JOURNEY TO INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL WORK: A PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION Miu Chung Yan, Ph.D., University of British Columbia, Vancouver The author has been a traveler traversing not only the geographic and cultural but also professional social work boundaries of Hong Kong, London, Toronto, San Francisco, Beijing, and now Vancouver. The stories that unfold in this article are closely knitted with the notion of "international" in contemporary social work. As a former colonial elite, an immigrant, a minority, and a privileged social worker and scholar, he experienced "international" in social work as a continued struggle against imperialism in both the local and global levels. To conclude his narrative, the author highlights some issues which may be worthy of contemplation if the social work profession really wants to have a fair exchange among social work communities from the developed and developing worlds. "The image of traveler depends not on recounted in this paper will be used to examine power, but on motion, on a willingness to go concepts and principles—including into different worlds, use different idioms, and interdependence, reciprocity, cultural understand a variety of disguises, masks, and competence, and the exportation model— rhetoric. Travelers must suspend the claim of proposed by major intemational social work customary routine in order to live in new scholars. Implications on the theory and rhythms and rituals. Most of all, and most practice of intemational social work will be unlike the potentate who must guard only one discussed. place and defend its frontier, the traveler crosses over, traverses territory, and Embarking on the Social Work Journey abandons fixed positions all the time." In October of 1981,1 embarked on my (Said, 1994, p. 17, itahcs in the original) professional joumey as a student of a two- year diploma program in social work. Social I am a traveler. The stories that I will relate work, both as a discipline and a profession, in this paper are not only about an immigrant's was not only westem but also modem—an sojoum experience; they are also stories of enlightened progression toward which Hong the professional growth of a social worker Kong was striving. Said (1994) observed that who crosses over boundaries of intemational in a colony "it was assumed native elites social work territories. As long as I am a would be taught the rudiments of intellectual traveler, my experience is in constant change. culture in idioms and methods designed in According to Said (1994), travelers "belong effect to keep those native elites subservient to more than one world" (p. 11). All travelers to colonial rule, the superiority of European are thus "intemational."' The intemationality leaming and so forth" (p. 6). This was an embedded in my own joiimey may offer some accurate description of Hong Kong - a British interesting dimensions to the current Colony. Perhaps social work was one of discussion of intemational social work. many examples ofthe superiority ofEuropean Reflecting on my personal and professional learning' through which I, like many other journeys between the developed^ and people of my age in Hong Kong, was kept developing^ worlds, I argue that we must subservient. ..M" . critically reflect on the imperial/colonial My first exposure to the rudiments of relations hidden in the current discussion of modem social work was through the texts that international social work. The stories were chosen for us. The first English social 4 REFLECTIONS - WINTER 2005 Joumey to Internationai Sooial Work work textbook that I had ever had was a U.S.- authority. As I have discussed elsewhere, Canada collaboration—the earliest version of Chinese who identify with the traditional Social Work Process written by Compton hierarchical culture may tend to incorporate and Galaway (1979). Except for a very few or interpret authority relations into other Hong Kong-based materials, the majority of systems. As an educated professional, I was the textbooks and references we used were often seen as an authority by my clients, who from the West Chinese materials were largely expected that I, as someone with a higher from Taiwan and were either translated from status, would provide them with answers. or based on Westem (mainly British and Hoping to leam how to deal with cultural American) materials. These Westem materials expectations that did not fit well with my indoctrinated us with a set of social work professional role, I brought these dilemmas values, knowledge, and skills that were mainly to the supervisory meetings. However, these developed in two major Anglophonic difficulties were very often understood as countries, Britain (U.K) and the United States nothing more than issues of professional of America (U.S.). amateurism and thus were framed simply as In the 1980s, a postsecondary education areas in which I needed to improve. The in Hong Kong was indispensable for inconsistencies between the Westem theories members ofthe lower class who aspired to that we leamed and the actualities ofthe local join the ranks of the colonial elite. The cultural context therefore eluded critical prospect of upward mobility was so appealing examination, as their cultural relevance was that we young people from the lower class displaced by a standard discourse of job seldom questioned our desire to be part of performance. the colonial elite. This desire, however, did In October of 1985, after two years in hamper us from questioning what we were the field, I decided to retum to school to pursue learning. We tended to perceive the a baccalaureate degree in social work knowledge and values of this Westem (BSW). This two-year program was full of leaming—for instance, those underpinning fascinating theories and concepts, such as social work—^as noble, progressive, and even Titmuss' grand ideas of a welfare state. emancipatory, despite the vivid conflicts we Westem success in the social engineering encountered between what we were leaming approach ignited the fire of our progressive in school and what we were actually minds with respect to social remedies that experiencing in the field. For instance, my were needed at that time in Hong Kong classmates and I found it challenging to uphold society, which had a prosperous economy and the principle of confidentiality with our cUents numerous social problems. We were also who, like us, lived with six to eight people in introduced to the Westem philosophy of social a physical space of 100-200 square feet. welfare, such as John Rawls' distributive Likewise, we were uncertain about how to justice. Just as with the diploma course, almost apply the principle of self-determination to our all my teachers had been educated in the West. chents, who, also like us, were socialized in a Intemational materials, mainly from the U.K. culture in which making major personal and the U.S., dominated our reading lists. decisions without consulting or seeking Local materials were again rare. permission from family and/or elders was Likewise, the relevance of Chinese culture widely perceived as disrespectful. was seldom a part of what we leamed and The traditional Chinese culture in which was, instead, positioned as somehow savage. many of us - and our clients - were socialized, I still have a recollection of a particular lecture tends to be structured around relations of in which a guest speaker from our Philosophy REFLECTIONS - WINTER 2005 5 Joumey to Intemational Social Work in Social Welfare course showed us a book studying in Britain was more or less a "secular written by a Taiwanese social work scholar pilgrimage" (Janin, 2002), a joumey in which who had tried to re-interpret (or deconstmct) people travel to the holy land^to pursue their the ten famous Chinese legends of filial piety own academic, literary, historical, scientific, fi"om a western child abuse perspective. These political, military, artistic or other interests" traditional stories, treasured by many (p. 3). We sought not only to experience but generations of Chinese, were tumed into vivid also to leam from the wisdom of the imperial examples of child abuse. For instance, there center. was a boy called Huang Xiang who would However, such knowledge did not come warm his parents' bed with his body in the without its share of disillusionment The year winter and cool his parents' bed by fanning in that I was in England was also the year of the summer. The book interpreted this story major social discontentment over Prime as a child abuse case. The filial piety of Huang Minister Thatcher's poll tax, a measure seen became a forced labor by his abusive parents. as further reduction of govemment welfare We were completely stunned by the author's responsibilities^ The crisis of the British "new" Westem interpretation and became welfare system was especially disturbing to skeptical as to whether Chinese culture could those young intellectuals from the developing ever accommodate the rudimentary principles world, including myself, who admired so much of modem social work. of Beveridge's legacy of the modem welfare state. Living in the imperial capital—the A Journey to the Imperial Capital birthplace of the modem welfare state—I In the 1980s, many young social workers realized that the West, or at least Britain— in Hong Kong went abroad to pursue their the imperial master—^was not as successful graduate studies, partly because of the lack or as effectual as portrayed in our textbooks. of graduate programs in Hong Kong and This prestigious educational institute of the partly because we wanted to acquire firsthand imperial capital provided me an intemational knowledge of the West. As Hong Kong was scope, particularly through its diverse student a British colony, it was not surprising that many body. However, in my recollection, locahsm, ofus chose to study in England.