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Coronavirus pandemic
Hong KongSociety

Covid-19 jobs squeeze forces some in Hong Kong to take the leap into unfamiliar new careers

  • Desperate job-seekers lower expectations, while others sign up for training courses
  • Dance studio founder designs and sells floral arrangements online to get by

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Hong Kong’s latest unemployment rate for the three months to January reached 7 per cent – the highest in nearly 17 years. Photo: Winson Wong
Fiona Sun

Surveying the flowers scattered all over the sprung floor of his empty 7,000 sq ft dance studio alone, Singaporean Tim Russ Fernandez picks up some chrysanthemums to make a floral arrangement.

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The 41-year-old, founder of the Russ Dance Factory in Hong Kong’s bustling Causeway Bay, designed it for Lunar New Year in late January. The bright yellow chrysanthemums are arranged with red Chinese folding fans – the former mimicking the likeness of New Year fireworks, the latter representing red junk boats along Victoria Harbour.

He has named the arrangement “Home Kong”, and it sells for HK$1,388 (US$178) online.

It is one of the most popular floral arrangements that Fernandez has designed and sold, as he has switched from dance fitness instruction to selling floral arrangements online to get by during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tim Russ Fernandez, director and founder of Russ Dance Factory in his Studio at Causeway Bay. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
Tim Russ Fernandez, director and founder of Russ Dance Factory in his Studio at Causeway Bay. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
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He arrived in Hong Kong alone in 2004 to pursue his dancing career. After working as a dancer at Hong Kong Disneyland and as a dance instructor, he and his two partners set up their own dance studio in 2014, offering fitness dance workouts and choreography classes.

Business was good until the social unrest that began in June 2019, and the pandemic made matters worse. The number of active clients fell from about 800 to around 200 and, like other fitness centres, his studio had to close three times as part of Covid-19 control measures.
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