Daily advice for HK immigrants to the West:
Regarding church membership, my advice would be the same as my previous post about hanging about with your own people. One of the worst things to do is to be isolated. It’s important to join a church community to meet others, especially if you’re a Christian. The second worst thing is to remain ONLY with your own people in church by joining a church only for recent HK immigrants. Despite what you hear from all the so-called influencers (i.e. KOLs), the overseas Chinese churches are quite complex. Most of these KOLs haven’t had an extended stay in any country outside to HK, let alone being exposed to multiple Chinese churches. Some Chinese churches are dysfunctional (I’ll talk about that later) while others are thriving. I do know this because I’ve spoken in every sort of Chinese churches of all different sizes, denominations and convictions all across N. America. By only joining churches with recent HK immigrants, you’ll soon land in your own echo chamber, and you’ll have a really tough time adjusting. If so, why move to a different country? When you join the local Chinese churches, you’ll find that there’re many kinds of Chinese with many convictions. While your experience is totally legitimate, you shouldn’t discount the experience of others. The world doesn’t come in stereotypes. Despite what you think and hear, there’re also some very excellent mainland Chinese who can be really good friends. It may take some time to finally get to know or meet them. It will take some time to adjust to the cultural differences. According to all non-Chinese, we’re all Chinese to your host country. No matter whether you hold on to your HKer identity, you’ll have to cope with being “Chinese”. That means you will have to associate with and befriend other types of Chinese eventually. Your value as a HKer increases when you have a chance to share your experience with them. During the protest, I’ve had very good Mainland Chinese friends telling me that they’ve been praying daily for HK. That’s not something you’ll hear from the news, but that’s no less true. Keep your mind and heart open. You won’t regret it.
