Hong Kong’s Korean expats count their blessings
With South Koreans attracted to Hong Kong in growing numbers to work, study and gain an international perspective in a cosmopolitan city, expat community is thriving. The city’s restaurants are another draw card
As unlikely as it might seem, South Korean national Park Wanki says it was dim sum that lured him to Hong Kong. “I’ve loved dim sum since I first tasted it in Toronto’s Chinatown,” he says.
“After I left Toronto, I couldn’t find a better place for dim sum, even in Boston or London, where I did my tertiary and postgraduate studies. So I made up my mind to come to Hong Kong in search of my favourite food.”
Park, a 35-year-old barrister, recalls he arrived in the city late one night 4½ years ago, and asked his friend to take him to dim sum the next day. “It was an old tea house near Sheung Wan with dim sum trolleys being wheeled around. The dim sum was served hot in the steamers and was very delicious,” he says.
Park left South Korea at the age of 15 to study in Canada, the United States and Britain before returning home to serve as a navy officer and later manage his father’s construction business.
In 2011, he came to Hong Kong to pursue a law degree at Chinese University and obtained his professional qualification in May 2015.
In the meantime, he was joined in Hong Kong by his Korean wife Yeji, whom he had married in 2010, and their eldest son Yongho (or Joshua ), now 4½, who was born in South Korea. Like her husband, Yeji, 32, spent many years studying in the West. She works as a development analyst for a hotel group.
Despite their international exposure, the couple share a strong sense of their national identity as Koreans. Yeji even gave birth to their second son Yongsung (John), now 18 months old, in her homeland before bringing him to Hong Kong.