Though the beginnings of Hakka Chinese food in India can be traced to innovators like Eau Chew and Pou Chong in the old city, it is in Tangra, a neighborhood 30 kilometers away, that the cuisine took true shape.

Tangra, which means "tannery" in Bengali, was home to Chinese leather factories, which were shut down after the Indo-Sino war in 1962. After India granted asylum to the Dalai Lama in 1959, relations between India and China began to weaken. In 1962, China invaded India through Ladakh in the north, which spiraled into a disastrous war between the two countries. India lost many soldiers to the war, and in response began to imprison the Chinese immigrants in detention camps in Rajasthan. After the war, hostilities between the Indian and Chinese communities began to grow leaving Chinese businesses in Tangra, and restaurants in the older Dharmatala area, to suffer.