Hong Kong Beckons as Land of Opportunity

From his apartment in the lush hills above Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district, Eugene Mahr can point out the hospital where his mother worked before moving to the U.S.

But his life there is a world away from the one she led.

The hillside apartment with its sweeping view of the city is a sign of success in this upwardly-mobile society. In contrast, his mother, Selina Yee-Sum Mahr, once lived in the crowded streets below, toiling long hours as a secretary and interpreter at the hospital.

She left in 1954 seeking a better future in a land she knew as “Gold Mountain.”

Almost a half-century later, Eugene--a New York-born Chinese--has gone in the opposite direction to find his fortune, as regional marketing director for Polaroid.

“It was something I had worked towards doing for a number of years,” said Mahr, 41. “I wanted an overseas assignment. At one point, I was saying I’d go to Europe. But the natural fit for people like myself is Asia. There are a lot more opportunities in Asia, a lot more demand for expatriates here.”

Mahr is among an entire generation of Chinese-Americans returning to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to further their careers. While their parents came to the U.S. to escape poverty, these children--either U.S.-born or immigrants at an early age--believe they can get ahead faster in Asia. And while many of their parents fled from political turmoil, the younger generation is willing to live under an unpredictable Communist regime, one that took over Hong Kong on July 1 and has its sights set on Taiwan.

These expatriates look like local Chinese. They can sometimes speak the regional dialect. But they’re thoroughly Americanized, having spent their formative years in the U.S. Now they work for major businesses looking to capitalize on their bicultural strengths.

“They want someone who has the language and cultural skills,” said Luci Li, 29, a partner at Wang & Li Asia Resources, an international headhunting firm that matches job seekers with companies in greater China. “They want employees with a Western education and professional experience.”

Li, who heads the firm’s Oakland office, said the last seven years have seen a dramatic increase in Chinese-Americans looking for work in Asia. She said most job seekers are American-born Chinese or ones who came to the U.S. for schooling.

Li herself is an Oakland native and UC-Berkeley graduate who worked in Taiwan for two years. She went there in 1992 after leaving her job at accounting firm Ernst & Young.

“The jobs started coming to me,” she said. “It was amazing. I accepted an offer as a marketing director for a telecommunications company. It just wouldn’t have happened here in the U.S.”

For people like Li, China’s economy often means greater pay in high-profile businesses. Firms will sometimes offer a package that pays for the employee’s housing, car, moving expenses and children’s schooling. Hong Kong income tax is capped at 15%. And the returnees often say their Asia postings give them more job responsibility, eliminating a glass ceiling that some believe exists in the U.S.

“In terms of career, [the returnees] often have a lot more freedom, a lot more upward mobility at a faster pace than here,” Li said.

Mahr said his Hong Kong posting is a definite resume booster. As for financial rewards, Polaroid pays a six-figure salary, housing allowance and his sons’ tuition in the city’s top American international school.

A glance at the school’s roster reveals many students with surnames like Lee, Chang and Wong. Their parents come from cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

But employees in overseas postings run the risk of being forgotten by the home office, cautioned George Koo, a Silicon Valley-based business consultant.

“Unfortunately, American companies, when they send their people offshore for three or five years, ask, what do we do with them once they return?” Koo said. “I’m not sure this stint is a steppingstone up the corporate ladder.”

One risk most Chinese-Americans don’t have to face is being trapped in Asia if the political situation crumbles. They hold American passports, allowing them to return to their true homeland.

But David Yam, 20, said he plans to work in Hong Kong after graduating and give up his U.S. citizenship. China has decreed that anyone born in Hong Kong can regain citizenship if they return within 18 months of the July 1 handover.

Yam’s parents moved to the U.S. in 1987, fearing Communist rule. Now their son is willing to live with the city’s uncertain future as long as career opportunities exist there.

“Everyone wanted to be Westernized. People wanted to leave Hong Kong,” Yam said. “They thought here [in the U.S.] there were more opportunities to make money. But it’s the opposite. You can make more money over there.”