The spirit of hope

We have hotpot in times of celebration, in times of farewell and in times of great pain and sadness.

Elpis – the Spirit of Hope

I came into the new life of Elpis as an old friend, one that links back to the golden time of early adulthood when we both were child-free and often absent from the sight of parents. This new life in City A, I often wonder, if it is what Elpis wants or just an escape of what she doesn’t want back in Hong Kong? With little saving she had (about £33,000), she and her daughter moved to the UK in the summer of 2022. They settled in City A, a place that is far away enough from her sister and close enough to get her help when needed. No doubt to Elpis, this is a new start or at least hopefully a new start between herself and her sister.

Mainstream narratives about Hongkongers in the UK depict the diaspora as educated, well-off and self-sufficient. The Home Office[1], at the second anniversary of the BN(O) visa, also emphasised the economic and social contributions that Hongkongers had already made to the British society, marking a stark contrast with the hostile environment that the conservative governments have created against migrants. This upper middle-class stereotype of Hongkongers can be held true, maybe, for some of those who settle in places like Sutton, Richmond, Sale and Altrincham where the respective housing prices on average are £506,842, £846,408, £336,313 and £507,606 in 2022 (Rightmove statistics, 2023). While the housing prices of City A are on the higher end of the range, compared to some of the Hongkongers’ favourite neighbourhoods in Greater Manchester and Greater London, what is the experience of settling in City A with an 8 year-old, as a single mum, struggling to meet ends?

Anticipating the restrictions on unvaccinated population would soon include children[2], Elpis decided to move to the UK as soon as the BN(O) visa arrived in May/June 2022. Moving in a hurry before the roll-out of COVID vaccination to cover children aged 6-month or above (HKSAR, 2022), Elpis could only pack a couple of suitcases and left most of her belongings in her apartment in Hong Kong.

A leap of faith

On our first day of visit, Elpis was slicing meticulously a piece of deboned short rib for our hotpot dinner and plating them in the shape of a rose. This is normally what a professional hotpot restaurant in Hong Kong would do, and now it has become a Facebook phenomenon that all Hong Kong mums in Britain would plate their beef in such a way to remember hotpots in Hong Kong. Not only the taste of home Hongkongers are seeking, but also the way we used to hang out with friends. This recalled the memories of me and my friends 12 years back frequenting Sichuan hotpot restaurants nearly every night, after training for the Hong Kong Trailwalker and the Hong Kong Marathon.  ‘I don’t throw stuff away… you know that? When I do, I feel like I need time to mourn for the loss – the piece of memory that goes with the thing’ muttered Elpis when the knife was going back and forth on the short rib steak. All the things she left behind in the old apartment were either posted to the new house in City A, or they remained in the apartment. One day, she said, she would take all of them back to her new life here in the UK. How could she leave Hong Kong when she couldn’t even leave a piece of household item behind? ‘A leap of faith.

You know, it is a leap of faith’ she said. ‘I believe I can build a better life here than in Hong Kong. Otherwise, what is the point of leaving after all?’. Elpis was determined.

Clutter, the evidence of living

Where Elpis lives is full of things, things of all sorts. We entered the duplex through a hallway leading to the kitchen and the dining room on the left, and the living room and the study at the end. Upstairs is the bedrooms for Elpis, her daughter Deborah and her ex-husband who had just joined them for less than a week when we visited. When you turned into the kitchen, you realised there were many interesting gadgets that cater various kinds of cooking – wafer maker, air fryer, microwave oven, bread maker, slow cookers and many you can and cannot name. I was laughing because Elpis always said she never ever cooked in Hong Kong, why would she accumulate all these appliances? ‘I am like an apprentice (見習主婦)now, learning how to be a proper housewife!’ she proudly acclaimed, after she had divorced her husband for about a year. Next to the appliances, there sat a cupboard overflown by Hong Kong snacks and dried goods, on the other side standing two mops for wet and dry cleaning.

‘I do not like tidyng up the house. I live here! These things are evidence of me living.’  

Elpis said as she walked out of the kitchen.

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[1] https://m.facebook.com/ukhomeofficegov/videos/many-hong-kongers-have-said-living-in-britain-is-like-coming-homethe-uk-is-proud/743917677099059/

[2] https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202209/08/P2022090800481.htm