When in Chengdu, China, do visit the Indian shops

During a recent holiday on the Chinese mainland, it was great to visit the old city of Chengdu, that is the one they have preserved and recreated sections to capture the old glory of the Sichuan capital. It was great fun. The new parts of Chengdu are busy, with major traffic jams during the rush hours. The city is undergoing major expansion and coping with the one major blot on Chinese landscape... smog and general pollution caused by burning coal in factories and from emissions from cars and factories. They are doing something about it, we were told.

Imagine our surprise when the music from the Indian film Swades broke out on a quiet Chengdu afternoon. The music was loud but not intrusive. We were told that music was coming from an Indian restaurant located above a gift shop...it was truly amazing but very welcome. I did not have the time to go check it out but when I had passed the shop earlier, there were only Chinese staff working on the ground floor.

That musical interlude brought back memories of our African friends in Uganda and Kenya who used to sing Hindi songs at popular functions. One of such African musicians was a specialist singer of Mukesh's songs. He was working for Gujarati people and had made a safe choice in copying Mukesh who was one of India's greatest popular singers. It was well known that Gujaratis did not like Mohammed Rafi who was a Muslim, except when he sang Hindi bhajans or religious hymns.

I guess it is a matter of time when a Chinese staff member of the Chengdu shop will be singing songs from Bollywood films. The nearest national border around Chengdu runs along the Tibetan side. Did this factor help to explain why an Indian shop should open up in Chengdu? I hope to post a picture of the shopfront soon.

Can anyone help to explain the Indian influence in Chengdu?