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| CHINESE DRAGON |
T Ramakrishnan is more familiar with the route and stations of Shanghai Metro than he is with Delhi Metro or Mumbai local. The Mumbai-based manager of a security solutions firm is in China every three months scouting for suppliers and partners.
In the six years that he has been visiting China, he has not only become more familiar with the country, but also finds himself amid increasingly familiar surroundings, of Indians like him trawling through the big and small cities of south China. These are professionals, traders, entrepreneurs and, of late, even students. "There was a time when I could count on my finger tips the number of Indians I would meet on each trip to China. Now I see them all around. It's [Indians visiting China] a slow but steady tide."
Chinese embassy data confirm Ramakrishnan's experience. Compared with 2005, when China issued 60,000 business visas and 600 employment visas to Indians, in 2010, it issued 1.3 lakh business visas and more than 2,000 employment visas to domestic businessmen and jobseekers, respectively.
While these numbers pale before the number of Indians migrating elsewhere, Western Europe, the US and West Asia, tightening of visa rules in these destinations means the number of Indians looking to strike business opportunities or land jobs in China is expected to see a rapid rise.
Lin Shiguang, third secretary and press spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Delhi, says the Little Indias coming up in China are an indication of things to come. "An example," Lin says, "is Yiwu, a Shanghai suburb in Zhejiang province. Guangzhou, too, is very popular with Indian expats probably because it has a climate similar to India's."
Shiguang says Indians are marrying the Chinese and are "picking up our language". Though he couldn't produce numbers to confirm this trend, he has data for student visas: 600 were issued in 2010 and the popular fields of study, according to the Chinese diplomat, are medicine, Mandarin studies and international relations.
Now, where do most Indians in China live and work? Unsurprisingly, Shanghai is the most favoured destination. Chinese officials say around 6,000 Indians live in Shanghai; six years ago, the figure was 500. A long-time resident of this city, Prakash Menon, president of NIIT's China operations, says Shanghai is a lot easier for Indian managers to adjust to than even many western cities. "Culturally, the Indian mindset is closer to the Chinese than the western. Family values in China and India are very similar."
"Racism," Menon says, "is completely absent here." His wife Rekha has been with him throughout his stint in China and speaks Mandarin. Their teenage daughters Manasi and Medha go to the American School. Sure, Beijing and Guangzhou are hot too, but unlike Menon, new migrants to China are spreading northwards to Liaoning, Shanxi, Tianjin and Yantai.
Economics vs Politics
The massive rise in the arrival of Indians in China happened in the time of heightened bilateral political tensions, putting the spotlight on economic incentives that promoted business. In short, China's growth, its business friendliness, superb infrastructure and vast and relatively cheap labour pool helped, too. But a less appreciated factor is the ease with which Indians can get work and business visas for China. Stapled visas make headlines. What doesn't is that it usually takes less than 30 days for Chinese authorities to issue long-term employment visas to Indians.
East Meets East
What the numbers and the visa rules don't tell you is the Indian experience in China. Is it easier or tougher than doing business and working in the West? Both, as some stories of Indians in China show. Chinese food, as opposed to Indian-Chinese food, and Mandarin seem to be the stereotypical challenges for Indian visitors.
But the Indian experience beyond the bamboo curtain is much more nuanced. An early Indian-in-China story, centred on Indian cuisine, is a fine example. In 1994, London-based Indian entrepreneur Ravi Mehrotra was invited by the mayor of Shanghai to open the first Indian restaurant in mainland China. Mehrotra was so surprised he almost refused. His Foresight Group has a range of businesses from shipping to oil drilling and exploration. The hospitality trade was unknown territory as was China. But Mehrotra decided to go ahead with The Tandoor, goaded by friends in India and the UK. Today, The Tandoor chain runs Indian restaurants in Chengdu, Beijing and Guangzhou, besides Shanghai. There's also a new one coming up in Shenzen.
His advice to Indians in China: The main challenge is the language barrier. One has to understand Mandarin. Indian companies must hire Chinese nationals in large numbers. For manufacturing companies, the real challenge is to compete with highly efficient local manufacturers. In China since: 1998
Area of work: Providing environmental solutions to businesses; specialisation in humidity control.
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