Alex Hum was born in Vancouver, Canada…but moved to Hong Kong when he was still a baby.  Alex and I had an open and honest conversation about what it really means to be a citizen of the world and a third culture child.

We covered a lot of ground in our conversation.  Alex has had a very interesting set of experiences.  To his peers in Hong Kong, Alex seemed different than they were…maybe a bit too Western.  Yet to his friends in Canada, he was clearly Chinese…and they were probably both correct.

That is the quintessential feeling that results from being multi-cultural.  Where am I from?  Everybody asks, yet I have no good answer.  Where is my home?  Can I even go home?

Alex's insights were deep and expressed eloquently, yet, in the end, Alex decided NOT to go home…but to pursue his career in London, one of the world's most international and diverse cities.

Yong Wang was born and raised in Shanghai.  While he was an undergraduate student at Donghua University, Yong interned at Next Step Connections in Shanghai and helped the firm with all manner of responsibilities.

It was great exposure for him to foreign students and the types of issues they encountered living and working in a foreign country.  It was also a useful introduction to a non-Chinese work environment…all of this came in handy when Yong decided to get his Master of Science at Southampton University in the UK.

As the first person in his family to travel abroad, the lens through which he experienced his life in Southampton was fascinating.  Even more interesting were his insights on what it meant to be Chinese abroad…how his expectations differed from real-life experiences and the issues one faces upon coming home.