The Oak Tree with Golden Leaves

Rebecca Clarke had a solid career as a banker in her hometown of Hong Kong, but she gave it up to go to England and built her own business instead, providing care for kids from Hong Kong and China who were at school in the UK, far from their families. She married an Englishman and had two sons, making a success of the difficult shift from one culture and world to another. Her story provides inspiration for the hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers who have moved or are planning to move to England to remake their lives. Born in 1949 as the youngest of nine children, Rebecca grew up with parents from Fujian Province who believed that girls are less important than boys. She took that as a challenge and grew up with a strong will to fight for equality, and a determined certainty that where there is a will, there must be a way. She rejected her father’s suggestion of becoming a teacher and instead found a job in an American bank, before moving on to become a Vice President of an Asian bank. Then came England.​​​​​Rebecca’s story is a model in so many ways to people looking to remake their lives in a foreign land, learning to respect and love the new while still cherishing and celebrating her cultural roots.