From Myanmar to Hong Kong: Kham’s journey of finding home

Born and raised in a small town in eastern Myanmar, Mr Sai Htong Kham had always been curious about life beyond his familiar surroundings. This curiosity led him to pursue opportunities abroad to experience a different way of life. In 2014, he made up his mind to embark on his academic journey in Hong Kong on a scholarship from EdUHK.

His first year in Hong Kong was full of new experiences. “When I first came to Hong Kong, culture, food, and language were all new and unfamiliar to me,” he recalled. However, the initial excitement soon gave way to homesickness. “During the first few years, I felt alienated in this bustling city. There were not many Burmese people here and it was difficult to find restaurants serving Burmese cuisine. Every time I went back to my hometown to visit my parents, I didn’t want to leave again,” he said.

Life began to improve after Kham met Dr Isabella Ng Fung-sheung from the then Department of Asian and Policy Studies in 2015 (Note). A professor specialising in refugee and migration studies, she reached out to him and invited him to assist at the Hong Kong Society for Asylum-seekers and Refugees (HKSASR), an NGO she founded to support asylum-seekers and refugees. “I accepted the invitation because I wanted to experience things outside the academic sphere in Hong Kong,” he said. Volunteering with the NGO gave Kham many opportunities to meet ethnic minority communities who, like him, were not originally from Hong Kong. He also forged friendships with other volunteers at the organisation.

“I had planned to return home after completing my undergraduate studies, but circumstances disrupted that plan,” he said. He was then offered the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree and work as a research assistant. However, just as he began the role in the 2019/2020 academic year, the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe. In 2021, major political turmoil broke out in Myanmar, making the situation there highly unstable. “I began to think about changing my plan and staying in Hong Kong to continue my academic pursuits,” Kham explained.

After completing his master’s degree at FLASS, he decided to progress to a PhD. He had long been interested in researching youth activism in Myanmar and Thailand. “My PhD research is about potential youth leaders and their socio-political participation in conflict-affected regions in Myanmar,” the PhD candidate said. Dr Ng, who has many years of expertise in refugee and migration issues with a focus on Southeast Asia, naturally became his supervisor.

“Kham is a brilliant student with strong intellectual ability. As his supervisor, I only need to outline the key points; he can quickly grasp the entire concept,” the Associate Professor from the Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies (SSPS) said. Dr Ng was overjoyed when his first paper was published in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods in 2024, a top journal in the field of social sciences. The paper, titled “Outsider From Within, Insider From Without: Negotiating Researcher Positionality in Comparative Social Research”, saw Kham sharing his experiences as an “in-out-sider” while conducting fieldwork in Thailand, discussing the issue of conceptualising and practicing positionality.

For his PhD research, Kham conducted extensive fieldwork on the role of young people in social movements in Thailand and Myanmar in 2020 and 2021. He interviewed many young Myanmar and Thai participants. “I reflected on my multiple identities when interacting with the informants. To both groups, I was a researcher. But I presented myself as a Myanmar national to the Myanmar participants and as a foreign researcher to the Thai participants,” he explained.

By “in-out-sider”, Kham refers to someone with both insider and outsider perspectives. “It describes someone like me, who can navigate and share space, in terms of dynamics and identity, with both Thai and Myanmar participants,” he continued.

Kham’s commitment to people goes beyond research. Since 2015, he has remained actively involved with Dr Ng’s NGO, helping to collect and distribute daily necessities to refugees and others in need. “Kham is certainly excellent at research, but he also cares deeply about other people’s needs. He excels both academically and personally. I am delighted to be his teacher,” Dr Ng proudly stated.

Arriving as a stranger, with few friends and little familiarity with local culture, Kham now calls Hong Kong his home. He believes a home is not defined solely by a place, but by the people who create a sense of belonging. “A welcoming gesture, such as a lunch invitation, a smile or a compliment made all the difference. I am blessed to have Isabella as my supervisor. She has always been a huge part of my life in Hong Kong. I want to thank her and the people around me for their tremendous support over the years,” he shared. His journey—from a struggling stranger in Hong Kong to a young thriving scholar—was featured in a recent RTHK’s 30-minute programme, Inclusive Hong Kong, which continues to inspire others facing similar challenges.

Kham maintains a strong sense of Burmese identity. But given the ongoing situation in Myanmar, he is uncertain when he will be able to return. Although he cannot help his homeland in person, he hopes his systematic research and academic publications can bring about policy changes.

Coming from a Buddhist country, Kham enjoys visiting Buddhist temples in Hong Kong where he finds spiritual peace and inspiration. He also loves hiking in the city’s beautiful countryside, and treating himself to bowls of wonton noodles. Having lived in Hong Kong for over a decade, he feels a strong connection to the city so much so that he eagerly looks forward to returning every time he travels abroad for conferences. “Even though I am not from Hong Kong, I have made this city my home,” he said.

Note: Kham enrolled in his bachelor’s programme at the Department of Asian and Policy Studies (APS) in 2014. APS was merged with the Department of Social Sciences in July 2023, forming what is now the Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies.