Nancy and Ray met in a traditional Hong Kong tea shop. They became fast friends, and they eventually met Edward Leung, a charismatic philosophy graduate and spokesman for the Hong Kong Indigenous. Another Hong Kong friend was Sixtus Leung, a tall digital marketer who founded a localist group called Youngspiration. Ray was facing serious criminal charges and Sixtus was a localist activist. When they met in Hong Kong, they were both protesting police efforts to shut down unlicensed street vendors.
In February 2017, Nancy was visiting Hong Kong and decided to take the ferry across to Macau, a city one hour away. While waiting for the ferry, Nancy spotted a group of Hong Kong residents camped out along a major thoroughfare. They argued that the one-country, two-system system was rigged against the people of Hong Kong. The group of protesters had the power to change the political system in Hong Kong and Nancy joined them.
Hundreds of protesters were arrested and many took refuge in Taiwan. Several were detained by police and were then directed to NGOs, including Hong Kong Friends. The people they met were often not recognizable to Nancy, but Nancy would often alert her when they arrived at an airport. This meant that Nancy often escorted them to their destinations, so she never knew who she was funneling. However, Nancy was very successful in her goal.
Nancy’s mission to help Hong Kong’s exiled citizens in exile fueled her passion. She also wanted to help protect Taiwan’s nascent democracy. She wasn’t sure where her efforts had led, but she couldn’t live without her belief in her cause. In Taipei, she enrolled in Cantonese language classes, and had weekly family dinners with Hong Kong Friends. The experience inspired Nancy to become a more vocal advocate for the exiled community.