22 A disappointing Christmas

Robert (Hong Kong --> Toronto in 1996):

I was very excited about leaving. I have never seen snow and was excited about a sparkling snowy white Christmas!

Yet, it was just very cold. The Christmas lights were not as bright as I had expected, and the snow was not that much fun. My life in Toronto was not what I had expected.

I would return to Hong Kong… I liked the Christmas lights in Hong Kong a lot better!

Many of the immigrants’ stories are oral history projects, recordings of historical information based on the speakers’ personal memories. Tomorrow I will share an oral history I did with my parents – about their first Christmas after migrating from Mainland China to Hong Kong in the late 1970s.

Reference:

Salaff, Janet, Shik, Angela, Greve, Arent, ‘Like Sons and Daughters of Hong Kong: The Return of the Young Generation’, China Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, Special Issue: Hong Kong: Ten Years after the Handover (2008)