‘I felt lost’: mainland Chinese talent children on their struggles to settle in Hong Kong
Some new immigrants also hesitate to bring children, unsure about securing places in schools
Twelve-year-old Sofia Teng Yiru was always among the top three in class at her hometown in Wuhan in mainland China before she moved to Hong Kong in March last year.
She came with her father, Aaron Teng, 42, who had succeeded in applying for the city’s top talent admission scheme and started his own company in online advertising.
Previously at an international school where lessons were taught in English and Mandarin, Sofia was admitted to Primary Five at Kowloon Women’s Welfare Club Li Ping Memorial School in Yau Ma Tei.
She returned home dejected and in tears every day for a month. She could not understand anything in class, as all lessons except English were taught in Cantonese.
“I felt pretty lost,” she recalled.
Sofia is among thousands of mainland Chinese children who have arrived in Hong Kong since the government introduced a major scheme to attract top talent in December 2022.
Almost three years on, parents, school principals and a support group for arriving talent told the Post these families needed more help, and the language barrier was only one challenge mainland children faced as they settled into life in Hong Kong.