Being Chinese | I feel for young Hongkongers who say they are ‘from the UK’
Instead of mocking those who adopt a superficial Western identity, we might pause and ask: what pressure made them feel this was necessary?
In most cases, the purported home in Britain was a dormitory, legitimised only by a student visa; the family remained firmly in Hong Kong. Ask the wrong question – about neighbourhoods, seasons or childhood – and it would become clear that some were largely familiar with the United Kingdom as a campus.
Profiles on dating apps, with their careful curation and strategic self-presentation, function as a microcosm of contemporary sociopolitics. For some, claiming to be “from the UK” could have been less about geography than how they wished to be seen – what identities felt safer, worthier or more legible in a world structured by subtle yet persistent hierarchies.
But in this context, dating felt absurdly arduous. My mind began treating every interaction as ethnographic research, even though my aim was simple: finding someone to fill an empty afternoon.
That moment prompted reflection. I had to move from judgment to empathy. In recognising our shared humanity, I realised that I too had experienced environments where Chineseness was treated as a liability rather than a neutral fact and claiming some kind of Western identity felt like a survival strategy.
