The eclectic history of diverse immigrant communities shapes and leaves an indelible imprint on a city. Kolkata has been a melting pot of migrant Armenians, Chinese, Jews, Anglo-Indians, and Greeks. Their traditions, reflected through cultural and occupational practices, food habits, dressing, and architecture, lend identity to the broader landscape of the city. Change in the communitys economic fortunes over time and ensuing over development of the neighboring areas has greatly threatened to corrode historic Chinatowns urban character. This work understands the culture, community, settlement and contemporary significance of an ethnic group in Calcutta the Indian Chinese whose strong identity is palpable even today. Their first formal settlement in the city center old Chinatown is mapped through on-site study of the settlement, institutions, living practices and community interactions, to methodologies that address key issues threatening the place and community to potentially trigger holistic revitalization processes.
