My Life In Hong Kong · by Milton Kiang

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I spent an incredible 13 years in a place dubbed the “pearl of the orient,”
meeting interesting people, visiting exotic places, but over time I
became more aware of who I was, and what it meant to be Canadian.

East meets West

Hong Kong is a difficult place to describe. The Hong Kong Tourism Board
calls it “Asia’s World Class City,” but I have my doubts. I suppose it
depends on what one considers “world class.”

How do you describe a place that has one of the world’s largest stock
markets, a landmass of 426 square miles (smaller than the Oahu), a landscape
consisting mostly of mountains, one of the highest population densities in
the world (16,469 people per square mile), and no natural resources?

It’s a place whose main language is Cantonese Chinese, but whose laws are
drafted in English. A place where, due to weak zoning laws, you can find a
methadone clinic near a playground, and “love hotels” located near schools.
(Love hotels are places that are rented on an hourly-basis to couples.)

Hong Kong is a place where every major multinational has its regional office
- from General Electric to Sony Corporation, from Exxon Mobil to Vodaphone.

It’s urban landscape is dotted with 80-story glass and steel towers.
Yet, the city sometimes seems backward by Western standards. In villages
located in the outskirts of Hong Kong, ancient Chinese laws are still
enforced governing the inheritance of family property by only male heirs.
Homes lack central heating or air conditioning; tap water is heated through
gas heaters located in bathrooms and kitchens; there is almost no recycling.
There’s no anti-discrimination law, but thankfully thousands of people from
all over the world - British, Americans, Canadians, Indians, Japanese,
Koreans, Filipinos, Thais, Indonesians - co-exist peacefully.

It’s a place of my family’s ancestry, where the old and the new, the East
and the West, converge.

I always wanted to work in Hong Kong, and after months of planning, I
finally saved up enough money to cover my flight ticket, temporary
accommodation, and several months of living expenses.
I reached Hong Kong in August 1995; I was 27-years-old. What was initially
planned as a three-to-five year stint turned into a thirteen-year stay.

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Living in Hong Kong
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Hong Kong ranks as one of the world’s most expensive places to live.
According to human resources consulting firm Mercer, Hong Kong ranks as the
sixth-most-expense city in the world after such places as New York, Tokyo
and London.

A 600-square-feet apartment near Central (Hong Kong’s central business
district) now rents for $2000 to $2,500 per month. The same apartment sells
for C$800,000 to C$1 million depending on its facilities (e.g. club house,
gym) and exact location.

When I first came to Hong Kong, I found an apartment that was located 45
minutes away by subway from Central. The rent was about $1,300, the most I
could afford at the time.

The apartment was only 500 square feet, and it had three tiny bedrooms. I
placed my clothes in one bedroom, my suitcases in the second. The last one
could barely fit my bed.

Because of Hong Kong’s limited space, property developers build 400- to
700-square-foot apartments with two or three bedrooms, designed to
accommodate an extended family including grandparents. In many Hong Kong
households, aging parents live with their adult children.

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The Tiny Island’s Giant Economy
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A friend who works as a marking manager for Invest HK, a business chamber
charged with promoting Hong Kong as an international business hub, told me
once that she hardly needs to sell Hong Kong to foreign businesses. Hong
Kong’s track record speaks for itself.

Hong Kong, once a barren group of islands whose main industry was fishing,
has evolved into one of the world’s largest financial centers. The Hong Kong
Stock Exchange is the sixth-largest in the world with a total market
capitalization of $2.97 trillion.

There are more banks, and accounting and law firms in Hong Kong per capita
than anywhere else in the world. The business directories of banks, and law
firms and accounting firms are as thick as telephone books.
International firms KPMG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Ernst & Young dominate
the accounting services industry in Hong Kong.

Hong Kongers are obsessed with making money. A traditional greeting during
the Chinese New Year holidays is ” Happy New Year! Enjoy good health and
make lots of money!”

Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Asia, and chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, the
ports-to-energy-to-telecommunications conglomerate, is a role model to every
business person and entrepreneur.

Li had his humble beginnings in China, and according to legend, he moved to
Hong Kong as a teenager with only a few dollars in his pocket, selling
plastic flowers to make a living. He now controls two of the largest
companies in the Hang Seng Index, Hong Kong’s stock market index.
Most Hong Kongers think, “If Li can do it, so can I.”

Doing business is a way of life in Hong Kong. Business cards are exchanged
almost as soon as one meets another for the first time. As a sign of
respect, business cards are presented using two hands, with the thumbs and
forefingers pressed over the upper corners of the card

Most people work five-and-a-half days a week. (Saturday is half-day, with
employees coming in a 9 a.m. and leaving at 1 p.m.) Recently, Hong Kong
government offices have closed their offices on Saturdays, eliminating
Saturday half-days for civil servants, setting an example for Hong Kong
companies to pay attention to the work-life balance of workers.

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A Consumer’s Paradise
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There are more Rolls Royce and Mercedes Benz vehicles per capita in Hong
Kong than any other place in the world. Some of the world’s top luxury
hotels including the Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula, and Shangri-la are based
in Hong Kong, and leading luxury brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and
Armani plant their Asian flag ship stores in Hong Kong.

Swarms of tourists - mainly from Japan but increasingly from China - travel
to Hong Kong on shopping excursions. Younger Japanese women come to Hong
Kong on weekends, buying a few Louis Vuitton bags, and then selling them for
double the price in Tokyo or Osaka.

Rich mainland Chinese, beneficiaries of China’s robust economic growth,
travel to Hong Kong to buy truckloads of Rolex watches, Burberry coats and
Gucci bags. All are paid for in cash. Less than five-per-cent of mainland
Chinese carry credit cards.

Hong Kong is a place of raw, unfettered consumerism. It’s about wearing the
most expensive watch, drinking the finest brandies, and dining on the most
expensive abalone and shark’s fin soup.

Abalone and shark’s fin soup are delicacies in Chinese cuisine. A serving of
abalone or shark’s fin soup can cost $100 per person. Parents hosting their
children’s wedding banquet will order these items to show their status
within the community.

(Meanwhile, because of the high demand for shark’s fin in Chinese
restaurants, according to the UK’s Guardian newspaper, nine more species of
sharks have been added to the World Conservation Union’s list of 126
endangered shark species. Abalone commands such a high price in Chinese
markets that criminal syndicates have sprung up to control poaching in many
parts of the world. )

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International Outlook
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Hong Kong is a microcosm of the international community. In my first job as
an in-house lawyer at a telephone company, I reported to an American boss;
the company’s technical director was Australian, and a close work colleague
was South African.

The expatriate (or expat for short) population in Hong Kong is sizable.
According to Time Magazine, 7.6 per cent of Hong Kong’s population are
foreigners

Jamie Hunter, 36, a fellow Canadian and sports marketing executive, said one
of the reasons he was attracted to Hong Kong was its internationalism. He
enjoyed meeting people from other countries within the expat community, as
well as getting to know the local Hong Kongers.

I shared a similar view. In my social circle, I had friends from Germany,
Britain, Australia, Holland, Japan, and, of course, local Hong Kongers.
My first Oktoberfest celebration wasn’t in Munich but in Hong Kong. Every
October, one of Hong Kong’s oldest and largest hotels flies in a German
polka band which entertains crowds of 300 to 400 people, all enjoying pork
knuckle, sauerkraut, bratwursts, and draft beer served in porcelain beer
steins.

Hong Kongers are well-versed in international travel. Most have spent some
time studying overseas. When I later worked as a recruiter for lawyers, the
majority of my candidates had degrees from outside of Hong Kong.
Part of the reason for this phenomenon is historical. When Hong Kong was run
by the British, civil servants sent their children to English boarding
schools, all expenses paid for by the government.

Today, many middle-class families send their children abroad for an overseas
education. It’s a matter of status, but also a chance for students to
improve their English skills and obtain foreign degrees that might translate
to better job prospects in Hong Kong.

Another reason was a lack of local universities and post-secondary
institutions; there simply weren’t enough spaces to accommodate high school
graduates.

The situation has improved somewhat and during the last 20 years, at least
four new universities have sprung up, but Hong Kong parents continue sending
their children overseas for post-secondary education.

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Work hard, play hard
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With a salary roughly double what I was making in Vancouver, I came to enjoy
living in Hong Kong. In fact, money is the main reason why most expats make
Hong Kong their home.

By my seventh year in Hong Kong, I felt I had “finally arrived.” I now lived
closer to Central in a $2,000-a-month apartment, formed a social network of
lawyers, bankers, media executives and other professionals. I belonged to a
5-star hotel’s health club, dined at private clubs, and vacationed at
resorts around Asia during long weekends.

The lifestyle was seductive, and I often thought about how my day-to-day
living had differed from those of my friends in Canada. I took cabs
everywhere, I had a housekeeper to clean my apartment, and dined out almost
every other night.

When I asked Terrence Wong (not his real name), 36, a fellow Canadian and
equities trader at a renown international brokerage firm about what keeps him in
Hong Kong, he said it was the lifestyle and money.

Bond and equities traders are notorious in Hong Kong. Every major investment
bank from Barclays Capital to Lehman Brothers (now defunct) to Merrill Lynch
(saved from being defunct) hire teams of brokers who trade in stocks and
bonds and all sorts of financial securities, running transactions worth
billions everyday.

Wong makes trades for his institutional clients worth $5 to $10 million a
day.

Happy hour is the time when all the traders, investment bankers, lawyers,
and fund managers gather to unwind.

In the bars of Lan Kwai Fong, Central’s entertainment district, men and
women in their suits gather to talk about the day’s battles fought within
the region’s ruthless financial markets.

The air is heavy with cigarette smoke, loud music plays in the background,
and half the crowd is either yelling into their cell phones or sending
messages on their Blackberries.

Wong, who always looks as if he hadn’t slept in weeks, loves happy hours.
His favourite war-cry during happy hour is “Lift!” meaning everyone should
take their drinks and down them in one go. Wong is generous with his money,
usually buying drinks for everyone around the bar after he’s had one too
many.

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Some Personal Changes Brewing
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During my thirteenth year in Hong Kong, I began to miss life back in
Vancouver. Hong Kong treated me well, but I felt there was something
missing.

Though I am ethnically Chinese, I never felt truly connected to Hong Kong. I
spoke Cantonese Chinese, but didn’t share the same values as Hong Kongers.
But I wasn’t a true expat either, due to my Chinese heritage and affinity to
Chinese culture. I was stuck in the middle of two worlds.

Things which I barely noticed in the past began to bother me now. I was
troubled by the fact that there wasn’t a minimum wage law in Hong Kong. Many
laborers barely make $1,000 a month, and though some live in
government-subsidized housing, their low incomes could barely support a
family.

In poorer areas of Hong Kong, there are families of four or more living in
200-square-feet rooms, with three or four families sharing one bathroom.
Many of them are migrant workers from China, supplying the cheap labor
required for Hong Kong’s never-ending construction projects. Due to minimal
social welfare, everyone must work to survive.

The pressures can be overwhelming in such a crowded city. In 2007, a young
housewife took her life by jumping off an apartment building, taking along
her two young toddlers. Marital and financial troubles were said to be the
cause. Three more suicides occurred later that year in the same
working-class neighborhood.

Hong Kong’s suicide rate is among the highest in the world. In 2004, 17.6
per 100,000 people committed suicide, well above the global rate of 15, and
the highest figure in recent years, according to the China Daily newspaper.
Pollution is another big problem. Hong Kong’s air pollution index has
reached such high levels that it rarely meets the World Health Organization
standards for clean air.

Last year, three schools cancelled their outdoor sports day activities
because of severe air pollution. The year before, a marathon runner, a local
man, collapsed and died during the last few miles of a race due to an
asthmatic attack caused by air pollution.

I found it increasingly difficult to understand people’s obsession with
material possessions when there were more immediate social and economic
issues that needed to be addressed.

“It’s all about face,” says securities broker Wong. “You know how Hong Kongers are, it’s all about money and status.”

I noticed people loved to talk about salaries, buying property, taking
exotic holidays. While sitting in a coffee shop one afternoon, I overheard
the conversations at two tables nearby where the main topic was money.
After a while, wearing the smartest suits, dining at the fanciest
restaurants, taking expensive trips - those things didn’t matter to me.
There were days when I just wanted to close my eyes and take a deep breath.
But with the high air pollution and crowds everywhere, that was sometimes
difficult to do.

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Different Priorities
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My priorities changed. I began to place greater importance on social
equality, a cleaner environment, a stronger sense of community.
I needed more than just money or material things to sustain me. I needed to
be part of a community, I needed a deeper connection to the place in which I
lived.

Every city has its personality. I reached a stage where I thought Hong
Kong’s personality no longer fit my own.

After a short visit to Vancouver in October 2007, I decided it was time to
move back. By April 2008, I was on a one-way flight back to Vancouver.
Wong understands my return to Vancouver but it’s a move he’d never make.
Hong Kong is where he belongs. “In terms of salary, I could never make in
Vancouver what I’m making now,” he says. Wong finds Vancouver’s pace of
life too slow and too quiet for his preference.

While, on occasion, I do miss the international, fast-paced lifestyle of
Hong Kong, I relish what Vancouver offers: clean air; clear summer skies;
numerous outdoor activities; more civic-minded people; abundant personal
space; and, of course, ice hockey.

Hunter shares the same sentiments. Having returned to Vancouver in 2007, he
says, “It’s just not the same in Asia. I missed the outdoors and lifestyle
in Canada. Yeah, in Asia things are more fast-paced. You can make more money
as an expat, there’re the fancy restaurants and bars. But for me, the core
things that are important to me are in Vancouver - my family, cleaner air, a
healthier lifestyle.”

It’s true you have to leave a place before you can truly appreciate it. When
life-long Vancouverites tell me they appreciate our city, without having
spent any significant of amount time outside its borders, I find their
sentiments hard to fathom. You can’t truly appreciate something unless
you’ve been without it.

Is Vancouver the place where I will spend the rest of my years? I can’t say
for certain, but what I know is that people change, they evolve. When my
values and priorities do change - as they inevitably will - and those
changes take me to a place away from Vancouver, then so be it.
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Milton Kiang is a freelance writer based in Vancouver, Canada and covers business, legal and social issues in North America. Mr. Kiang was born in Japan and raised in Canada. Mr. Kiang graduated with a B.A. (International Relations) from the University of British Columbia (1989), and a LL.B. from the University of Calgary (1993).

Mr. Kiang also worked in executive search, and trained in career counseling at George Brown College, Toronto.