The stunning Hong Kong Harbour from Kowloon

It’s called reverse migration. Years ago, my parents left Asia for America to find a better life, to get a good education, and to raise a family. They’ve now been in Canada so long, in fact, that they really don’t feel at home in their places of birth. My Dad left Taiwan when he was 10. My Mom left Hong Kong when she was 17.

I don’t remember my first trip to Hong Kong. I was a year old when my parents took my brother and I on our first overseas family vacation. I’ve heard the stories so many times, especially the one where I smash my face into a table and I lose my front baby tooth. That’s why, for years until my big teeth grew in, I had a big gap where my front tooth should have been. It made for pretty adorable toothless grins on school Picture Days.

I was a shy girl who grew up around excellent dim sum and frequent trips to Toronto’s bustling Chinese supermarkets. I went through years of painful Saturday mornings sitting in Mandarin classes. But we didn’t return to Hong Kong for another family vacation. I returned to this place when I started traveling on my own – first in 2002 when I visited Taiwan, and then in 2005 when I went on a college exchange program to Hong Kong Baptist University for a semester. It was after that exchange when I knew I wanted to spend more time in this “motherland.” In 2007, I moved to Beijing for a year to learn how to read and write Putonghua. I couldn’t have asked for a better China experience.

Days before the Olympics, I left to New York to start my Masters degree.

“Why do you want to go back to China?” I get that question a lot, especially from Canadian Chinese of my parents’ generation. There’s so much land in Canada, so much space and comfort. Things are cheap and abundant in Canada. We have cars! Blue skies! There’s good bread in Canada – whole wheat!

And ohhh, how I miss the whole wheat. (I went to three supermarkets today in search of good whole wheat bread. No luck.)

But maybe because I was born into such luxury that is whole wheat bread that I yearn for something else, somewhere different yet familiar.

So I’ve come back to Hong Kong – I arrived Saturday – and it’s here I’ll begin my Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. I am going to be traveling throughout SE Asia, mostly in China, and I’ll be writing and blogging about it all.

My next post: Beheading a (dead) chicken.

Stay tuned!

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