Hong Kong missionary dentist treats broken jaws and broken lives in Papua New Guinea
High-flier Sheena Li, who grew up in city’s North Point neighbourhood before family moved to Canada, shuns wealth and prestige to make a difference among the world’s most needy communities
Goofing off My parents met at Hong Kong University. My father worked in the Education Bureau and my mum was a social worker. I was born in 1979. We lived in North Point and my older brother and I went to St Paul’s Co-educational College, in Mid-Levels. We were below-average students – we goofed off half the time. I think that’s part of the reason my parents decided to emigrate to Toronto when I was 11 – they thought there would be better opportunities for my brother and I, and there was also uncertainty over the future in Hong Kong.
If we’d stayed in Hong Kong, I don’t think my brother and I would have got the grades to go to university, but in Canada we thrived
O Canada! Canada was a huge change. The hardest part was not being able to speak English. It was a really great move and it changed the course of our lives. In the early 1980s, teachers at good schools in Hong Kong invested more in the kids who were doing well, but those falling behind didn’t get the attention they needed. If we’d stayed in Hong Kong, I don’t think my brother and I would have got the grades to go to university, but in Canada we thrived.
Bible studies I was determined to learn English so I could make friends. I read a lot of books and I read the Bible, which is how I became a Christian. My auntie was involved with the church and that’s how we found a community and a life in Toronto. My brother and I got involved with a youth group, and when I was 18, I did my first trip with them.
We went to Mexico to help at an orphanage and also introduce stories from the Bible. I got to see life in a part of the world that’s very impoverished. It made a big impression on me. I was a teenager and very idealistic, I wanted to do good. I’ve ended up doing this as my career, but I’m not as naive as I was. Seeing real tragedy, violence and suffering, I realised it’s not as romantic as I used to think.
Dental decisionMy brother wanted to do something in aerospace – he was a big fan of Top Gun – and became an aeronautical engineer. I got straight As and went on to do a four-year undergraduate degree in life sciences. After university, I took a gap year and was a bit lost. I worked in a hospital doing research. My Sunday school teacher was a dental surgeon in a psychiatric centre and I asked if I could shadow him. That made a big impression on me and I decided I wanted to be a dentist, but not in private practice – I wanted to reach out to people who were vulnerable and needy.
I may not drive a Ferrari, but we’re very content with what we’re doing and get so much in return
