>Waiting for China: Other Articles in This Series
By ANTHONY DePALMA
ANCOUVER, British Columbia -- On Thursday nights in downtown Vancouver, the back room at the Victoria restaurant fills with Chinese women who have come to play mah-jongg,
feast on delicacies like marinated jellyfish, and show off jewels, cell phones and other gifts from their husbands, who are all back in Hong Kong.
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WAITING FOR CHINA
Straddling Two Worlds
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The maitre d'hotel welcomes them warmly, knowing they will order the rarest dishes, and leave a big tip. "They are astronauts' wives," he says. They are called "astronauts" because their rich husbands
rocket back and forth to Hong Kong, where they still run businesses.
Even though they are rarely in Vancouver, most "astronauts" and their wives have managed to become Canadian citizens. Their passports are prized insurance policies that allow them to straddle both worlds. They can return to Hong
Kong in the waning days of British rule, but can get out again if need be after the Chinese communist government takes over July 1.
"I've been here almost three years but I don't feel like a Canadian at all," said Betty, who did not want immigration officials to know her last name, or the name of her husband, because they do not yet have their passports.
She was dining at the Victoria, but did not join the other women in mah-jongg, an ancient game like dominoes, because she finds their display of wealth vulgar. Besides, she does not expect to be in Vancouver much longer. Like many
of the 110,000 Hong Kong Chinese who came here over the last decade to escape the uncertainty in Hong Kong, Betty now dreams of going back, once she has the protection of a Canadian passport.
With less than five months to go before the Union Jack is lowered for the last time in Hong Kong, what had seemed to be a massive and transforming settlement of new Canadians has turned out to be something altogether different.
For many Hong Kong Chinese, Vancouver is less a new home than a way station where they can safely keep their families and wealth while they wait to see what becomes of the island. Of course, the trip out of Hong Kong was one way for many
exiles, and they are happily settled in Vancouver.
But among the wealthiest immigrants, the only roots many have put down are in the billions of dollars they have pumped into the local economy. And the tentative nature of their residency here has led to friction and resentment.
"Plan A is that when our daughter gets a little older we will let her go to boarding school and I will go back to Hong Kong," Betty said through an interpreter. "Plan B is for my husband to sell the business and move here."
But she clearly longed to go home. "I'm still a Hong Kong lady," she said.
A Chance to Prosper Could Be Lost
any Chinese here say they are worried about recent attempts by
the Chinese government even before July 1 to restrict civil
liberties in Hong Kong. But they say they are even more worried
about missing the chance to make money in Hong Kong, where housing
prices are rising at the same time they are falling in Vancouver.
"July '97 is not a date that has really changed anything,"
said Terry Hui, president of Concord Pacific Developments in
Vancouver. The company, owned by Li Ka-shing, one of Hong Kong's
richest tycoons, is making over a huge swathe of Vancouver's
waterfront. About half of the 1,200 condominiums built so far have
been sold to Hong Kong investors, who do not live in them. "No one
really got out of Hong Kong," Hui said. "They just shifted their
portfolios."
No one knows how many people have returned to Hong Kong; a
precise count is impossible because those who hold foreign
passports can continue living in Hong Kong without formally
re-emigrating there.
Canada's Foreign Ministry estimates there could be as many as
150,000 Canadian citizens in Hong Kong, and most of them are
Chinese. Last year, the Canadian government's office in Hong Kong
renewed 10,000 Canadian passports, twice the number in 1994,
suggesting that at least that many Canadian passport holders are
spending much of their time in Hong Kong.
To become a citizen -- and obtain the treasured passport -- immigrants
must prove they have established a permanent residence in Canada by
purchasing a house or enrolling children in school. They must also pass
a citizenship test.
There may be other reasons for going back. Canada had seemed an
ideal refuge to Hong Kong's upper class because it did not require
immigrants to declare wealth they held outside Canada, leaving
traditionally secretive Chinese families to spread out their
fortunes. But a new law scheduled to go into effect next year would
force Canadians, including landed immigrants, to report all
accounts, shares and property in excess of $75,000.
Recently, there have been reports of Hong Kong immigrants being
grilled on arrival at Vancouver's airport. This may be a sign that
the Canadian government is under pressure from disillusioned
Canadians who feel that Vancouver has not benefited as much from
the immigrants as was promised.
Wealthy investors and entrepreneurs from Hong Kong once were
considered so desirable that the Canadian government gave many of
them unconditional visas. In one program, all they had to do to
qualify was create at least one new job. In another, they had to
have more than $350,000 in assets and be willing to help
Canada climb out of a recession by putting at least $245,000 into a
job-creating investment fund before they arrived.
Business immigrant programs have been severely curtailed
recently because of reports of abuse and manipulation. In one case,
according to government records, a Hong Kong entrepreneur invested
in a laundromat but worked at IBM. The one job he claimed to have
created was held by a relative, who emptied coins from the washing
machines.
No Shanties for Them, but Mansions
ut even though they may now be getting a chillier reception
here, more than 10,000 Hong Kong immigrants still came to Canada
last year, continuing what has surely been one of the most unusual
immigrant movements in North American history.
Part of what makes the exodus from Hong Kong to Vancouver stand
apart is the reversal of roles it has triggered. After the
Tiananmen Square killings in 1989, panic over the coming takeover
by the Chinese sent many Hong Kong families packing. They became
rich overnight when they sold tiny apartments in Hong Kong for well
over $1 million.
In Vancouver, local residents who had considered themselves well
off suddenly realized that with the arrival of the newly rich Hong
Kong immigrants, and the sky high real estate prices they
triggered, their own economic standing had dropped to middle class.
"Immigration is OK when someone comes over to work as a
domestic or in a laundry because the local people can feel superior
to them," said Jack Austin, a senator for British Columbia. "But
it's pretty hard to feel superior to someone in a Mercedes."
Forget teeming slums and immigrant shanty towns. Many Hong Kong
Chinese have built themselves mansions, and one even installed an
elevator for his car. The Ming Pao and Sing Tao daily newspapers
have nudged the Vancouver Sun off some newsstands. Karaoke bars are
as popular as McDonald's restaurants. When the Hongkong Bank of
Canada planned to build a 30,000 square foot branch office in
Chinatown, it called in a traditional feng shui master to insure
that the precise placement of two bronze lions at the entrance
would bring good luck.
Toronto has received 140,000 immigrants from Hong Kong, about 25
percent more than Vancouver. But since Vancouver's population of
about 525,000 is only a quarter the size of metropolitan Toronto,
the 110,000 immigrants here have had a greater impact.
Guilt-Ridden Fathers Pamper Children
his is immediately apparent in the Asian faces that now make up
most of the graduating class photos at Sir Winston Churchill
Secondary School, known here as Hong Kong High. A 17-year-old
student, Wilfred Chan, said his father is an astronaut and half of
his friends at school also are the children of astronauts who only
see their fathers every couple of months.
"Some kids have a lot of spending money and fancy cars," Chan
said, gifts from guilty fathers trying to make up for their
absence.
Because they believe they will go back to Hong Kong, these
students sometimes drop out of school, or get involved in Asian
gangs, said John Cheung, a trustee of the Vancouver board of
education. Others who have free use of their father's credit cards
have been known to rent a karaoke bar for a private party.
In one case, Cheung said, a student even forged a kidnapper's
note and tried to extort money from his father in Hong Kong.
"It is a growing problem," Cheung said. "A lot of parents
have not quite decided if they want to stay and make Canada their
home or if they just want to be here long enough to get a passport
and go back."
For the most part, Vancouver has welcomed the Hong Kong
immigrants, and especially the billions of dollars they brought
with them. Economist David Bond of the Hongkong Bank of Canada said
it was largely the money of the Hong Kong immigrants that helped
the province of British Columbia begin a recovery while the rest of
Canada continued to languish in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The provincial government says that immigrant entrepreneurs
invested more than $195 million in 1995 and created 5,004
full time jobs.
But even in tolerant Canada, such a large influx of people, with
such different culture and values, was bound to raise tensions.
There has been little outright racism in Vancouver. Rather,
Chinese families say that Canadians have stubbornly refused to
accept change, while Canadian families contend that the Chinese
have made no effort to adapt to their new land.
The High Achievers Cause Resentment
hatever the cause, resentment has grown. Flash points have
occurred over tightened admissions at the University of British
Columbia because high achieving Asian students have raised
standards. Many Vancouverites share Betty's feelings towards
astronauts' wives and are offended by the way some wealthy Chinese
seem to flout their jewelry and expensive cars.
But nothing illustrates the clash of cultures in Vancouver
better than the tree by-law.
After leaving the cramped apartments of Hong Kong, Chinese
families long for big houses. They buy small bungalows, tear them
down, clear the trees, and then build monster houses that cover
almost the entire lot.
So many trees were being chopped down that neighborhood groups
demanded City Hall do something. After rancorous debate, the city
imposed a tree by-law, which prohibits a homeowner from cutting
down more than one tree a year without a special permit from a city
arborist.
To some in Vancouver's Chinese community, like Laura Wang, an
audiologist here since 1978, the bylaw masked much deeper feelings.
"When you look at the groups that are against each other, it's
the jeans-skirted middle aged white matrons versus the Oriental
people," said Ms. Wang, who is married to a non-Asian
Vancouverite. "Now what are we talking about here?"
But to Johanna Albrecht, president of the West Kerrisdale Tree
and Landscape Committee, it was just about trees.
"Call it racist, but this is for the benefit of everyone," she
said.
Chinese Still Lack Political Power
ehind the tree issue was a feeling that the Chinese themselves,
and not just the trees, were being bulldozed. Although they
represent more than a quarter of Vancouver's population, the
Chinese so far have wielded little political power.
"The Chinese are very polite people and when I knocked on their
doors during the campaign they told me 'yes, yes, I support you,"'
said Dr. Francis Ho, a medical doctor who last year ran
unsuccessfully for a seat in British Columbia's provincial
assembly.
But he said he could not convince them that their vote really
counted. Ho said that although the Chinese have had little
experience with democracy, they are learning, and with the arrival
of increasing numbers of immigrants from Taiwan and other
countries, their political power is growing.
"I'm sure the next election will be different," he said.
How strong Vancouver's Chinese community can be is uncertain, Ho
said, because every Chinese family already knows someone who has
gotten a Canadian passport and returned home. Many more may go back
depending on what happens July 1.
But Ho said he is not at all concerned about the rapid approach
of that fateful day. "I already know what will happen," he said
over a dinner of braised ox tongue with spaghetti and Chinese soup
at one of the many Hong-Kong style cafes that make parts of
Vancouver seem like Hong Kong.
"Like any other July 1, we'll all be at home watching
television or out in the street celebrating."
July 1, he noted, is Canada Day.
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