Business circumstances are causing us to consider relocating ourselves to Hong Kong. We'll leave the issue of a visa for a different thread. In this thread, I just want to cover some of the basic concerns I have about how, where, and if we'll fit in, and whether this is even a tenable thing. I've been researching this all week.
We're a large family, 4 kids and 2 adults (my wife and myself). My wife is pregnant with our 5th. We have a home of about 3000 sq ft in the US. I'm an obese man (5'11"/275 lbs), but my family is otherwise fairly normally sized physically. I work from home as a software engineer and sysadmin for a US-based company.
My first concern is family size. I would speculate that more than 1-2 kids is not common in Hong Kong. If we even could make a move out there work financially, how would we be received by the culture? Would people hold us in hostility? Would people just think it was weird, but not really mind? Will my wife get derisive comments if she takes the kids out while I work? If we don't want to pay tuition at private international schools, what will the schooling experience for the kids be like? Should we expect them to have a hard time? Should Americans even consider public schooling in HK?
Next, I'm concerned about physical space. We have ~3000 sq ft now for ~$1650 USD, which is obviously many times cheaper than we'd be able to find in HK. We've accepted if we move there we'll have to settle for around 1300-1500 sq ft. In the US homes that size are usually 2 bedrooms. We have 5 in our current house. With space at such a premium, I don't know if or how working from home will really work for me. We'd have difficulty spending more than $20k HKD/mo for housing. Is there a specific place to look at that price range for a family like ours? From reading it sounds like Discovery Bay would be the best fit for us, very Americanized, but I don't know if we'd be able to afford it. We don't want to live in the heart of the city, so something on Lantau Island or in the New Territories is probably where we'd settle. We wouldn't want to live in Kowloon or on Hong Kong Island.
With my large physical size, I'm worried that I'll be seen as sucking up all of the oxygen in the area and that I won't fit on public transport. I don't think I'm grotesquely obese, but I know in tightly-packed cities like HK things are always cozier, and that Asians are small to begin with. Will I be unable to function in Hong Kong as a substantially overweight white man?
My wife and kids are not very interested in learning a new language, especially one as hard as Cantonese. I think it's because they're mostly worried about how hard it will be. Any Americans with recommendations for overcoming this in reluctant family?
Thanks in advance.