14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 10 February 2024 — The Confucius statue in Havana’s Chinatown did not start off the Year of the Dragon on the right foot. Sitting this Saturday morning on benches in a park dedicated to the wise man were a beggar, a woman trying to get past the glitches in the phone company’s wifi network in order to connect to the “great beyond,” and a drunken man who – perhaps out of a certain sense of respect – peed on a random wall rather than than at the philosopher’s pedestal.
Once a place of legend and mystery, little of anything Chinese remains in what used to be one of the world’s most important Asian enclaves. In a neighborhood that used to be known as one of the best places to eat in Havana, everything now appears to be on the verge of collapse, marked for years — like the entire city — by faded walls and urban decay.
The restaurants are now empty. Their employees reluctantly try to lure in potential customers with little success. The general rule is an empty establishment with a buzzing fly and little to offer.
Havana’s Chinatown was the focus of some attention on the part of the city’s Office