Life.Culture.Discovery.

ProfileMelinda Zeman on her Hong Kong childhood, becoming an Orthodox Jew, and finding a creative outlet in jewellery design

The founder of jewellery label Boochier talks about growing up in a big Hong Kong family and what led her to become an Orthodox Jew

She also tells Kate Whitehead about marrying Jonathan Zeman, son of businessman Allan Zeman, and how designing jewellery woke up a part of her brain

5-MIN READ5-MIN

Melinda Zeman is the founder of the Boochier jewellery label and Hong Kong businessman Allan Zeman’s daughter-in-law. Photo: Melinda Zeman

Published: 1:15pm, 12 Jun 2022

My mother is Chinese from Hong Kong and moved to the UK to study accounting, which is where she met my father. He is originally from Ghana but is British. They got married and I was born in Chelmsford (Essex, in southern England) in 1985.

When I was six, my parents split up and my mum decided to move back to Hong Kong to have the support of her family – she has seven siblings.

At first, we lived with my grandmother in Mid-Levels, on Hong Kong Island. She didn’t speak a word of English, so I was forced to learn Cantonese really fast. Despite being an only child, I never felt lonely because I had loads of cousins and felt like I was part of a big family.

We all lived within 10 minutes of each other, it was amazing. Back then, interracial couples were rare and, growing up, I didn’t know anyone else who was a mix between black and Asian. We were a very close-knit family and spent weekends together and went to the Country Club together.

Zeman as a child at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong, circa 1998-1999, with her cousins and aunts. Photo: Melinda Zeman

Creative licence

My mum’s professional life was super busy, she was an accountant and a financial controller and worked long hours. There were many nights when she came home from work at 1am. In terms of quantity, I didn’t spend much time with her, but she was aware of my interests.