HONG KONG -- There have been times when Norman Quan has wondered whether he made the right decision: To leave his parents and a well-paid job as a financial controller. To leave his condominium in Los Angeles and those lonesome stretches of four-lane freeway where he could speed to his heart's content. To leave a place where he could hold up a protest sign and not worry about landing in jail. But Quan has always known why he decided to come back to this longtime British colony just three years before its return to mainland China. ""My mom and dad said I was nuts to return to Hong Kong,'' says the 43-year-old, who now manages an import-export company. He was born in a small village in southern China, raised in Hong Kong and educated in California. ""I told them ... 'I love the States, but my heart is still in Hong Kong and China.'"" While other Hong Kong residents sought a refuge abroad for themselves and their money, Quan was one of thousands who chose this time of historic uncertainty to come home.