A second generation of Hong Kongers is heading to Canada for refuge from political uncertainty, but unlike their parents in the 1980s and 1990s, this time seems for good. Cities such as Vancouver and Toronto are a magnet for those looking to escape as China tightens its grip on the territory of 7.5 million people.
About 300,000 already have Canadian citizenship after many families initially moved there ahead of Hong Kong’s return from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
Back then, many families separated, with one parent staying in Hong Kong for work, usually fathers who were dubbed “astronauts” as they soared through the sky on visits. Among those who went to Canada, many eventually returned, lured by the booming economy and what still seemed to be a relatively free environment.
Photo: Reuters
Things have changed.
With recent pro-democracy protests virtually snuffed out and Beijing enshrining control last year via a national security law, bags are being packed once more.
“Staying in Hong Kong is not an option anymore,” said Maria Law, 39, who moved to Vancouver last year with her two girls ahead of her husband. “I’d rather have a free future for my daughters instead of making money while they have to keep their mouths shut.”
For Law, a former flight attendant, history has repeated itself.
She is part of a rare cohort of double political emigrants.
Taken to Vancouver when she was 12, Law remembers daily speakerphone calls from the living room with her father, who was earning the family bread as a hotel chef back in Hong Kong.
Enthusiasm for the calls waned as it became clear he was staying. Yet like many such “satellite” children, separated from one or both parents, Law eventually followed in her father’s footsteps to return to Hong Kong herself for work in 2004.
“When I was young, I asked my father why I had to move. But now I am in his position, I understand,” she said. “He sacrificed more than we did. He’s the one who had to be alone.”
Thanks to Canada’s liberal immigration system, 335,646 Hong Kongers moved there between 1984 when Britain’s handover was declared and 1997, according to the Canadian International Council think tank.
It is hard to track exactly how many Hong Kongers are moving to Canada as so many can travel freely between the two.
New visa applications from Hong Kong rose more than 20 percent to 10,819 last year, Canadian immigration says.
Pre-handover immigrants created ethnic enclaves with strip malls featuring Hong Kong-style cafes, Cantonese-speaking dentists and Chinese supermarkets.
In Richmond, a Vancouver suburb, 21.9 percent of residents counted Cantonese as their first language, followed by 20 percent for Mandarin, the main language in the rest of China, in a 2016 census.
In Markham, just north of Toronto, the vast Pacific Mall shares the same name as Hong Kong’s centrally located Pacific Place shopping center.
Pacific Mall’s corridors bear the names of major arteries in Hong Kong, such as Hollywood Road or Hennessy Road.
In nearby plazas, those nostalgic for Hong Kong fare can pick up warm pineapple buns with a cold slab of butter and Chinese-language newspapers Sing Tao and Ming Pao.
Jason, who plans to move back to Canada with his wife and nine-year-old twins, said he is “a little bit confused” about his identity.
His father moved to Hong Kong during Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) rule after four of 10 siblings starved to death in mainland China, he said.
His parents sent him to high school in Canada in 1993 at 13.
However, in 2001, his father’s construction firm was struggling and he had to drop out of college to return to Hong Kong, where he later became a furniture salesman.
Over the years he noticed Hong Kong transforming: The luxury apartments he fitted were increasingly owned by mainland Chinese, and Mandarin became the more common language.
“It’s kind of sad,” said Jason, who did not give his full name as he is yet to tell his twins about leaving. “Every time I have a gathering with friends or chit-chat with colleagues, the only topic is ‘where are you going to live’?”
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