Made in Cyrildene

WORDS & PHOTOS Lisa Johnston

Cities are in constant flux and one of the most interesting recent developments is Cyrildene’s metamorphosis into Joburg’s new Chintown. Lisa Johnston explores a regular weekend walking tour that highlights the ever-evolving façade of the city of gold. 

“Did you notice anything unusual in that shop,” Ishvara Dhyan asks a crowd of about 30 people gathered around him. There’s a general murmur and people look to each other in confusion.

“The woman behind the counter … she’s a man,” he says conspiratorially referring to the Thai lady boy who has just spent the past 20 minutes selling tamarind and lime leaves, fish sauce and garangul to the group of oblivious South Africans.

The group isn’t assembled on Khoa San Road, Bangkok, as you might expect, but on the far end of Derrick Avenue in Cyrildene – Johannesburg’s new Chinatown, home to a number of immigrants from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and, increasingly, Thailand. (The old Chinatown was more towards downtown Joburg, on Commissioner Street.)

Dhyan runs a business called Ancient Secrets, offering cultural walking tours of Johannesburg’s continuously changing façade. For R100 he will help you explore Fordsburg’s Indian delights, Troyville’s West African delicacies or Cyrildene’s Asian fare, among others. That he can come up with an ever-evolving number of multi-cultural tours is testimony to the dynamic nature of the city and how its architecture adapts to serve changing cultural needs.

Take Cyrildene for example, it wasn’t that long ago that the suburb was populated with bagel shops, kosher delis and shuls. But politics and prosperity conspired and by the early to mid 90s, the one-time Jewish stronghold was becoming diluted and, eventually, consumed by Asian immigrants. Leading the pack was a Chinese noodle bar owner who saw potential in Cyrildene and decided to leave his premises on Rockey Street, Yeoville. At the same time South Africa and Beijing began feeling out potential diplomatic relations. By the mid 90s many of Cyrildene’s Jewish residents were moving to more prosperous neighbourhoods in Johannesburg, or “packing for Perth” in fear of the country’s changing political landscape.

These days you’d be hard pressed to find evidence of Cyrildene’s Jewish past – and on Chinese New Year to even find evidence that this is South Africa – with its plethora of tea shops, noodle bars, hairdressers, Asian supermarkets acupuncturists and massage parlors. This cultural identity has been proudly proclaimed and stamped on the area about two years ago when twin ornate Chinese arches were constructed on either end of Derrick Avenue.

Although the one still remains incomplete, the R2.4-million arches were paid for by the community and their relevance is probably best summed up by Ufreida Ho in an article she wrote for the Mail & Guardian: “[T]hey stand as two stakes in the ground — invitation and proclamation… This unequal state of completion is the perfect metaphor for Chinatown — always two faces, the hidden and the public, the legal and the less than legal, the big welcome and the middle finger. The duality is not too difficult to understand for those who constantly renegotiate identities.”

As the city constantly renegotiates its identity it will be interesting to note how its architecture will take on new facades and fashions.

For more information on Ancient Secrets visit ancientsecrets.co.za