Moving from Hong Kong to King's Lynn via Birmingham

NorfolkHostZoe's memory of 1st March 1978 - 30th June 1978

From Kwai Li - founder of the West Norfolk And District Chinese Association

Before leaving Hong Kong at age 12, one of my memories was wearing my father's old tie for passport photographs, it was funny because it was so long that it stretched down to my knee when the tie was round my neck.

I arrived in Britain in 1964 during late spring season - the weather was chilly and wet. I remember wearing a school uniform and a cap to school.

At first I could not understand the language so extra English language tuition was organised twice a week. I enjoyed my school days, especially the school meal, because it was different from home Chinese meal, but I did not enjoy the daily bottle of milk I had to drink every morning in the classroom.

Coming to King's Lynn in 1978, I remember the roads leading to Wisbech and King's Lynn were long and narrow; some were very straight and odd bits were very bendy. The earthy and green agricultural lands were very flat stretching for miles and occasionally there was a ditch or a dyke on the way.

Working in a Chinese restaurant and living in King's Lynn was difficult, because it was a strange place, with limited friends, relations and not many interesting places to go, so I often travelled back to the Midlands for social life.

It was very difficult to break into the social circle or be accepted by the locals - they seemed to keep their distance while trying to be polite at the same time.

My first impression of the architecture of the town was pretty old and boring. The majority of the people were very nice and polite, but sometime I got verbal racial abuse, because I was different, especially during the weekends and school holidays.

I have made many friends in west Norfolk, especially after I joined a Round Table Organisation in the 1980s. This was the breakthrough when I felt that the bubble had bust and I was beginning to be accepted by the locals into their social structure, and I felt more at home from then onwards.

Couple of years later I met my future wife, on holiday in King's Lynn from Malaysia, and we got married and later had a son (1982) and a daughter (1984).

When I arrived in King's Lynn in 1978, I never thought that I would be still here in 2008 - and hopefully for many more years yet.

Web links:
West Norfolk And District Chinese Association - www.wndca.co.uk

Kwai Li cooks chicken noodles - www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/...


This memory was submitted to the Memoryshare web service by the BBC Memoryshare Team on behalf of Kwai Li.

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This memory was added 12th August 2008

Keywords: Norfolk immigration chinese BBC Norfolk hong kong King's Lynn

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