The Sunday Times December 19, 2021 5before settling on a two-storey,
four-bedroom house in
Cranleigh, Surrey. “We think
it’s easier for us to settle down
and be part of a community in
a smaller place,” says Chan,
who teaches educational
psychology. “It’s huge
compared to our tiny flat in
Hong Kong. We were living
in an 850 sq ft apartment on
the 33th floor of a high-rise
building overlooking
Victoria Harbour. It’s totally
different here.”
Chan admits that they are
worried about the political
situation in Hong Kong. She
has left her mother, who is 95,
and her older brother. “I do
worry about my family. Things
got much worse over the past
year,” she says. They know
more than ten families who
have moved to the UK because
of that, but Chan adds that
many more are considering it.
“It’s important that people
here know what’s going on in
Hong Kong.”
Mina Koh, 37, has also left
her parents behind, to make
a new start in Edinburgh,
where she had spent a year
studying in the city as part of
her second master’s degree.
She left Hong Kong after
seeing more activists arrested,
worrying that her donations
to certain NGOs might land
her in trouble. “My parents
are quite old and were not
willing to join me in the UK, so
they are more or less left
behind,” she says.
Koh lives alone and is still
working remotely as a teacher
in Hong Kong. She has
struggled, especially with
loneliness, but over time has
made friends through her
local church. Koh’s sorrows(Overseas) visa (BNO) scheme
was announced in January,
with Boris Johnson
proclaiming his “immense
pride” in a programme that
honours our “profound ties of
history and friendship with
the people of Hong Kong”. The
government estimated that
over five years 300,000 to
500,000 Hongkongers would
arrive in the UK.
But what happened next?
So far 90,000 have applied for
the scheme, which entitles the
holder to five years’ residence
with a pathway to citizenship.
Many new arrivals have aimed
for London, where the largest
community of Hongkongers
already existed, and they had
already spent well over
£300 million on property in
the capital in 2020.
However, many of the new
migrants are middle-class
professionals. Work is under
way to house these arrivals at
Convoys Wharf in Deptford,
southeast London, where the
property magnate Li Ka-shing
is converting an old naval yard
into a £1 billion, 3,500-home
estate that has earned the
moniker “UK Hong Kong
town”.
About three quarters of
Hongkongers are looking
beyond the capital, to places
such as Reading. Anywhere
with good education,
transport links to London,
affordable property and an
existing community of expats
is appealing.
Yet moving across the world
is rarely straightforward.
Although the government has
earmarked £43 million to help
to ease the absorption of
Hongkongers into Britain,
many have struggled with
challenges such as gaining
proper references for rental
leases or finding appropriate
jobs to suit their qualifications.
There is also a sense of
dislocation. “We are not really
sure if we are welcome or not,”
Li says. “It’s embarrassing
because it’s hard to ask.”
On Broad Street the church
choir moves on to another
Cantonese favourite, O Come,
All Ye Faithful. Patrick,
whose wife, Siew Yin Chan,
is co-ordinating the carols,
estimates that their
community in Reading has
tripled in size, from 60 to 200.
Although only about
11 per cent of Hongkongers
are Christian, church
communities and leaders
in Britain have played a
prominent role in helping the
new migrants to settle. Patrick
has been pleased by how
friendly and forthcoming the
locals have been since they
arrived in 2019. “In general we
find the UK pretty
welcoming,” he says. “The
kids settle in well, but for
the parents it can be more
challenging.”
Li and Wong are still
working remotely for finance
and IT companies respectively
in Hong Kong. As with many
Hongkongers, they have found
the UK job hunt tricky. “We
have to adapt to the local
environment, to the working
environment,” Li says.
“I believe if we stay here
and keep patient, something
will change. I hope so.”
Beyond Reading,
Hongkongers have spread
their roots across much of
Britain. Before they arrive,
many gain tips on life in the
UK from watching Cantonese
YouTube influencers such as
Ophelia Chan, who expounds
on the “hidden treasures” of
Surrey and points out that
towns such as Woburn Sands
and Aspley Guise can make a
“good cheap alternative” to
London. Manchester, Sutton,
Cheltenham and Bristol have
proved popular too.
Dr Lena Chan, 56, and her
husband, Wayne Lo, 55,
a retired electrical engineer
who used to work for the
Hong Kong government,
looked at 20 propertiesMain: Hong Kong.
Clockwise from
above: members
of Reading
Chinese Christian
Church carolling;
influencer
Ophelia Chan;
Dr Lena Chan
and Wayne Lo
moved to Surrey;
Cheltenham is
popular with
Hong Kong
expatscome not from the pitfalls of
life in Britain, but looking back
home, where only last week
China sentenced the Hong
Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai
and seven other pro-
democracy activists to up to 14
months in prison for
conducting a vigil for victims
of the Tiananmen Square
massacre of 1989. “The UK is
lovely and fine,” Koh says,
“but as long as everything over
there is up in the air I will feel
restless and uncertain.”
She often thinks back to her
last flight out of Hong Kong.
“My last feeling was that Hong
Kong is quite beautiful. My last
view was a city of lights. The
seashore. I wondered, ‘Why
do I have to leave?’ But it had
already been decided. I have
nothing left in Hong Kong.”
There’s much to be
downcast and cynical about in
the UK today, but watching
these buoyant new migrants
belting out their favourite
carols, illuminating Reading
town centre far more brightly
than any Christmas lights
could, it is impossible not to
feel a surge of hopefulness too.
That the UK is still a country
worth living in, with rights
that are worth protecting,
where these people are able
to celebrate their first Noël in
peace and safety.The government
estimated that
over five years up
to 500,000
Hongkongers
would arrive
in the UK
SENG CHYE TEO/GETTY IMAGES; ADRIAN SHERRATT;DONNA GIBBS/ALAMY;RICHARD EATON; INSTA @OPHELIASNC