MOSCOW: Jack Wong is a hardy, 50-year-old man who isn’t afraid to admit how he would cry at home nearly every night, when he first started work in Moscow 10 years ago.
“I couldn’t speak a single word of Russian!” said the chef, who’d also left his wife and daughter back in Singapore. “Then, the police were not friendly when they saw Asians. One took my passport, walked away and didn’t want to give it back.”
AdvertisementUpon the advice of the owner of the restaurant he works at, Asia Hall Live Kitchen, Wong offered the policeman some money - and got his passport back. The same method worked when airport officials wanted to send him back to Singapore, for carrying luggage full of local food products.
“This is how they work,” he shrugged.
Wong has also been robbed at knifepoint by a taxi driver, though he confessed to slipping up by being slightly inebriated and making the mistake of hailing a cab on the streets.
Fortunately, two of his fellow Singaporeans working in Russia, Amos Chia and Loretta Marie Perera, have not been targeted by criminals - but spoke of similar instances of overt racism.
AdvertisementAdvertisementChia, 28, is a conductor who recently wrapped a six-year course at the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory. He recalled a professor once berating him: “Why are you so stupid? Go back to China, go back to your farm!”
“Just this week, a conductor told me I would never conduct any good operas because I’m Asian,” said Chia, who married a Russian lawyer last year.
“And the Russians don’t like the Kazakhs and Central Asians. If you look like them - like me - you’ll get stopped on the streets and asked for your passport. I’ve also had to scan my bag at the metro even though my wife doesn’t have to,” he added.
Loretta Marie Perera, social media editor at English-language publication The Moscow Times, said the same.
“I’ve gotten checks on my bags and when I ask why, they say it’s ‘random’ but then you realise everyone being checked is a non-white person,” the 30-year old noted.
“The other thing is people in the subway look at you differently,” said Perera, who has resided in Moscow with her American husband for nearly two years. “You’re just doing your own thing and you realise there’s someone staring hatefully at you.”
“A LOT SAFER”?
Perera was working in Beijing before deciding to move somewhere else to learn a new language and experience a new city.
“Russia is a cool place to live geographically, because you can travel to so many places,” she pointed out. “Internet is fast, housing is cheap for a big city, and I’m in love with the Moscow Metro.”
“It’s also relatively safe here, and not just during the World Cup,” said Perera. “The cops come down really hard on people who break the law, so there's a lot less incentive for someone to get caught stealing a wallet with like five dollars in it.
“But I do avoid taking taxis myself, though that’s the case everywhere. Russia really is a lot safer than anywhere else in Europe and US, but you obviously can’t compare to Singapore."
For Chia, it is also a case of Russian culture and its people’s appetite for art - an environment which he said has changed him as a musician. And Wong, too, sees the professional benefits of his time in Russia.
The former head chef at IndoChine’s group of restaurants first accepted the job in Moscow because the offer was attractive, and he had an eye on building an overseas portfolio.
“I only imagined staying for one year. Next thing you know, it’s 10!” he laughed.
Twice he resigned, citing family and homesickness, and twice the owner increased his salary. Now Wong has a team of 32 reporting to him, and he’s found his niche catering to more affluent Russians who’ve holidayed in the likes of Bangkok and Bali, and developed a taste for Southeast Asian food.
“MORE COMFORTABLE NOW, BUT…”
Wong eventually plans to strike out and start his own business elsewhere in the city. He wanted his family to join him, but balked at the fees for enlisting his daughter, 16, in an international school in Moscow.
“I slowly adapted and I’m more comfortable now, but it’s still boring being alone,” he chuckled. “I mostly just stay home, watch Hong Kong movies and serials, clean the house and cook food for myself.”
Though she was once afraid to go out on her own, Perera, too, now feels confident enough to travel alone to different Russian cities.
She even organised Russia’s only women’s march in January last year, to join thousands around the world protesting at US president Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“It gets more appealing the longer I stay, because you have to put so much effort into everything you do here,” Perera added.
“In Singapore, everything is so easy, if you need something just apply for it and things just work. Here, we are approaching two years and I only just got my work visa.”
She did not rule out staying in Russia for the long term. Chia, on the other hand, said his ultimate goal was to give back to his country.
“I want to learn what I can here; grow as a musician so I can make a change in classical music in Singapore, to put our scene closer to that in the Western world,” he said.
“I still want to do something in Singapore. It’s home.”
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