This paper brings together two comparative contexts, situated in South and Southeast Asia, for the study of interactions between Indian and Chinese communities, particularly through the presence of Hindu spaces in the Chinatowns of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) and Singapore. It locates the space of interaction in two Hindu temples in the Chinatowns – a Kali temple in Kolkata and the Mariamman Temple in Singapore – and analyses the history and practices of interaction between the communities in these spaces within two areas of wider theoretical concern. Firstly, the paper interrogates the idea of Chinatowns as closed and bounded spaces. Intra-ethnic interactions in Chinatowns are generally perceived in terms of the neighbourhood being “consumed” and becoming the space of the other, and focus on how these spaces have a visual imagery of the exotic and forbidden. Moving beyond the racialized processes that are often behind the creation of Chinatowns in Western cities, and also the notion of the neighbourhood as a singular space, this paper presents a comparison of two Chinatowns in Kolkata and Singapore. While interactions across religious traditions also occur in spaces and sites beyond Chinatown, this paper highlights the interactions within this space to destabilize a unified and singular image of Chinatown, and also to argue that the idea of Chinatown itself plays a role in influencing these interactions. Secondly, the paper situates the comparative contexts of Kolkata and Singapore within recent concerns about highlighting the importance of “other global cities.” In contrast to economic and financial flows that have been the focus of Saskia Sassen's idea of “global city,” The Other Global City situates the Asian city as part of the topography of interconnected regions, and focuses on everyday forms of interactions and cosmopolitanisms. Yet there are considerable variations within these “other global cities.” Through a focus on the Hindu temples as sacred spaces in Chinatowns, this paper interrogates to what extent religion facilitates the creation of a “diaspora space” and whether these shared sacred spaces can be a suitable framework for comparison across Chinese and Indian immigrant communities.