As Peru prepares to host this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in its capital Lima, its historic Chinatown stands ready to showcase the friendship and cultural bond between the two peoples.
The 2024 APEC meeting will be held in the Peruvian cities of Lima, Pisco, and Chiclayo from Nov 10 to Nov 16 under the theme of "Empower. Include. Grow."
Established in the 1850s, Lima's Chinatown, also known as Barrio Chino, has long been a hub of Chinese-Peruvian cultural exchange.
One of the most emblematic examples is chifa cuisine, a unique blend of Chinese and Peruvian ingredients and cooking techniques. According to Luis Yong, owner of the well-known San Joy Lai restaurant, this style of food gradually became popular as Chinese people integrated into local life.
"The Chinese taught how to cook their food. They taught to how to eat and cook eastern food here in Peru, and that is why the chifas were so popular, and that is why it is said here in Chinatown, 'come the rich and the proletarians, the famous and forgotten,'" Yong said.
According to the restaurateur, Lima's Chinatown stands out as a unique community in the country.
"It is the only ethnic neighborhood in Peru, there is no other ethnic neighborhood. Peru has peoples of all races, but there is no Japanese neighborhood, there is no Italian neighborhood, there is no Jewish neighborhood. There is the only Chinese neighborhood in Peru, and it is still going strong, 175 years later," he said.
Peru is now home to thousands of Chinese descendants, known as Tusan, and there are more than 10,000 chifa restaurants across the country. Today, Chinese-inspired dishes like fried rice and chicken noodles have become staples of the Peruvian diet.
"Peru is the most Chinese country in Latin America, and I am not referring to the fact that there are more Chinese immigrants in Peru. I'm referring to its different levels of integration at an economic, political, social, cultural and even biological level," said Gonzalo Paroy, a Peruvian Historian.
Peru’s Chinatown prepares to promote cultural exchange amid APEC summit
