Hong Kong people learned about life in Taiwan and created a breathing space in the city

▍Xinpu Honi: a mixture of coffee shop and tea restaurant

Xinpu, if you don't tell me in detail, you may not know where it is. It is located on the outskirts of Banqiao District, New Taipei City, just between Wanhua District of Taipei City and Banqiao District of New Taipei City. It is a residential area where old and new buildings are staggered. It is not as busy as Banqiao District, but it is also not as densely populated as Zhonghe and Yonghe Districts.

Whether it is at Xinpu Station or Jiangzicui Station of the MRT, if you walk for a few minutes and then turn into the inner lane, you will feel the tranquility of the community. You will find a house with a simple style and a large floor space. Glass coffee shop. But when you take a closer look at the menu in front of the store, you will see "Baxiangxiang Minced Pork Noodles with Fried Egg Soup", "Secret Fragrant Satay Beef Sun Egg Soup Noodles", "Handmade Shrimp Wonton Soup Noodles" ", "Bandit Chicken Wings", "Stockings Milk Tea", etc., and Cantonese songs of different ages are played in the store. It was only at this moment that I discovered that it turned out to be Honi, a mixture of coffee shop and Hong Kong-style tea restaurant.

▍Typical Hong Kong "working boy" Hardy wants to retire early

Honi boss Ahao and Nicole have always had the idea of opening a store in Hong Kong, but they have not put it into practice due to the high operating costs in Hong Kong. Both husband and wife are typical "working men". Ah Hao used to work in the graphic design industry. From the part-time job to the establishment of his own company, he has been working in the same industry for more than ten years; while his wife, Nicole, works in the marketing and procurement of the food and catering industry. .

But they are all tired of the rapid development of Hong Kong, and they don't want to work non-stop every day just to make money. In addition to the changes in the overall environment of Hong Kong society, the idea of immigrating has arisen. At that time, they also felt that opening a restaurant would suit their own plans, so the Honi store was born.

As for why it is opened in Taiwan? It was all because of the idea of that he wanted to retire early. Ahao said that in the past, his understanding of Taiwanese stores is that the bosses are very casual and relaxed. .

In addition, Taiwan is relatively close to Hong Kong. Because of the reluctance to let go of the beautiful things in the hometown, and the concern of family and friends, the culture of Taiwan is similar to that of Hong Kong. Taiwan became the best choice for the two at that time. The application process at that time was very fast. It only took half a year from the initial data collection to the actual application until the plan was approved by the Taiwan government. In early 2021, Nicole took the lead in coming to Taiwan to prepare for the preliminary work of opening a store.

▍Propaganda is not easy, but it was selected by Taiwanese mirror fans

After more than half a year of preparation, Honi will officially open the store in September 2021, but Ahao and Nicole are both freshmen in the catering industry. Everything needs to be done by themselves, and everything must be started from scratch. Honi is currently open six days a week. Thanks to the two people's silent efforts, it has accumulated a lot of reputation. There are Taiwanese customers who come to Xinpu specially to visit, and there are also people in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Nicole said, "I am happy to achieve such a result, and I will have a sense of satisfaction in my heart."

In addition to the simple decoration of Honi store, what attracts the most attention of Hong Kong people is that the promotional stickers, posters and postcards of the emerging Hong Kong idol boy group Mirror in recent years are placed at the entrance. Could Honi become Mirror's support base in Taiwan? Everything comes from the guest's enquiry about the private events.

A member of the Mirror Taiwan support club happens to be their customer, and Honi is a mix of a casual coffee shop and a Hong Kong-style tea restaurant. The support club hopes to hold a fan meeting here, where you can also play games. Taste the authentic Hong Kong-style delicacies in the store, especially the Cantonese-style crispy roast pork developed by Honi.

The support club's private event was held at the end of November last year, which happened to be the third anniversary of Mirror's establishment (the group was established on November 3, 2018). That night, whether it was the representatives of the support group of Jiangtang, God, Jue Shi, etc., 30 mirror fans gathered at Honi. Among them, Hong Kong people account for two-thirds, and Taiwan fans account for one-third. There are friends who live in Taipei, but there are also friends who traveled north to Taichung and Kaohsiung to participate in the gathering. Maybe because Mirror is an idol boy group in Hong Kong, everyone's communication is mainly in Cantonese, and it was a very enjoyable evening that ended at 22:00 in the evening.

However, after the end of the support club activities, it became a continuation. Since many mirror fans left their idol's promotional materials in the store that night, Honi later became a distribution center for mirror exchange and idol promotional materials, and became a gathering point for fan networks in the Greater Taipei area.

The support club may have become one of the ways to relieve the homesickness of people in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and Cantonese songs have once again become an emotional carrier for Hong Kong people in recent years. When people are in other places, the support club gathers floating people, so it is a symbol of Hong Kong's feelings.

The establishment of a support club in Taiwan can also make more Taiwanese recognize Mirror and make idols famous in Taiwan. Mirror fans in Taiwan and Hong Kong hope to get the attention of ViuTV, so they can arrange Mirror to come to Taiwan to meet with fans, so that more Taiwanese can know more about Hong Kong culture through their idols.

Although the boss Ahao and Nicole are not big fans of Mirror, they appreciate their efforts to pursue their dreams as Hong Kong's young generation. Starting from the ViuTV talent show National Stars, it seems to have accompanied Mirror to grow. Compared with ordinary talent competition programs, the competition is low, and it is not like the popular artists in the 1990s and early 2000s who simply used their appearance, financial resources, and even unspoken rules in the entertainment industry.

▍New people in the catering industry, everything is difficult to start

The appearance of the Mirror Support Club has indeed made Honi's business a selling point, but working on the frontline of the catering industry for a long time has made them find that their physical strength is beginning to be exhausted, and the body also has a strain reaction. Half a year after opening, Nicole developed Dekufan's disease on both wrists, commonly known as "mother's hand". Recently, he has been visiting the rehabilitation clinic near the store for physiotherapy every day.

Compared with the original idea of immigrating to open a store, they really underestimated the actual situation of running a business in Taiwan, especially when it is very difficult to open a store. Based on the project requirements to achieve the investment plan, they can only have one day off each week, and they have to work hard to achieve performance during the rest of the time. The previous imagination of opening a store has now turned into a fantasy.

Nicole said frankly, "After immigrating to Taiwan, I have always been in the store, and I have never had the opportunity to see the beauty of Taiwan. I can only rest at home on public holidays, and I have only been to Taichung for a day trip." Ah Hao also said, "I want to explore it. Taiwan is good, because before I immigrated to Taiwan, I had only been to Taipei and Yilan five or six times, and wanted to go to outlying islands." Speaking of this, it was obvious that a moment of relief appeared on their faces.

▍The cost of living in Taipei and Hong Kong is much different? How to deal with the gap in immigration expectations?

How to sum up the experience of opening a restaurant? Ah Hao and Nicole said that it is not easy to run a catering business in Taiwan, but now they have to "run the horse dead!" See walking steps.

In fact, the daily business volume can hardly cover the cost, most of the time can only cope with life, it is difficult to make money. "The property prices in Taipei are actually similar to those in Hong Kong. The income level in Taiwan makes it difficult to live without pressure, and in some cases, it is even higher than that of Hong Kong."

In addition, as a new immigrant, you must face the impact of cultural differences. In addition to food tastes, they said that Taiwan's locomotives and road culture are difficult to adapt to, so they had to compromise. "Faced with the gap in expectations, I know that I can't change the reality, so I have to think about my current situation and whether this place can make me happy."

But they did not regret coming to Taiwan. Ah Hao said, "Being able to recognize a group of fallen people in Hong Kong, he felt that it is easier to have intimacy and enthusiasm between Taiwan and Hong Kong people." He also said, "Taiwan has changed my outlook on life, and it is no longer about living in Hong Kong. In a society that emphasizes competition and efficiency in everything, learn to slow down. Life is no longer limited to hard work, and you will no longer feel that vacation is a waste.”

▍How to see the choice of second immigration in Taiwan and Hong Kong?

Recently, many people in Taiwan and Hong Kong have chosen not to wait for the long immigration approval, but chose to immigrate to the UK for a second time. Faced with such a situation, Nicole said that although he works hard every day, he may not necessarily obtain a Taiwan ID card, so he worries about futile efforts and occasionally feels frustrated.

Ah Hao described the experience of the friends around him as unrealistic, so he understands that many friends around him feel that there is no end in sight. Due to financial problems and other issues, they choose to emigrate a second time and leave Taiwan, and feel very helpless for this.

Nicole admitted that he can no longer adapt to the current situation in Hong Kong, and the conditions provided by the United Kingdom are relatively attractive, and the threshold for obtaining settlement is lower than that of Taiwan. Hong Kong used to be a British colony and is culturally similar to Hong Kong. There are now many Hong Kong people in various cities in the United Kingdom. "They should be able to help each other just like the people in Taiwan and Hong Kong."

▍There is no shortcut for immigrants to adapt, no need to force themselves too much

Ah Hao and Nicole are slowly adjusting to life in Taiwan, but their roots are always in Hong Kong, and they always care about their hometown. What they are most reluctant to give up, apart from their relatives and friends, is the civic qualities that Hong Kong people have built up over the years.

Nicole believes that Hong Kong has always been a place where Eastern and Western cultures meet. Hong Kong people have been trained to accept many things at a high level, but Ah Hao thought about it and said that Hong Kong food is what he is most reluctant to give up. He said that because there are many foreigners in Hong Kong, even foreign dishes will retain their original flavors, while Taiwanese dishes will be adjusted to be more localized.

Choosing to immigrate is already an easy decision. Both Ahao and Nicole confessed that the decision to come to Taiwan to start a business was too simple, resulting in many difficulties and gaps in expectations. Therefore, I want to tell Hong Kong people based on my own experience that no matter where they immigrate to, there are many things in life that new immigrants need to slowly adapt to, and the most important thing is to know what they want.

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Text: @ip_tszyeung

Edit: @someoneswandering

Photo: @_hortra.120 @kamdong_photography

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