Michelle Cheung | Paragon Tea Room—Tea for the open-minded

Michelle Cheung is a prolific young business owner who is making waves in the Vancouver cafe scene. Her current endeavour: Paragon Tea Room, has just celebrated its 2nd anniversary, boasts a modest 4.8 stars on Google, and attracts guests from all over the Greater Vancouver area. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she never planned to have a career in Canada, but now that she’s cultivating a gateway for Vancouver to connect with Eastern tea traditions, she hopes she can make Hong Kong proud someday. Read on to discover her ambitions for Paragon and beyond.

Career, Arts, Culture, Food, IdentityWe Are HKers10 December 2021tea, vancouver, canada, paragon, identityComment

【Video】House of To Kwa Wan Stories | Home uprooted in the name of development - Farewell imminent, but community lives on

House of To Kwa Wan Stories, or “To Home” was established in Hung Fuk Street back in 2014 and now operates alongside Fixing Hong Kong and Community Cultural Concern. To Home is a one-of-a-kind community space, pushing for community development and the recording and archiving of To Kwa Wan’s stories, aimed at entering and being part of the community. With To Kwa Wan as a base camp, To Home hopes to connect the community as if it were a family, and to defend the ecumene that holds countless stories and tales. As To Kwa Wan is designated for urban renewal, and To Home’s fate is sealed along with its neighbours, members of To Home are now racing against the clock to maintain and record the fading area’s culture and vibe. In this interview, we have Sui Ling and Bun sharing their work and feelings as To Home faces the independent fate of urban renewal and eviction.

【Video】Leung Ming Kai + Kate Reilly | Fragmented, collective Hong Kong memories—a film on remembrance and loss

Leung Ming Kai is a Hong Kong director-cinematographer whose recent works include Murmur of the Hearts and Suk Suk. Kate Reilly is an American actor-producer, whose recent works include Therapy and The Path. Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down is the first film co-directed by the couple.

【Commentary】We are all Hongkongers

As long as we share the same belief, and the same passion for Hong Kong and its culture, regardless of our race and language, we are all Hongkongers.

Commentary, Culture, IdentityWe Are HKers17 January 2021commentary, opinion, hongkonger, hker, hk, hong kong, foreigner, expat, belief, culture, race, language, umbrella movement, revolution, movement, anti-elab, voiceComment

Daring to sacrifice amidst billowing smoke; Finding courage amongst the swells

“There’s no revolution without blood.” Revolution is the heftiest form of resistance. The bravery and sacrifices of revolutionaries are not only captured through camera lenses during confrontation and bloodshed, but also shown in their unyielding souls.

【Video】Ghost and John | Exploring the Hongkonger identity through physical creativity

The modern art duo Ghost and John are from Hong Kong. As graduates of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), they travelled to London to study contemporary dance after working for a few years. Their production fuses elements of physical motion, multimedia, and technology to create thought-provoking interaction. Through art, they explore themes of freedom and society as well as the Hongkonger identity.

Culture, Video, Identity, ArtsWe Are HKers10 July 2020ghost, john, identity, performance, hkust, london, dance, art, arts, mehporpor, gdfts, video, silver wolf, crazy manComment

【Video】Lindsay Varty | Author of Sunset Survivors – “Don’t forget why you love Hong Kong!"

Lindsay is a half-British, half-Macanese writer, journalist and a former professional rugby player raised in Hong Kong. As the award-winning author of Sunset Survivors, a book that tells the tales of Hong Kong’s traditional tradespeople, Lindsay lives and breathes Hong Kong and is fascinated by its culture and history. She now gives talks and runs local walking tours that focus on the subject of her book.

Lee Johnson, Educator at an international school | Working Together for the Future of Hong Kong

Lee Johnson has been an international educator for over 15 years, having lived in Hong Kong since 2017. He also resided in Hong Kong during the Umbrella Revolution in 2014. With the current social and political unrest, and considering the range of perspectives within the school community, Lee tries to focus on ensuring the school is a safe, joyful space for the children and adults in his care, while continuing to foster a tolerant and open-minded global community.

Keyboard Warrior | Politics dividing generations. We keep wasting time — whose fault is it?

Keyboard Warrior is a post-80s HongKonger who became a fulltime housewife in June 2019. Due to the anti-extradition movement, her relationship with her family changed drastically. Her husband has very different values and she reconsiders whether she should have children under the current situation in Hong Kong.

【VIDEO】Kathy Mak | How a Parody Brought Laughter Amongst Chaos

Kathy Mak, a freelance digital marketer and performer, became the talk of the town after performing a parody about the coronavirus outbreak and panic-buying in Hong Kong. Kathy hopes to use her humour and talent to bring positivity to society during this difficult time.

Culture, Health, Hobbies, Identity, Personal, Career, Video, MusicWe Are HKers23 April 2020coronavirus, covid-19, health, humour, arts, parody, singer, performing, art, hongkonger, viral, overseasComment

Little Shrimp | Protester in Exile: I will Never Give Up

Shrimp is a 17-year-old secondary school student who used to be a frontline protester. At the beginning of this year, he was persecuted by the Police Force. In the face of white terror, Shrimp made the difficult decision to go into exile. Before he left, he wanted shared a few words with his fellow HongKongers.

Samuel Chan | Reconnecting people despite losing others - support through personal interactions

Samuel Chan is an organiser of Conversations with the Courageous, a volunteer group that aims to raise awareness and support of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement through personal interactions with local people in San Francisco.

He is also an organiser of the Hong Kong Affairs Association of Berkeley, a group that aims to raise awareness of issues related to democracy and human rights in Hong Kong among students at the University of California, Berkeley, and the general public.

【SHARED】Mr Chan | The Warmth behind a Mask: A Day in the Life of a Night-shift Postman

Mr Chan is a postman who has been serving Hong Kong for the past 20 years. Amidst the coronavirus outbreak, he volunteered to work extra night shifts.

Health, Identity, Career, Shared ArticleWe Are HKers10 April 2020postman, worker, public servant, masks, government, lui, mr chan, mask, citizen news, Covid-19Comment

Veni | The events industry deserves to be a specialised profession to be treated fairly and respectfully

Veni has been working as an event organiser for about five to six years. She is one of the founding committee members of the Hong Kong Event Professionals Union (HKEPU). The coronavirus hit the economy hard while they were organising the union. As the industry faces unprecedented challenges, HKEPU bears the responsibility to immediately spring to action.

Career, Identity, PoliticsWe Are HKers29 March 2020hong kong, hongkonger, HKEPU, Event, union, community, 行山之友, tea leaf, veni, industry, profession, professionalComment

Barry | My mom would ask me if I have a girlfriend, and if I have a boyfriend.

Barry is in his 50s, and is working in public relations for an international brand. He married his husband, Fred, in Canada 10 years ago and they have been together for over 20 years. They own a gay bar in SOHO, Hong Kong. Barry has come out to his family, friends and colleagues with one regret. Find out why he regrets not coming out to his mom before she passed away in 2002.

Family, Identity, LoveWe Are HKers25 March 2020gay, LGBTQ+, comingout, parent, mother, motherandson, sexuality, identity, regrets, spirit, vision, relationshipComment

Jade | Canadian-HKer reconnecting with Hong Kong: “I felt isolated navigating my identity and politics.”

Born and raised in Canada, I have friends from a diverse ethnic background. It’s hard for them to understand why I feel so strongly about Hong Kong. I tried my best to raise awareness on what was happening, but I always criticized myself wondering, “Am I annoying?”

I felt isolated navigating my identity and politics. I hope that people from Hong Kong will see me as one of them even though I wasn’t born or raised there.

【VIDEO】 Vivek Mahbubani | Indian Hongkonger, Award-Winning Standup Comedian - Redefining What “Normal” Is

When we stood in front of Chungking Mansions, people came up to us and said, “You’re a Hongkonger, never forget that!”. I remember saying “Hong Kong is not a race, not a skin colour and not a religion, but a spirit,” and the crowd cheered and agreed with me. Afterall, the resolution to racial problems isn’t mechanically ‘“learning about different cultures’,” it’s recognising that at the end of the day, we’re all humans, we’re all the same, and we all want to enjoy life.

Culture, Identity, Politics, Personal, VideoWe Are HKers16 January 2020Vivek, mahbubani, indian, hongkonger, comedian, normal, chungking, race, ethnicity, ethnic minority, small echoes, tangerine, hkers normal, timComment

Skittles | What it means to be gay, Chinese, and Christian all at once - 'In each of us, there is a desire to know, speak and love freely.'

I often thought, “What if someone sees us? Will they think that we’re disgusting?” Am I disgusting? I saw being gay as a huge problem that needed to be solved. And now, I don’t focus so much on seeing it as a ‘problem’, although it is something that I am still working on. Self discovery and acceptance require courage and a caring community, and I was lucky enough to have both.

Culture, Family, Identity, PersonalWe Are HKers13 January 2020skittles, penguine, gay, chinese, christian, struggle, love, speak, know, God, Christianity, community, courage, LGBTQ+Comment

Mavis | Spending time reading sad news? - "I should think about how I can help."

I still cannot say that we have sent out the right messages to 'click' with most Canadians to their heart. Some people say they support Hong Kong; others wonder why. We just have too many stories to tell; there are too many things happening. That's the real problem.

Career, Politics, Identity, Personal, Family, OverseasWe Are HKers30 December 2019mavis, coalhada, tendarken, canadian, canada, news, action, vancouver, PR, overseasComment

Jeremy | Hongkonger who studied and is working in the UK - "If you are forced into a corner and no one listens to you...what else can you do, except protest?"

The crux of the problem is that Hongkongers see no future. They are terrified of what will happen in 2047. We have been protesting since the handover in 1997. We have given the government many chances to implement changes. Yet, time and again, they have failed us. What more can we do? What more should we do?

Family, Personal, Identity, Politics, OverseasWe Are HKers3 December 2019Jeremy, UK, government, protest, hongkonger, corner, don, sl, nora the cat, overseas, LGBTQ+, youngsters, TotoroComment