The Sunday Times - UK (2021-12-19)

4 December 19, 2021The Sunday Times

Home

Hongkongers fleeing Chinese repression find hope in the UK amid homesickness, says Josh Glancy

THEIR FIRST NOËL

I

t is a scene typical of

any British high street

in the run-up to

Christmas. Shoppers

laden with bags are

buzzing along Broad Street

in Reading, Berkshire.

A nostalgic tang of roasting

chestnuts and mulled wine

lingers in the air. The Salvation

Army is playing carols in its

usual spot by the Christmas

tree outside Marks & Spencer.

Then a group of 50 or so

Hongkongers turns up. The

group shuffles around

nervously, handing out song

sheets or finding lyrics on

their smartphones. Suddenly

they click into gear, kids to the

front, brass section to the side,

and launch into a Cantonese

rendition of The First Noël.

For the newest members of

the Reading Chinese Christian

Church it is exactly that: their

first Noël in Britain. Many

have arrived here since

January, when Britain’s new

visa scheme opened for

Hongkongers fleeing Chinese

repression. For these political

refugees the festive season

comes with a wave of

emotions: relief and comfort,

but also heartache and

homesickness. Spending your

first Christmas in a strange

land can be jarring at the

best of times, but spending

it in exile so far from home,

knowing that you can

probably never go back, is an

emotional tear that few of us

will experience.

Stephen Li and Christina

Wong arrived here in May with

their adolescent boys. They

tried Leicester first, but then

gravitated to Reading to be

close to friends. They are fresh

from their first experience

mince pies. “Some say they are

too sweet, but I think they’re

quite good,” Wong says, “once

I learnt to put them in the oven

for five minutes.”

Their decision to leave

home was not easy. “It was

a really tough choice,” Li says.

“We’d lived in Hong Kong for

many years. My whole family

was there. My sons loved

their school, I loved my job.”

Li says that the introduction

of the Hong Kong National

Security Law in 2020, which

allowed China effectively to

crush any form of protest or

civil disobedience, persuaded

them to try life in Britain.

The British National