What Its Like Being Indian In China For 21 Years

TITLE: What it’s like being Indian in China for 21 years CHANNEL: Max Chernov DATE: 2025-12-16 ---TRANSCRIPT--- I traveled to Shanghai to meet Tony, a celebrity tailor from India who’s made suits for Hollywood stars and top politicians. At 16, he left India, lived in Hong Kong, and has now been in China for 22 years. Tony shared the biggest differences between daily life in Shanghai and Mumbai, whether India and China can be long-term friends, and how women’s freedom in Shanghai shocks many Indians. I’m Max Chernov, your insider to expert life. Topa,

do you think in general Chinese and Indians are like similar or like different or very different? Different. Uhhuh. Different culture is completely different. How different? Like my mind mindset wise? Well, Chinese are more c they are very cultured you know like family wise you know they get along and you know like the whole family’s been together even they have one child policy here but India is also pretty close they the family also get close and everything but Chinese they are more close the family Indian culture is complete different than Chinese this is my small office where I take all my appointments and all my clients come in so now I’m not you know much worried about anything this is a book where China has released this book. The history of Indians in Shanghai. Oh wow. This was when police people were Indians before in Shanghai. This I’m talking about I don’t know how many years I was not here. It’s like British Indians. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what was it? Gorka. Gorka. Gorka. No, the turban. Turban people. They used to be the police people here. So these were all this is all Shanghai. Yeah. These are all this book. These all the Shanghai culture and Indian culture. See this is all like the Shanghai married you know. See these are all this the whole book is about Indian even reverend Tigor who was our Indian he was used to live here in Shanghai. So they have mentioned four four pages of me. This is with Leander Pace. This is the tennis legend from India. Yeah tennis legend. And first they wrote in Chinese it was Bayu. This is with Yaoing. Yeah. Actually I wanted to ask you about him. How was the experience? Oh yeah. Yeah. He’s a nice guy. Yeah. I used to play with his daughter also. I used to go to his house. All right. Like I was amazed first time when I saw him such a tall guy you know like I had to measure him up on a stool. When you go to Mumbai and like you compare like Shanghai as a like city infrastructure in Mumbai city infrastructure like it’s very different. It’s completely different. It’s different obviously Mumbai is also very growing you know like you can see Delhi is more like Beijing Shanghai is more like Mumbai thing is you have highrises building and everything everything in Mumbai you can have but the culture of living and everything is completely different than Shanghai Shanghai here is more open the girls wearing you know like all these clothes type of clothes and everything you won’t find that in Mumbai where you know they’re wearing sexy clothes or something it’s complete different here you can talk to any girl I mean Here a girl can come up to you and take your mobile number. She’ll ask you for your mobile number. But in Mumbai, if you go ask a girl, you have a slap on your face. The culture is different. For you, it’s already like you prefer which culture like or you okay with both? I’m okay with both. I’m okay with both. Yeah. Yeah. But since living here is more open. I’m more used to here. So you cannot take that culture to India. Do Chinese go to India? Yeah. Now they’ve started just two two month two or 3 months ago they started giving visas to Chinese people before they never they stopped it for 5 6 years. Yeah. Yeah. I remember it. Yeah. So very hard for Chinese citizen national to go to India. Go to India. Yeah. But now now it’s open. Oh okay. Now it’s open. Yes. China can visit India and Indians also they openly to get visas is easy. They’re a little bit tough but they do give the visa. Yeah. because it’s two like super huge countries here in the region. Huge country. Yeah. I mean it’s kind of makes sense to like maintain this ties and relationships between Exactly. My number one travel hack is to install an EIM before the trip. With it I can get internet on my phone without wasting money on roaming. 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Because if you come the the Canton fair and everything 90% you will find is all Indian people market all Indians roaming around in the fair. Yeah. So they buy a lot in India also. You buy you buy anything is made in China. Anything even a light bulb also is made is cheaper. If you buy Indian bulb is cost you a bit more expensive. But if you buy made in China bulb is is cheaper. So people they buy Chinese thing. Why you know if you can get one thing for a dollar why you pay five? So they’ll go for a dollar thing. So that’s what so a lot of business is doing and especially our prime minister Modi he’s getting it pretty you know like he came you know he had the good thing with the Chinese people here and everything. So now they’re getting pretty good. He was here also in Shanghai about four or five years ago. Mhm. Modi who came here. I went to visit him also now. Hopefully the relationships between two countries now is getting better. It’s getting better especially with the Russia uh Russia, China and India they’re getting pretty close. Yeah. But it’s like yeah US kind of distant themselves. US wants Yeah. US wants to do it like they’re saying stop buying oil from Russia. Stop buying oil from Russia. Well, okay. If we buy it for a dollar, okay, if you offer us 90 cents, obviously we can buy from you, but you’re not offering us anything. So, how can we buy from you, you know? Yeah. So, that’s the thing, you know. What else? Maybe you can reflect on something like how people think, how they make decisions, how they react like Indians and Chinese. Indians, I would say yes, I know. But not in Chinese. I have not grown up with any family people here in in China or somewhere. I have no idea about that much in Chinese. But Indian, yes. I mean suppose if I want to open up a business or something I will talk to my parents first like I want to go into this I want to do this I want to do that so you know they also they give you some suggest but Chinese they mind their own business like I have seen you know whoever wants to do something he will make your own decision he will not ask his mom or something so especially the children more independent more independent now the culture is a little bit more independent yeah I guess in India it’s more like um you have more obligation to your like parents parents and culture and especially you know if want we want we go to temples together family if there’s a festival or something we have to be with the family and you know celebrate together yeah this is your main tool my main tool this is just for main tool is here is in the workshop actually but this is more sharp ah okay to cut the fabric this is just for rough use I use so um how long does it take to make one one suit two 2 days. 2 days. 2 days I can have it done. So because here labors are fast. Labors are fast. Meaning like you workers here. The workers are fast here. But what would the workers what what would they do? Like what’s the part done by workers? What part done by you? The cutting and everything is done by me. The rest the sewing and everything is done by the workers. Ah okay. Yeah. The main the main part of the suit is the cutting. So once the cut is good, the suit will fit good. But if the cutting is not right, the suit won’t fit good. So the cutting is done by me. Then I give the people to sew. Ah, I see. Chinese people. Chinese. Yeah, Chinese people. So it’s like your team that you work with like for a long time. I have a team. Yeah. Yeah. They’ve been working with me for years. Yeah. Being Indian living in China for many years, how would it shape your personality and how how shape your perception of being Indian from being from being Indian? Yeah. It’s before like the not that many Indians used to come to uh Shanghai. Yeah. So the Chinese they used to love you know they used to love talking to Indians and you know they used to meet you. Nice to meet you. You know they used to even because they were curious. They were curious to be very honest. There was some there was a time where I used to go to any restaurant to eat. I never used to pay a bill. You know next door Chinese they were friendly and you know they used to invite me. Oh, come down have a glass of beer or you know have a drink with me and then they pay my bill. Do you crave for Indian food? I do. Yes, I go to Indian restaurant sometime to before I used to have a cook. I hired from him from India and he used to be in my house and he used to especially cook for me breakfast, lunch and dinner. Like even if I have my guest, all my friends used to come and everybody they used to come, you know, Tony make this, Tony make that, Tony make mutton today, Tony make this food and they used to come and you know we used to have our Indian food and I used to love Indian food but now I’m more into Chinese. Oh yeah. Yes. More Chinese food. Yeah. So I like enjoy enjoy enjoy Chinese food because I’ve been eating Chinese food since I was in Hong Kong when I was a younger, you know, young time. What’s your thoughts and feelings when you go back to India when you’re there? What’s your thoughts? Well, for I visit maybe in a year a short trip in one year maybe I go I’m more excited you know see the Indian culture and you know have that but most of the time I’m here but I get very excited when I go to India to have my Indian food you know some food which like street food and everything which I I love in India in Mumbai if you go the street food is very famous which you cannot get here so I like to go to India and I have my Indian culture food you know I of eating all this rubbish food from from the street. So something different for me also like after one year if I go for a week I enjoy I don’t go I don’t dine especially with the stars when they tell me they say okay come let’s go you know have some in a fivestar hotel or something no I say I want to go my own which they cannot they cannot come to the having street food so I prefer to go for street food that’s what for them it would be like too much attention yeah if they We crowd I’ I’ve tried once like we went to try something and there were at least about few hundred people surrounding him and he said said Tony let’s get out let’s get out from here not my my cup of tea you know so stars obviously they can but just to give me respect all right they join me there once we win but you know in India is too too much so we couldn’t so that’s the difference yeah and the I mean I guess the lifestyle and the atmosphere is is different like well lifestyle is much better in India much better yes people people who have money they’ve got good lifestyle you know you have a car you have your own driver you have a cookie in the house you have made even though you want something you want a glass of water you just tell them maid maid give me a glass of water she’ll bring you a glass of water but which here you cannot that’s a lifestyle you know like you have a silver spoon in your mouth you know everything if you want to go eat you have the dinner it’ll the plates will be prepared everything made gets you the food and everything you have a dinner even she picks up your plate you don’t have to take your plates or something so the culture there India is very nice and rich if you have if you can if you know how afforded exactly but here in China you can have that kind of culture well you can get maids here you know to clean the floor sweep you know like okay laundry or clothes and everything but India you have 24 hours you have a maid sleeping in your house which here you cannot afford. Do you feel home here? Home is here. Shanghai. Yeah. Home is here. It’s Shanghai. Yes. Yeah. Because been here so long time. So my home and everything is everything here. I still have a physical home in in India. Yeah. But it’s closed. Nobody stays there. Yeah. No relatives. No. My sisters are in Hong Kong. My brother is in Hong Kong. Yeah. So nobody’s in India. How many suits you have? Personally, I got a lot. A lot. A lot. Yeah. You mean I had I once upon a time well I left all my shoes, you know, I threw them up. I had 400 shoes. What? 400 shoes. What? 400 shoes? Yes. Oh my god. You know, it it would take me right now it does, but now I’m not that much. Before it was used to take me half an hour just to decide what should I wear today. You need a quite a spacious uh storage. Yeah. Yeah. I did I did have a big house. It would take me half an hour just to think what I wear today. Wow. I love it. Now also I do dress up. It takes me time but it just dress up. Even my glasses I my glasses used to match. My shoes used to match. If I wear a brown suit I’d have a brown shoe with me. If I wear a gray suit or black I have a black shoes. Hey guys, just a quick announcement. Don’t skip. I’ll be running a 3-day workshop called Fast Track to Views and Profits on YouTube. If you ever wanted to start your own channel, this is the best way to do it. You will learn how to choose the most profitable niche and how to beat the YouTube algorithm. You’re going to love it. I promise. Link in description. So, sign up if it’s for you. And now, back to the video. When I was young, you know, I mean, I was, you know, I wanted to be a movie star, but my father did not, you know, he said, “No, you’re wasting my money and you wasting your time, so you better come back and, you know, join me as a tailor.” So, I came up and there where I got my training as a tailor and start forcing me you know like work as a tailor and then I learned this trait but right now I know everybody in Bollywood because you know I make a lot of suits for many Bollywood stars and I go to a lot of award shows and everything so been pretty famous in Bollywood now fashion is much better than you know than any other trait I would say because you dress people up you know there’s one thing saying you know God make you men I make you gentle Man, do you have any regrets in life? Nope. No, no regrets. What is happening is happening for good. Uh you think it’s like a Hindu thing? Yes. A Hindu thing also which my parents also have taught me like you know you do good is karma. You do good, good will come back to you. Obviously if you be bad to somebody, bad things will come back to you. You believe in karma? Oh yes. Yeah. It happens. And karma as being a Hindu karma is very important. Yeah. So even if you don’t harm anybody, nobody will harm you. But if you wanted to harm somebody, if you want obviously some guy that will pun maybe he punches you more harder. Yeah. And this is for for you to for good luck. For good luck. Yeah. I worship him. Yeah. As as being Hindu. Yeah. Yes. Yes. What our Hindu culture. What does it mean? is carto. Oh, like his head. Yeah. But his head is still there in in a temple in India. How old are you if I can ask? I’m actually 60 plus. 60 plus. You don’t want to reveal. 60 plus. Oh, because you look very young. Yeah, I do. But you know, I’m just I’m being the fact. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to ask you like how does it feel to me like 60 plus but just Yeah. I got a happy family. I got you know but I’m just too relaxed. Too relaxed. Yeah. Just relax. I mean there’s no harm in running around like I don’t go out looking for clients or anything. My clients come to look for me. I mean what else do I need? You know I sit down have my have my coffee. My clients come to me they find me and I’m happy. Yeah. I’m happy.