Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
we actually had one year to do nothing, just travelling in this country. After
one year we felt that we had to find a job.
Mr. Yip: Yes, so we decided to change our lifestyle, to do some business of our
own. We'd get a business and we'd provide some jobs for people. So we have a
better lifestyle and we can take care of the house and the kids. And we can go
to church, worship our Lord. We were not, like, having any religion when we
were in Hong Kong…
This family biography portrays vividly the geographically contingent character
of entrepreneurialism.
Homo economicus
evidently does not travel well. The
'quality of life' sought in Canada becomes a marker for a status passage, for
the migrants become different people with the move, in the case of the Yip
family with revised attitudes and priorities reinforced by a new-found religious
conviction which they had no time for in Hong Kong. We will see in Chapter
7 the significant rise of religious life among Vancouver's Chinese population as
part of the creation of a settled civil society. For the Yips, 'quality of life' is
shorthand for a re-direction of priorities as career and business activities are
demoted while family, leisure and religious activities appreciate in value. In
some respects we might say that they are becoming Canadian, adjusting to the
laid-back lifestyle of the West Coast. But in becoming Canadian, are they also
subverting the expectations of the BIP that enlisted them precisely for their
entrepreneurial difference? The Yips have fulfilled their share of the contract
they made with the state; indeed their fast food franchise employed more than
the mandated number of full-time employees. But their appetite for flat-out
pursuit of economic goals had weakened substantially.
The Geographical Conundrum
The capacity to qualify for Canadian skilled worker or business class
designation was aided by the rapid economic growth of Asia Pacific. By the
first half of the 1990s, the torrid growth had slowed but economic expan-
sion in Hong Kong still compared favourably with the recession-impaired
economy in Canada. Indeed, on the eve of 1997, Hong Kong's Annual
Report allowed itself a celebratory air, announcing pointedly that per capita
GDP had 'surpassed some of the OECD economies, such as Canada, the
United Kingdom, and Australia' (Government of Hong Kong 1998).
Property prices, the source of much domestic wealth, continued to soar.
Though crisis was to follow, up to 1997 the economic fundamentals were
buoyant and unconstrained.
Hong Kong owes its strength to sound economic fundamentals, a large fiscal
surplus and strong foreign exchange reserves, business-friendly government
policies, a competent workforce complemented by a pool of efficient and
