6 Holiday specials The Economist December 18th 2021
parentinginhongkongT EACH YOUR
C HILDREN WELL
M
ary choihad bundled her two sons off to her
mother’s so that she could pack in peace. Her
apartment was stacked full of cardboard boxes, and
three hardshell suitcases were wedged between the
dining table and wall, price tags still dangling from
their handles. She was not excited about leaving Hong
Kong for Britain. Two years earlier, she and her hus
band had taken their sons on a reconnaissance trip,
staying for a few days with old friends in London to see
if they liked it. She had not.
It was her son cheering for China during the Tokyo
Olympics in the summer of 2021 that tipped her over
the edge. That, and being forced to sign an oath pledg
ing fealty to the Hong Kong government and, effective
ly, the Chinese Communist Party. Never mind that she
had worked in the civil service for almost 20 years
without ever having to take an oath.
To make matters worse, a culture of informing on
colleagues had enveloped her workplace, and a record
number of people had resigned. Mrs Choi was not a de
mocracy activist. But the speed with which Hong Kong
had slid from being a fairly liberal and free society to
wards an authoritarian one shocked her. She and her
husband had stopped talking about politics at home,
fearful that their sons, who were seven and ten, might
overhear them and unknowingly say the wrong thing
in school.
Mrs Choi thought about how nervous, worried and
excited her sons were about moving, emotions that
whirled inside her too. Would they fit in? What would
she do if her sons were bullied at school? What if her
sons never learned to read Chinese fluently? What if
they refused to answer her in Cantonese?H ONG KONG
Does that mean submitting to the Communist Party?