Michelle Cheung | Paragon Tea Room—Tea for the open-minded

Michelle Cheung is a prolific young business owner who is making waves in the Vancouver cafe scene. Her current endeavour: Paragon Tea Room, has just celebrated its 2nd anniversary, boasts a modest 4.8 stars on Google, and attracts guests from all over the Greater Vancouver area. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she never planned to have a career in Canada, but now that she’s cultivating a gateway for Vancouver to connect with Eastern tea traditions, she hopes she can make Hong Kong proud someday. Read on to discover her ambitions for Paragon and beyond.

Career, Arts, Culture, Food, IdentityWe Are HKers10 December 2021tea, vancouver, canada, paragon, identityComment

Toda Nakataro | Director of ‘Chronicle’ animated music video–The mind and thoughts are our final fortress

Toda Nakataro is a young multimedia artist. This year they produced the music video for “Chronicle” by The Hertz, a local Hong Kong band, and received resounding positive feedback. Many viewers were impressed and surprised to see such high-calibre animations created in Hong Kong.

Arts, Career, MusicWe Are HKers8 August 2021artist, multimedia, music, mv, music video, chronicle, The Hertz, art, freelance, freelancers, freelancerComment

Anki Suen | Chinese calligraphy tattoo artist - Pursuing a happy life

At the age of 25, Anki quit a job she loved, but which limited her creativity. She became a tattoo artist, taking back her voice in creation and became her own boss. Let’s follow her along this journey.

Arts, CareerWe Are HKers28 May 2021calligraphy, calligrapher, tattoo, artist, art, happiness, quit, job, creativity, boss, freelancer, freelance, journey, profession, professional, careerComment

【Video】Peter Chan│Reality is more absurd than a script. We won’t give up until our last breath

Peter Chan is a Hong Kong actor with extensive experience. He was nominated for Best New Performer in the 13th Asian Film Awards and the 38th Hong Kong Film Awards. During the pandemic, he fell into deep despair which prompted self reflection: as an actor, can I do something for humanity?

Video, Career, ArtsWe Are HKers10 May 2021script, actor, act, theatre, movie, film, awards, nomination, performer, perform, television, media, actingComment

【Video】Albert Wan | The Power of Human Stories

Albert Wan left his life as a lawyer in the United States, where he grew up, to become a bookstore owner in Hong Kong, where his parents are from. Together with his wife, he opened Bleak House, one of the few independent bookstores in Hong Kong that specialises in English books.

Video, Career, CultureWe Are HKers5 May 2021human, stories, books, shop, book, reading, read, lawyer, bookstore, store, owner, United States, independent, english, occupationComment

Derek Chan | Writing Hong Kong from a distance -- yellow objects．黃色物件

Derek Chan 陳嘉昊 grew up in colonial Hong Kong, studied in Norway, and currently lives in Vancouver. He received his BFA in theatre performance from Simon Fraser University. A playwright, director, performer, translator, and producer, Derek has been co-artistic director of rice & beans theatre since 2010.

【Commentary】How Hongkongers thrive in their career amid a year full of uncertainties

Hongkongers continue to uphold their own principles and values, persevere in times of adversity and adapt to changes.

Commentary, CareerWe Are HKers9 March 2021opinion, commentary, work, career, job, uncertainty, pandemic, covid-19, coronavirus, profession, national security law, livingComment

【Video】Nathan Tsui | Photographer and writer, conveying emotions within photos

Nathan, both a photographer and a writer, is captivated by the stories behind photos. With the belief that photography and writing are inseparable, he interviews different photographers to explore the details behind each of their photos.

Video, Arts, Hobbies, CareerWe Are HKers10 February 2021photographer, writer, nathan tsui, photos, book, oppression, self-censor, photographyComment

Kelvin Ho-Por Lam | District Councillor—Fighting to preserve the identity of a city and its people

Kelvin Ho-Por Lam, 40s, is a former economist who was elected as the independent democratic councillor for the South Horizons West Constituency in 2019 and also ran to represent the Financial Services functional constituency in the now cancelled 2020 LegCo election. Having moved to the UK as a child, he returned to Hong Kong in 2015 in the aftermath of the Umbrella Revolution.

Benny Yuen | Founder of EARTH.er — Telling the story of this land with my heart

Benny is a designer living in Tai O. He has created an environmentally conscious fashion brand with a “Tai O/Hong Kong is our home” theme while being cognizant of environmental and social issues around the world.

Career, Politics, Arts, Environment, FashionWe Are HKers15 November 2020benny yuen, earth.er, founder, designer, art, design, artist, artists, arts, environment, fashion, brand, branding, tai o, home, social, issues, identity, self, unity, communityComment

Lee Faulkner | Expat and 2020 LegCo candidate - Supporting those who have allowed you to build a new life

Lee Faulkner, 50s, is a British-born actuary who moved to Hong Kong in 2011 after having previously lived in several other countries. In 2020, he joined a number of opposition candidates to run against incumbent legislators of several functional constituencies in the 2020 Legislative Council election, which has since been postponed until 2021.

Miss Woo Sze Yan | Remember our calling, protect our students, and defend our conscience

Woo Sze Yan is a secondary school disciplinary teacher. She is not the typical disciplinary teacher with a serious face, but rather exerts a kind and gentle vibe and shows firmness when protecting her students against the white terror in the society.

Education, Career, PoliticsWe Are HKers18 October 2020miss woo sze yan, teacher, secondary school, school, students, conscience, courage, fight, future, pineapplepie, hei ching, sl, rulesComment

【Video】Dare Media | Putting a price tag on publicity: Yell Card as a new form of collective expression

Vivian and her partners founded Dare Media in August 2019. Her team’s project ‘Yell Card’ produces trading cards of protest-related artwork drawn by different designers, promoting the commercialization of political art and graphic designs. Aiming to support designers financially as well as produce trading cards for physical records of the protest movement, the new editions of Yell Card are...

Career, Video, Politics, Arts, EntertainmentWe Are HKers14 October 2020videos, nata, silver wolf, jhn, tina, jake, jenna, dare media, publicity, editorial, cards, print, media, artwork, protest, protests, protester, art, artist, arts, vivian, dark calligrapherComment

Mathew Cheng｜Founder of a Cantonese Mindfulness platform—Bringing Mindfulness closer to people

Mathew has been a meditation practitioner for over 5 years, with accreditation from courses on Mindfulness at several universities and meditation centres. In 2019, he chose Hong Kong as the starting point and established Mr. Stillness, an online platform providing Cantonese meditation training.

Career, Health, HobbiesWe Are HKers11 October 2020mathew cheng, founder, mindfulness, meditation, health, platform, cantonese, language, calm, mind, mental healthComment

【Video】Calif Chong | Filmmaker—Creating a collective database and capturing the Hong Kong spirit

Calif Chong is a filmmaker currently based in the UK. She worked as a scriptwriter at TVB and a documentarian for RTHK. A few years ago, she began her studies in Europe and started her career in the film industry, with the aim of finding a new way to tell the story of Hong Kong.

【SHARED】Leung Lo Yik (Chen Kau) | Letter Writer

Chen Kau has been a letter writer for nearly 40 years. Originally from Vietnam, where he worked as an accountant for a film production company, he first came to Hong Kong in 1972 and took a job as a bartender. Given his education and proficiency in English, a customer suggested he become a letter writer.

Career, Shared Article, CultureWe Are HKers1 October 2020sunset survivors, book, traditional, lindsay varty, letter, writer, language, vietnam, film, productions, accountant, elders, shopComment

Organic Greenfield | Agriculture is an integral part of Hong Kong

Organic Greenfield, an extension of ‘Kong Yeah‘, is an organisation that advocates ‘Community Supported Agriculture’. Ho Ying and Nicole run the organisation and in 2017 they introduced the Organic Greenfield CSA Project. They have been devoted to building long-term cooperative ties with local farmers and producers, as well as playing a bridging role between them and the citizens.....

Environment, Career, FoodWe Are HKers27 September 2020organic greenfield, agriculture, produce, community, organisation, farmers, citizens, vegetables, farm, rehabilitation, nata, dks, 行山之友Comment

【Video】Jason Ho | Gender studies researcher - Life after leaving academia

Jason Ho is a locally educated queer studies researcher. From a young man that happened to enter the University of Hong Kong to leaving in 2018 after teaching there for many years, he always thought that academia was his calling. Two years ago, he resolutely left for an administrative position at Hong Kong Baptist University which has led him to rethink life.

Samuel Hui | Breaking the vicious circle of Hong Kong movie industry

Samuel, a post-80s movie industry worker. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Australia, he moved back to Hong Kong and joined the movie industry. He was the assistant director of famous movies such as Project Gutenberg, Enter the Fat Dragon.

【SHARED】Chan Lok Choi | Bamboo Birdcage Maker

I find the work here very special as you can't find anywhere like this outside of hong kong. This is a unique place that represents our home.

Career, Shared Article, CultureWe Are HKers3 September 2020sunset survivors, book, lindsay varty, chan lok choi, bamboo, birdcage, skill, traditional, birds, Yuen Po, tradeComment