Since That Year: A Message of Hope for the Children of Hongkongers Who Chose to Leave is a heartwarming story of a family’s struggle to leave Hong Kong and their daughter’s journey to understand why.
Through the eyes of the main character, readers will learn about what happened in Hong Kong in 2019, and the different emotions that come with leaving behind everything you know and love to start a new life in a foreign country.
It is a story of hope and resilience in the face of difficult times, and its overall significance includes:
- To preserve cultural identity and history
- To provide closure to heal from the pain of separation
- To facilitate cultural and social awareness
The author, Elpis, wanted parents to be able to explain the struggles and emotions of leaving home to their children.
She hopes this book will help children understand their own experiences of leaving home and hold on to their identity as Hongkongers.
This beautifully illustrated book containing vivid, colourful, naive art is perfect for children aged 3-9 who left Hong Kong after 2019.
Brief Introduction of the book by the author:
“Separation is never easy. After 2019, many Hongkongers left Hong kong. Many of them children.
How will those children interpret the unimaginable events of those days? The propaganda that distorted facts? How will those children tell the stories of why they left Hong Kong?
We want this picture book to be a record of what happened in Hong Kong for those children, the children who grew up in those times.
Our hope is to provide parents with a picture book that can help explain their struggle with separation.
We don’t want our children to forget that their family roots are in Hong Kong even though they now live somewhere else.
Our hope is that this picture book will be proof of the Hong Kong heritage that exists even in children who were taken from Hong Kong when they were too young to remember.
Since that year, 2019, Hong Kong has changed so much. Those who left may not recognize it anymore.
Yet wherever Hongkongers live, that is where Hong Kong is. We long to reunite in our Hong Kong homeland one day.”
It is written in both Cantonese and English
Published by Edmonton Hongkongers Cultural Association, with the assistance of Pagemaster Publishing
Edited by Elaine Cust
For more info on the book, visit, Since That Year
