After Hong Kong lifted all Covid-related travel curbs last year, more and more people made bookings at Mansfield Hui’s restaurant for farewell parties – a last gathering with friends and family before leaving the city for good.
At one time there were eight to ten bookings for farewell feasts a week, the owner of Hopers’ Base, a Cantonese restaurant based in North Point since 2013, told HKFP. “At the height we could see two, three, or even four tables booked every night,” Hui said.
But the business came with a price. Hopers’ Base lost a sizable portion of its regular diners, Hui said, adding that income dropped about 10 per cent in 2023 – against the 20 to 30 per cent annual growth he enjoyed in 2021 and 2022.
Hui’s plight is common in a city which has seen a wave of shop and restaurant closures in recent months. A Facebook group where residents share news of local business closures has seen its membership surge past 355,000 within weeks.
Seven out of ten shops were shuttered in the section of Fort Street where Hopers’ Base is located during HKFP’s visit.
Many blame the closures partly on Hongkongers making weekend trips to neighbouring mainland Chinese cities such as Shenzhen for dining and entertainment, attracted by far cheaper prices.
Hui said the impact of this trend was worse for businesses in Kowloon and the New Territories, which are connected to the mainland by high-speed railway.
But even on Hong Kong Island, streets were emptier during holidays as residents resumed overseas travel after three years of Covid isolation, he added.
For Hopers’ Base, the wave of permanent migration wave has brought more profound challenges, but also opened unexpected doors.
The restaurant is expecting to open a branch in London towards the end of the year, after several patrons who moved to the UK approached Hui with a proposal to franchise his menu.
“We get together Chinese and Western chefs to study how to make Hong Kong-style siu mei with Western ingredients,” he said, referring to the Cantonese name for Hong Kong-style roasted poultry and barbecue pork.
He added the recipe has been standardised in case the restaurant was not able to hire experienced siu mei chefs in the UK.
Stories of leaving
In the past decade, Hui said Hopers’ Base had accumulated a clientele extending beyond the neighbourhood to middle-class professionals from across the city.
But that latter group was also more likely to emigrate, he said, adding that many had left the city as part of a broader phenomenon of international companies relocating out of Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong government denied claims of an “exodus” during the pandemic and a political crackdown, even as the population shrank from about 7.48 million to 7.34 million between 2020 and mid-2022, according to official figures. The population rose to 7.5 million in 2023, partly due to arrivals from mainland China.
The government says it does not keep data on permanent departures.
Recently, though, authorities have launched multiple schemes to plug manpower shortages across various industries and recruit talent from overseas, with most of the visas being issued to mainland Chinese professionals.
The demographic change coincided with a number of mainland Chinese restaurant chains entering Hong Kong, bringing food and beverages such as Sichuan-style spicy dishes and unconventional lemon tea that are hugely popular across the border.
“We are a restaurant that faces the local community,” Hui said. “We don’t make Sichuan fish soup with pickled mustard greens. The newcomers and talent in recent years are not really our target customers.”
“We can’t benefit from the new immigrants, while Hongkongers are leaving. That’s a problem for us.”
Overseas opportunities
Hui said another challenge lay with recruitment, which he believed was related to the brain drain that resulted from the migration wave.
As a trial run for the London branch, Hui secured a lease in Causeway Bay and launched HONGrill last year – but the opening was delayed for months as he could not hire enough staff.
Eventually Hui had to reassign some employees from North Point to the new restaurant. Staffing the new venture took almost five months.
But Hopers’ Base has been able to employ back-end staff responsible for marketing and advertising in the UK and Taiwan, places where a Hong Kong diaspora is present.
“There are some people who previously worked in the media or in advertising companies,” Hui said. “There was no way I could hire people as good as this in the past.”
They included professional copywriters, PR specialists, ex-reporters, graphic designers – some even volunteered to help Hui prepare marketing material and to research food and beverage regulations and statistics in the UK.
“Some were our patrons in the past, some have been introduced by friends,” Hui said. “I am touched… People have scattered around the world, but all of a sudden they come together for this project.”
Return of familiar faces
In April, Hui closed HONGrill, partly because it was not making enough money. He said increasingly common work-from-home arrangements and the economic downturn had led to fewer diners.
“The stock market ispoor, so is the housing market,” Hui said in late April. “In fact, people may not be any poorer, but they feel that way and limit their consumption.”
Chief Executive John Lee in April played down fears of a wave of business closures, saying different sectors must adapt to the ebbs and flows of economic transformation.
“If we are obsessed with changes often seen in our daily life, and exaggerate the matter, I think it may not be the right thing for Hong Kong,” Lee said.
At Hopers’ Base, the number of farewell parties eventually dwindled. However, one compensation of the migration wave was the return of familiar faces during their visits home.
“Many who emigrated would book a table [when they return],” Hui said. “They would ask: ‘We have a big group of friends, could we reserve a larger table?’ And we would make special arrangements for them.”
“Our colleagues are happy to see these regulars again,” he said, adding that tangerine peel and pu’er tea were popular items among overseas Hongkongers as gifts.
Those returning regulars also attracted new customers to Hopers’ Base and Hui decided to expand the restaurant, taking over a neighbouring dim sum shop that shut late last year.
Hui said Fort Street had become a microcosm of the city, with neighbours and old friends gradually leaving the community.
But Hopers’ Base catered for those who remained in the city, he said, with overseas Hongkongers ordering poon choi – a traditional dish comprising miscellaneous ingredients typically served during Cantonese festivals – for their parents back home in the city.
“When a door is closed, another will open,” Hui said. “I believe there will always be a way forward.”
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