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Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Chinatown Days is a historical novel about Chinese settlement and labor in Assam, and the upheaval Chinese Assamese families faced around the 1962 Sino-Indian War. It is the English translation of Rita Chowdhury’s Assamese novel Makam; its characters and plot are fiction, set against a history the author says she researched with survivors and their families.
What is Chinatown Days about?
The novel reaches across generations, beginning with Chinese laborers brought to Assam’s tea gardens in the early nineteenth century and moving to the lives of their descendants. The publisher’s synopsis centers on Mei Lin, a descendant of Ho Han, and her husband, Pulok Barua, in the period around the 1962 war. Through their family story, the book explores labor, belonging, life among communities, and the threat of deportation.
Mei Lin and Pulok Barua are fictional characters, not historical witnesses. The novel uses their story to make a broad history of settlement and rupture intimate; individual scenes and plot events should not be treated as independently verified records.
How the novel relates to the history
Chowdhury’s official account of Makam describes the book as historical fiction grounded in her research into the Assamese Chinese community. She says she met people affected by the events in Assam, elsewhere in India, and abroad, particularly in Hong Kong. As she puts it, “It took me four years to assimilate all the facts and write the novel.” That is the author’s account of her process, not independent confirmation of every historical detail in the book.
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The historical context is the presence of Chinese families in Assam and the profound disruption associated with the 1962 Sino-Indian War. In her official account, Chowdhury reports that nearly 1,500 people in Makum were detained and that her work draws on testimonies from over a hundred survivors. These are figures reported by the author’s site, which does not give them a publication year: the detention figure is specific to Makum, not a national total, and the testimonies describe the author’s research basis rather than a population count.
Literary critic Easterine Kire’s 25 February 2018 review frames the novel as a wide-ranging account of tea-garden history, Chinese settlement, inter-community life, and the rupture of the war. That review offers literary context, not a separate historical verification of legal or administrative details.
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Is Chinatown Days the English translation of Makam?
Yes. Chowdhury’s Assamese novel Makam was first published by Jyoti Prakashan in 2010; Chinatown Days is its English translation. The two titles therefore refer to the original Assamese work and its English-language edition, not to separate novels.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which edition should readers look for?
| Edition | Language and format | Publisher listing details |
|---|---|---|
| Chinatown Days | English paperback | Pan Macmillan India lists a 24 September 2018 publication date, 446 pages, ISBN 9789386215512. See the paperback listing. |
| Chinatown Days | English ebook | Pan Macmillan lists an 11 January 2018 publication date, ISBN 9781509896561. See the ebook listing. |
| Makam | Assamese original | First published by Jyoti Prakashan in 2010, according to the author’s official book page; format and ISBN are not stated there. |
Publisher metadata identifies editions; it does not establish present-day price or stock. Check the edition, language, and ISBN on a retailer’s page before ordering. Pan Macmillan India’s paperback synopsis says “Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award,” but Chowdhury’s awards page identifies her 2008 Sahitya Akademi Award as being for Deo Langkhui, not Chinatown Days.
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