This weekend Reading’s Hong Kong community is welcoming the Lunar New Year by hosting an authentic fair.  

A key tradition in Hong Kong culture, natives frequent New Year’s fairs to buy festive food, lucky decorations called fai chun, and other artisanal gifts.

As someone who is both white British and new to Hong Kong culture, I was blown away by how welcoming the community was and how eager they were to share their traditions with me.

Upon entering the fair, you are immediately hit with the delicious smells of Asian cuisine.

Stalls selling Hong Kong style street food for as little as three pounds litter the area with dozens of people queuing up for a multitude of tasty treats.

These include Lunar New Year turnip cake, coconut pudding, Hong Kong tea, pineapple cake, and bubble waffles.

As both me and Mrs Tse pushed through the crowds of hungry individuals, she turned to me and said “Everyone misses the taste of home.”

One stall sold homemade honey, a business the owners had started in Hong Kong and had now brought to the UK.

Another woman, Luna Pang, sold handcrafted jewellery inspired by Chinese culture, a skill she had picked up from studying at UCL.

A further couple painted scenes of Hong Kongers fighting for democracy, using depictions of traditional Hong Kong food mixed with political satire.

Possibly the most memorable story that was relayed to me was from clothing store owner Herbert Chow, entrepreneur of the highly successful Hong Kong brand Chickeeduck.

Mr Chow told me how he had run 24 top-selling clothes stores in Hong Kong, all of which had been closed down by police due to the anti-democracy movement, forcing him to bring his business to the UK.

“We were established in 1990 so are over thirty years old,” he said. “But since the law passed that Hong Kong must be known as Hong Kong China, my clothes were deemed supportive of the democratic revolution.”

Mr Chow’s stylish black and white jumpers and hoodies have ‘Hong Kong’ embroidered onto them and were therefore seen by the government as promoting dissociation from China’s control.

Authorities warned the landlords of Chickeeduck stores to refuse tenancy to Mr Chow and end his leases. His last shop was closed in 2023.

Mrs Tse explained how many of her friends are in prison in Hong Kong for simply identifying as Hong Kongers and not abiding by “China’s dictatorship.”

Many of the Hong Kongers in Berkshire’s community are of BNO status - a visa system that has allowed those born before the 1997 handover to move to the UK.

Since the visa scheme launched in 2021, 190,000 Hong Kongers applied. Mrs Tse moved to the UK with her husband three years ago and within that time the couple welcomed their daughter.

“She’s made in Britain,” Mrs Tse joked.

The Lunar New Year Fair is running this weekend February 3 and 4 at The Wren School on Bath Road.