Fong So

Three Years in Exile

The author's exile started in late September 2020, three months after the imposition of the draconian National Security Law in Hong Kong. It was the time of a global pandemic - the outbreak and spreading of the deadly Covid-19. After uprooting himself from Hong Kong, he has experienced hardship and difficulties nearly all the time. While struggling to adapt to a life in a different environment with limited means, he spent his spare time recording what he had encountered in the form of sketches.In the next three years, he first stayed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and then relocated to London. Moving repeatedly in London, he came up with the idea of compiling a book, a pictorial album, with his sketches. Explanatory notes were written to accompany the sketches, recalling mainly what he felt while compiling them, and are included in this book.Over the past few years, half a million Hongkongers have left their home city, and more than 200,000 have come to the UK. Many of them might have experienced much more hardship than the author/artist and will easily relate their experience to his story. And people who want to know more about the Hong Kong diaspora will find this book interesting.