He couldn’t tell they were Chinese: dying Chinatown of Havana, Cuba, documented in US-based photographer’s exhibition

The first Chinese arrived in Cuba in the 1850s, but finding their mixed-race descendants on the streets of Havana today wasn’t easy for Lau Pok-chi
Among the subjects of the Hong Kong-born photographer’s exhibition in Shenzhen is a 90-year-old woman believed to be the last Cuban diva of Chinese opera

Photography

Jing Zhang

Published: 12:43pm, 12 Mar 2020

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Caridad Amaran is believed to be the last Cuban diva of Chinese opera. She learned the traditional art form from her Chinese stepfather, who taught her how to read the language.

At 90 years old, Amaran – who has been performing since childhood – is still an active singer, and she is one of the extraordinary subjects featured in photographer Lau Pok-chi’s latest solo exhibition, “Chinese Diaspora”.

Lau, Hong Kong-born and based in the US state of Kansas, says he stumbled upon the talented singer by accident. When they met, he found her scrubbing oil off a Chinese printing press with a kerosene-soaked toothbrush. “I couldn’t believe this Cuban woman could recognise these Chinese [characters] and put them in order,” Lau recalls.

Chinese opera is a tradition that is disappearing in Cuba. “There’s no one in the younger generation to be interested [in it],” he says.

Caridad Amaran at 16 years old in 1947. Amaran is believed to be the last Cuban diva of Chinese opera. Photo: Lau Pok-chi

The exhibition, which runs until August 30 at the Yuezhong Museum of Historical Images in Shenzhen, over the border from Hong Kong in southern China, charts the decay of Havana’s Chinatown, the country’s once-thriving Chinese culture and community, and its mostly mixed-raced descendants.

Another portrait on show is that of the young Yamil Antonio Fong, who is seen holding a picture of his Chinese grandfather. “I document the living conditions of the second, third, fourth generations … but my work is not out there to shock, it’s more about the quiet observations,” says Lau.

Yamil Antonio Fong holds a picture of his Chinese grandfather in the exhibition. Photo: Lau Pok-chi

Among younger Havana residents like Fong, Lau says he found an older generation holding on to the memories of a more Chinese life in the Cuban capital. Images of altars, deity statues and cemeteries, empty and dilapidated theatres, and the ramshackle interiors of houses and shops feature in his work.

His images of the younger generations with pictures of their Chinese ancestors are poignant, and are a reflection of a long history between the two countries.

In the 1850s, the first wave of Chinese people arrived on the island. They were slaves and, later, farm workers that worked on the country’s sugar cane plantations. The immigrant population grew, peaking at around 40,000 in the 1880s; that was also the high point of their influence and of Havana’s Chinatown.

In 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded by the Communist Party of China and, in the years that followed, many more Chinese families fled to Cuba – often via Hong Kong.

Photos in the exhibition include the insides of people’s homes. Photo: Lau Pok-chi

Lau, who is a professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, has been documenting the movement of people from China to other parts of the world, as well as their mixed-race descendants and stereotypes. He is currently on a three-month road trip in Mexico, where he will visit Mexican Chinese communities.

“In my 50 years of work documenting Chinese diaspora around the world, Cuba is just one part [of that movement],” says Lau. “My photojournalist friend had been [to Cuba] several times and told me about Havana Chinatown. He showed me pictures of mixed-race Cuban-Chinese [people] selling squash at the market.”

The photographer, who had initially decided to head to Cuba for a week, found “dead Havana Chinatown streets”. It took him three days to even find the Chinese community, which he recalls was already so racially mixed that “at first I could not tell [that they were Chinese]”.

Caridad Amaran sings in front of her stepfather’s grave during a visit to China in 2011. Amaran is believed to be the last Cuban diva of Chinese opera. Photo: Lau Pok-chi

Lau found that Chinese Cubans often lived in more poverty than Chinese people elsewhere. “Many of Havana’s older Chinese retirees still have to go to the Family Association to get their free meals, packing any leftovers for their families at home,” he adds.

Still, the winds of change are sweeping across the country, thanks to the possibility of stronger ties between Cuba and China in future. Last year, as part of a plan to modernise Cuba’s ageing railway network, the Cuban government bought rail carriage from China for a new rail service between Havana and Santiago de Cuba. They were the first new railway carriages on the island in 44 years.

Relations between the two countries have been further strengthened by Cuba’s sympathetic response to the coronavirus pandemic, with China’s foreign ministry reporting on a phone call between President Xi Jinping’s and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Amaran learned Chinese opera from her Chinese stepfather, who taught her how to read the language. Photo: Lau Pok-chi

Though there might now be little demand for Chinese arts or culture in Cuba, Amaran’s talents have found an audience outside the country. Lau has taken the diva twice to Hong Kong to perform – most recently for last year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival – and once in 2011 to China.

There, he recalls: “Caridad, with no Chinese blood in her, sang the first song she learned from her Chinese stepfather in front of the landmark of his ancestral village. She even remembered the name of the village. It was so touching.”

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