*Chinese-Venezuelan Hong Konger Johnny Chan holds up the three flags that represent his identity. The 46-year-old spent most of his life in Venezuela, only coming to Hong Kong in 2017. Image Credit: Charlie Fong *

Pitch-black house, empty water tank, and growling stomach – this was everyday life for Tommy Fung in Venezuela, a Hong Kong-born ethnic Chinese who had grown up in the South American country.

Born in 1979, the graphic designer left Hong Kong and moved to Venezuela at the age of nine with his family. They settled in the northwestern city of Maracaibo, where Fung’s family worked jobs at restaurants and trading companies to make a living.

“My identity is complicated because I spent so many years in Venezuela, so I feel Venezuelan. But the reality is that I’m 100% Hong Kongese,” said Fung in fluent Spanish. As he completed his schooling in Venezuela, he felt more comfortable in Spanish than in Cantonese.

Migration to Hong Kong

Unbeknown to most, there is a community of around 200 Chinese Venezuelans living in Hong Kong. This group of people is coming to Hong Kong for a very simple reason – a chance to survive and thrive.

Under the reign of autocratic president Nicolás Maduro who has recently been re-elected following accusations of voter fraud, three in four Venezuelans live in extreme poverty and hyperinflation rate hit 130,060% in 2018. As a result, millions of Venezuelans have fled the country, including those of Chinese descent who had previously migrated there primarily for business and trade.

Most of these Chinese Venezuelans decided to come back because they hold Hong Kong passports and have family in the city. They are also seeing business and career opportunities as the special administrative region is becoming increasingly integrated with mainland China.

“If there [wasn’t] a sense of economic opportunity back in China, they wouldn’t come back to China based on purely emotional considerations,” said Huihan Lie, a genealogist and founder of My China Roots, a company that helps overseas Chinese trace their ancestry. “A practical and pragmatic approach would [help] them decide where to go.”

This group is settling down in Hong Kong as the city is experiencing a mass exodus of locals and expats alike, citing its deteriorating political freedoms. Since the pro-democracy protests in 2019 National Security Law’s enactment in 2020, Hong Kongers have been leaving the city in droves to escape China’s draconian claws.

Having experienced the detriments of an authoritarian government back home, Chinese Venezuelans are wary that Hong Kong is taking the same path.

“It’s like déjà vu,” Fung admitted.

Despite this alarming concern, members of this community are still choosing to repatriate here due to its relative stability and ease in finding a livelihood.

“Many things are still good in Hong Kong,” said Fung. “You can walk safely on the streets, there are no robberies or gun violence… you can find everything you need in the supermarket. I am quite content.”

History of Chinese-Venezuelans

According to Lie, many Chinese moved to Venezuela in the 20th Century to engage in trade as the country was known as a land of opportunities with many natural resources. Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, totaling around 300 billion barrels.

Oftentimes they would bring their relatives and open family businesses. There were also overseas Chinese associations that would help new arrivals adapt to life in Venezuela.

“A recurring characteristic of people of Chinese [descent] globally is a sense of pragmatism and being practical,” Lie observed. “That means if economic opportunities are elsewhere, one can go elsewhere.”

Adapting to Life at “Home”

Johnny Chan had called Venezuela home his entire life. Born in Puerto Cabello in 1976 to Chinese parents from Hong Kong, he was raised by the port city’s tranquil waves and colorful houses.

His father had been running a successful family business, but the Chan family finally called it quits in 2017 after experiencing waves of economic insecurity, packing up and moving to Hong Kong when Johnny Chan was 41.

Adapting to a new culture and way of life is no easy feat, much less for a middle-aged person. Due to his lack of fluency in Cantonese and English, it was extremely challenging for Chan to find a job. He ultimately settled for work as a logistics company assistant despite his background in computer science.

He remains grateful for his livelihood and stable life with his parents, owing to his Christian faith. Upon his arrival in Hong Kong, he began attending RiverGrace International Evangelical Church, a Protestant congregation with services in Spanish that caters especially to Chinese Venezuelans. They would fellowship with each other regularly, singing songs and listening to sermons by a Chinese-Spanish pastor. They also held communal lunches and cooked Venezuelan dishes together. However, the pastor left for the UK in 2021 and gatherings also ceased because of COVID-19.

Prior to COVID restrictions taking place, Chan also attended community dinners organized by an informal association of Chinese-Venezuelans. They would gather in a Chinese restaurant, eating chicken feet with abalone and speaking boisterously in a mixture of Cantonese and Spanish.

These moments are perhaps when a sense of community and fraternity shines the strongest. These occasions had been disrupted by COVID-19 social distancing policies and are still slowly yet to return. He alleviates his homesickness with his mother’s home-cooked arepas, with the dough bought from a Turkish restaurant in his neighborhood.

Hong Kong Art, Venezuelan Humor

Fung was among the handful who left Venezuela quite late into the economic crisis as he had faith that things would get better. But the situation only worsened, and he finally returned to Hong Kong in 2016.

Back in his birth city, he found himself starting from scratch. He had established a career as a graphic designer in Maracaibo, but it was difficult to find work in Hong Kong as he had yet to make a name for himself.

Out of amusement at the city’s juxtaposing dichotomies, Fung began wandering the streets of Hong Kong and taking photos. He then experimented with editing and Photoshopped himself onto the city’s iconic Star Ferry. After that, he made a giant panda eat a building and flooded the streets to let a dragon boat pass.

*Tommy Fung’s Photoshop creations, showcased on his Instagram account @surrealhk. Credit: SurrealHK *

What started as a personal project evolved into an internet sensation. Fung’s “Surreal Life in Hong Kong” currently has more than 198k followers on Instagram.

“My humor is 100% Venezuelan, it shows through my artwork,” Fung explained. “People in Hong Kong don’t understand my sense of humor, which is Latin American and dark.”

Hong Konger, Venezuelan, or Chinese?

When Desmond Yuen returned to Hong Kong after spending seven years in Venezuela, his Chinese level was that of a kindergartener. No local school wanted to take the twelve-year-old, save for a small Catholic school on the brink of closure. And even there he had to be demoted two grades to primary four as he did not have the language ability required for secondary education.

Over the summer, Yuen burned the midnight oil and enlisted the help of relatives to catch up with his Chinese. He eventually graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and worked as an accountant.

“I used to feel pride when we sang the Venezuelan national anthem at school, but later on I identified more strongly as a Hong Konger,” said the dual Venezuelan and Hong Kong citizen. He cited vacations back to Hong Kong and visits to extended family for this change.

In August 2021, Yuen moved with his wife and two kids to the United Kingdom, citing the Asian city’s deteriorating political freedoms.

“Here [in the UK] when people ask me where I’m from, I say I’m from Hong Kong,” Yuen said. “When I’m filling out forms, I always check the box for ‘Hong Konger.’ If that choice isn’t available, I will choose ‘Other Asian.’ I would never choose ‘Chinese.’

“I don’t want myself to be associated with China, so I refuse to choose Chinese.”

Chan had come to Hong Kong on a British national (overseas) passport and does not at the time of writing possess Hong Kong Chinese citizenship. He also has a Venezuelan passport.

“When I’m in Venezuela, I'm Chinese,” Chan said, speaking Spanish. “They don’t think I’m Venezuelan. [They say that] when you speak you sound Venezuelan, but your face is not Venezuelan.”

Chan pointed out that most Venezuelans are of European descent, primarily Spanish and Italian. Few were of Chinese descent, and due to most of them engaging in trade, they were seen as ruthless merchants there to exploit Venezuela’s wealth.

“There were always fights. [Venezuelans think that] the Chinese are here to take their money. There has always been xenophobia,” Chan lamented.

Coming to the interview with three flags – those of Hong Kong, Venezuela, and China, Chan identifies with all three places at once. Unlike most local Hong Kongers who deny being Chinese due to political reasons, he has no qualms with accepting this identity.

“Once when I was coming back to Venezuela, the immigration officer shouted, ‘Chinese on one side!’ So, I went up to them and said ‘Buenos días’ in perfect Venezuelan Spanish. They then let me go, but the rest of the Chinese people got their documents scrutinized in line, it was very sad,” he recalled.

“I don’t like politics, it’s dirty,” Chan sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t know who’s right, the opposition or the government. I’m caught in the middle. I just want to live in peace with my family.”