Flushing, Queens and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. These three see almost 2,000 new arrivals every month.

Walk through the 150-year-old Chinatown in Manhattan, which is 150-year-old, and you can immediately feel the energy and the bustle of commerce as crowds jostle, and fresh produce and seafood literally spill on to the pavements from pushcarts. Chinese signs are everywhere, and shops, herbal shops, factories and restaurants stand cheek-to-jowl with residential apartments, schools and banks — a home outside home for the new immigrants.

Today, the Chinese population is diverse and the upwardly mobile have moved out of the Chinatowns into the suburbs of New York and New Jersey. Like the Indians, the Chinese community is by no means homogeneous, owing its loyalties to three different homelands — China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. And so do exist separate politics. In Manhattan’s Chinatown, one can see two national flags — that of the Kuomintang Party and the Communist China flag.

‘‘Historically Chinese and Indians have travelled quite similar routes — both were recruited as coolies and labourers to come to the new world and they have also both been traders,’’ says Peter Kwong of Hunter College, New York. ‘‘Today they play an important role in the technological development of the US.’’

But when it comes to investing money in the homeland, the Chinese diaspora seem to win hands down. Says Nicholas Lardy, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution: ‘‘I think that’s beginning to change and we are going to see evidence of more investment from non-resident Indians but in China this has been a very strong phenomenon for more than two decades.’’

‘‘Shanghai is heavily impacted by American taste and American opinions. You have a whole class of upper-class intellectuals and elites who are graduated from American universities,’’ says Kwong. The Committee of 100 is a national organisation of American citizens of Chinese descent who are leaders in various fields, and it functions very much like the Silicon Valley Indians’ TiE.

So while the Indian and the Chinese diasporas are spread globally, it is the communities in America that make a vital impact, a view that leaders of both the committees hold close. Says Henry Tang, Chairman of the committee: ‘‘Much of the contributions are coming from the Chinese and the Indians from this country, rather than from other parts of the diaspora. They are not the ones who’ve helped China develop — it’s the Chinese of America who have done that. I think that very similar to the Indian diaspora that is all around the world. The Chinese and the Indian diasporas have operated similarly.’’