The Hong Kong Diaspora in Vancouver

Alston Li
London School of Economics & Peking University

This presentation aims to discuss and focus on how the social media platform popularizes Vancouver as a destination and to attract more Hong Kong people to join the existing Hong Kong diaspora in Vancouver. As a Chinese Canadian born in Vancouver but raised in both Hong Kong and Vancouver, I found it's interesting to discuss my own perspective on the story of Hong Kong immigrants, particularly in Vancouver. After the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989, a lot of Hong Kong people have lost their trust and fear towards the Beijing government due to the return of sovereignty to the PRC in 1997. Vancouver, as one of the most popular destinations for Hong Kong migrants, will soon turn into a diaspora Hong Kong community. There are also lots of existing social media platform that has been connecting Hong Kong people in Vancouver, mewe groups that discuss Hong Kong politics, Facebook groups named as “Hong Kongers immigration to Canada”, 香港人移民加拿大 and “Hong Konger Station'' to connect people from Hong Kong that only shares the same democratic beliefs and values. For instance, YouTubers such as Anita Lee’s channel 移加李婉華 and “CanMen” 住加男人. These social media platforms have the potential to tell Hong Kongers that Vancouver is a place that has been similar to Hong Kong. In the future, I can foresee that there will be similar platforms that will continue to integrate and attract new migrants from Hong Kong to immigrate to Vancouver as their first destination.

About me!

Alston Li

×

My name is Alston Li and currently, I am a master's student studying International Relations at the London School of Economics and Peking University. I also graduated in 2020 from the University of British Columbia. My research interests are Asian international relations and international security but I am also interested in Chinese history and Hong Kong. As a Chinese Canadian that originated from Hong Kong, and to gain a deep understanding of the political and business environment in Asia before my master’s program, I went on a program at the University of Hong Kong in June 2019 co-organized by Dr. John Carroll, Dr. Ho Yin Lee from HKU and Dr. Henry Yu from UBC to study about the role of Hong Kong immigrants in Vancouver. Through this opportunity, I have learned that Hong Kong is a window of globalization and how it is connected with Vancouver.

---

Leave your questions and comments below so that the speaker can read and respond!

Comment Form is loading comments...