Reporter’s notebook: from Occupy to Ohio ... and who’s the right choice for US president
Americans may be endlessly complaining about the hard choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the US presidential election. For Grace Chan, a US citizen originally from Hong Kong, the choice was far from difficult.
Nor, in her case, exercising the right to vote for one’s leader as a matter of course.
Despite having called Cleveland home for 30 years, Chan still follows news about her old hometown, probably more than some people still living in Hong Kong.
Not only does she keep track of the city’s news on a daily basis, familiar with such issues as the lawmakers’ oath taking controversy and Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s nickname of “689”, she even went to Occupy Central sites in Admiralty and Mong Kok when she made her annual return trip in 2014.
“I talked to the students there. Although I was not quite certain about what they were actually calling for, I was moved by the young people’s determination to pursue democracy,” said Chan, an immigration lawyer.
“Many Chinese Americans here think the students were simply making a fuss,” she said. “I kept an open mind, although it’s true they did pose some impact on the business of nearby shops.”
Chan is among very few Chinese to settle down in Cleveland, which lies a few hours’ drive away from the Canadian border. It is not a popular destination for migrants, with city statistics recording merely 5,000 Asians in 2013.
“The life between Hong Kong and Cleveland cannot be more different,” she said in an interview at the city’s only Sichuanese restaurant at a block known as Asia Plaza. “Life here is very simple. Thirty years has passed like the blink of an eye, in fact.”
Subtle and inquisitive, Chan talked in a soft tone that is becoming increasingly rare among Hongkongers in an increasingly restive society.
“I check Hong Kong news every day. For me, Hong Kong is still part of myself,” she said.
While Hongkongers are still finding their way to electing the chief executive by way of universal suffrage, which according to the Basic Law could have taken place in 2007, Chan cast her ballot for the next US president during the early voting session in her home state of Ohio.
She does not share Americans’ frustration about who to choose from among two of the least popular candidates ever to stand in a US presidential race.
“It’s just like a job interview,” Chan said. “You weigh the experience of both candidates and would easily reach the conclusion that Clinton is far better qualified.”
Who knows, maybe one day she may be able to apply that experience to voting for Hong Kong’s leader.
