The Hongcouver | Home is where the glowing heart is: Why you feel more Canadian when you live in Hong Kong
For thousands of young returnees, Canadian identity and jobs are easier to find in the SAR
Is it possible to feel perfectly Canadian while living and working in Hong Kong? Indeed, is it possible to feel even more Canadian in Hong Kong, than back “home” in Vancouver or Toronto?
The questions are raised by a recent study of the children of Hong Kong immigrants to Canada, who reversed the journeys undertaken by their parents and now live in the SAR.
Returnees (not a strictly accurate term in this case, since the study also included young people born in Canada) are often caricatured as “citizens of convenience” with no particular loyalty to Canada. But UBC social work professor Miu Chung Yan said in an interview that his study found this to be untrue; participants used “Canadian cultural values and practices to distinguish themselves from local Chinese”, and felt strongly Canadian.
As study participant “Tim” put it: “If Hong Kong versus Canada was in a certain sport match, I would definitely be cheering for Canada.”
Yan said in an interview: “When you are put in an alien situation you start trying to find yourself. Canadian culture becomes what they use to define themselves.”
Yan, who migrated from Hong Kong to Vancouver in 1993, used his personal experiences to describe the phenomenon: “When I come to Hong Kong, people see me as Canadian. But when I am in Canada, people see me as a Chinese…I’m not saying that in Canada they are not Canadian, but the problem is that they do not sense it. It’s only when they are away from Canada that they define it.”