Craze for learning Chinese among Bihar tourist guides falls sharply

The craze for learning the Chinese language among the tourist guides of Bihar, a skill once considered a money-spinner, is diminishing fast due to the strained relations between India and China over boundary disputes and the severe drop in tourism due to Covid-19 pandemic, said several people in the tourism industry.

The tourist guides based at Bodh Gaya, Rajgir and Nalanda, who speak Mandarin, say they were facing an unprecedented crisis and would never advise their juniors to learn the Chinese language.

At Bodh Gaya, the tourist guides say the young generation of guides is flocking to learn Japanese instead.

“Due to the strained relations between India and China post the Doklam and Galwan incidents and also because of Covid-19, the tourist guides are less attracted towards learning Chinese. They are flocking to learn Japanese or other languages instead. At this point of time, it is difficult to predict how will be the flow of Chinese tourists when the international flights resume,” said Dayanand Kumar, a post-graduate in Chinese language from Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, and a tourist guide-cum-escort, based at Bodh Gaya.

In 2019, 1,093,141 foreign tourists visited Bihar, as against 33,990,038 domestic tourists in the same period, a sizeable number of these were Chinese.

Earlier some guides used to teach Chinese at Bodh Gaya, but now they don’t have students. “At Bodh Gaya, an institute teaches Japanese and there are many takers for it,” said Rakesh Kumar, president, Bodh Gaya Tourist Guides Association.

Bodh Gaya Hotel Association’s general secretary, Sudama Singh, who along with his Japanese wife runs a Japanese training center, said they had a batch of about 400-450 students. “However, Covid has reduced the count of Japanese learners,” he said.

Bodh Gaya Tourist Guides Association’s general secretary, Deepak Kumar, who is also a Chinese interpreter, one cannot acquire proficiency in the Chinese language without learning the language in China. He said many tourist guides are under huge debts after investing in learning Chinese but now without any earning to pay back the loan. He said some have joined cell phone companies where there is a limited opening for Chinese interpreters.

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Ajay Kumar, a tourist guide at Bodh Gaya had a similar story to narrate, “Two years ago I managed about ₹12 lakh by borrowing from different sources and got myself admitted to the Kunming University in China. Initially, I got work as a Chinese interpreter-cum-tourist guide in December 2019. Unfortunately, after Covid-19 hit the world, there is no work at all. Our lot is apprehensive about how the situation will pan out once things normalize as visa norms for Chinese citizens have been tightened by the Indian government. In this situation, I will not advise anyone to learn Chinese.”

There are many guides like Kumar in Bodh Gaya who sold their land or took money from their parents’ provident fund to learn the language in China. “However, now their condition is pitiable, said a guide.

Principal secretary, tourism department, Ravi Manubhai Parmar, said the entire tourism industry was hit by Covid-19. “The honourable minister has just joined. In a few days we will look into the guides’ problems,” he said.