Graduates wearing Guy Fawkes masks throw their hats as they pose for their photo after a graduation ceremony at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, China, November 7, 2019. Reuters-Yonhap
Weeks before mainland Chinese student Carol Chen graduated from Baptist University in Hong Kong in July, the 22-year-old did the math and weighed the cost of living in the city against returning home.
Renting a room in the city would consume around half of the HK$20,000 ($2,552) starting salary she expected as a junior data analyst.
"If I go back to Shanghai, I will only need to worry about daily expenses," Chen, a maths and statistics graduate, said, referring to money saved by living with her family.
Language barriers compounded the problem. Neither Cantonese nor English was her mother tongue, Chen said, and this disadvantage became more evident at seminars and job interviews.
