Hong Kong, China: Learning to Belong to a Nation

Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 Hong Kong, China The idea of “national identity” is an ambiguous one for Hong Kong. Returned to the national embrace of China on 1 July 1997 after 150 years as a British colony, the concept of national identity and what it means to “belong to a nation” is a matter of great tension and contestation in Hong Kong. Written by three academic specialists on cultural identity, social history, and the mass media, this book explores the processes through which the people of Hong Kong are “learning to belong to a nation” by examining their shifting rela- tionship with the Chinese nation and state in the recent past, present, and future. It considers the complex meanings of and debates over national identity in Hong Kong over the past fifty years, especially during the last decade following the territory’s return to China. In doing so, the book takes a larger, global perspective, exploring what Hong Kong teaches us about potential future transformations of national identity in the world as a whole. Multidisciplinary in approach, Hong Kong, China examines national identity in terms of theory, ethnography, history, the mass media, and survey data, and will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese history, cultural studies, and nationalism. Gordon Mathews teaches in the Department of Anthropology, the Chinese Uni- versity of Hong Kong. Eric Kit-wai Ma teaches in the School of Journalism and Communication, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Tai-lok Lui teaches in Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 the Department of Sociology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Routledge contemporary China series 1 Nationalism, Democracy and 7 Globalization and the Chinese National Integration in China City Leong Liew and Wang Shaoguang Fulong Wu 2 Hong Kong’s Tortuous 8 The Politics of China’s Democratization Accession to the World Trade A comparative analysis Organization Ming Sing The dragon goes global Hui Feng 3 China’s Business Reforms Institutional challenges in a 9 Narrating China globalised economy Jia Pingwa and his fictional world Edited by Russell Smyth and Yiyan Wang Cherrie Zhu 10 Sex, Science and Morality in 4 Challenges for China’s China Development Joanne McMillan An enterprise perspective Edited by David H. Brown and 11 Politics in China since 1949 Alasdair MacBean Legitimizing authoritarian rule Robert Weatherley Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 5 New Crime in China Public order and human rights 12 International Human Resource Ron Keith and Zhiqiu Lin Management in Chinese Multinationals 6 Non-governmental Jie Shen and Vincent Edwards Organizations in Contemporary China 13 Unemployment in China Paving the way to civil society? Economy, human resources and Qiusha Ma labour markets Edited by Grace Lee and Malcolm Warner 14 China and Africa 19 China’s State Enterprise Engagement and compromise Reform Ian Taylor From Marx to the market John Hassard, Jackie Sheehan, 15 Gender and Education in China Meixiang Zhou, Gender discourses and women’s Jane Terpstra-Tong and schooling in the early twentieth Jonathan Morris century Paul J. Bailey 20 Cultural Heritage Management in China 16 SARS Preserving the cities of the Pearl Reception and interpretation in River Delta three Chinese cities Edited by Hilary du Cros and Edited by Deborah Davis and Yok-shiu F. Lee Helen Siu 21 Paying for Progress 17 Human Security and the Public finance, human welfare and Chinese State inequality in China Historical transformations and the Edited by Vivienne Shue and modern quest for sovereignty Christine Wong Robert E. Bedeski 22 China’s Foreign Trade Policy 18 Gender and Work in Urban The new constituencies China Edited by Ka Zeng Women workers of the unlucky generation 23 Hong Kong, China Liu Jieyu Learning to belong to a nation Gordon Mathews, Eric Kit-wai Ma, and Tai-lok Lui Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 Hong Kong, China Learning to belong to a nation Gordon Mathews, Eric Kit-wai Ma, and Tai-lok Lui Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 First published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2008 Gordon Mathews, Eric Kit-wai Ma, and Tai-lok Lui All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0–203–94651–0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-42654-5 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-203-94651-0 (ebk) Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 ISBN13: 978-0-415-42654-1 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-94651-0 (ebk) Contents List of illustrations viii Acknowledgments ix Notes on Hong Kong and Chinese x Prologue xiii 1 The significance of Hong Kong 1 2 Fleeing the nation, creating a local home, 1949–1983 22 3 Rejoining the nation: Hong Kong, 1983–2006 40 4 Representing the nation in the Hong Kong mass media 58 5 Hong Kong schools and the teaching of national identity 78 6 Hong Kong people’s changing comprehensions of national identity 95 7 How American, Chinese, and Hong Kong university students Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 understand “belonging to a nation” 115 8 Hong Kong people encountering the nation in south China 131 9 Hong Kong’s market-based national identity: harbinger of a global future? 148 Notes 168 References 177 Index 190 Illustrations Maps Map 1 Hong Kong xi Map 2 South China xii Tables 1 Self-proclaimed cultural identity of interviewees, 1996–2006 97 2 Hongkongers’ perception of differences between Hongkongers and Mainland Chinese 99 3 Hong Kong people’s perception toward icons of China and Hong Kong. Percentage of respondents giving 4 or 5 points on a 5-point scale 103 4 Hongkongers’ perceptions towards aspects of China 107 5 Hong Kong people’s sense of love for Hong Kong, the Chinese nation, and the Communist Party 107 6 Travelers between Hong Kong and China, 1994–2004 134 Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 Acknowledgments We thank Lynne Nakano, Thomas Kwan-choi Tse, Jo Yung, and Janice Lau, for reading over all or much of the manuscript and offering their critiques, which have been highly useful. Linda Fong, Carol Chow, Chan Wai Chiu, and Man Chi Shing have served as very helpful research assistants for Eric Ma; Jo Yung in particular, and also Tse Yuen Man and Teresa Cheung, among many others, have much aided Gordon Mathews in his research. Linda Fong and especially Stephen Lin Tat Kit have been of great aid in formatting the manuscript. The maps were drawn by Kelvin Cheung. Funding for the research in Chapter 6 was provided through an earmarked grant, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong, and in Chapters 5, 6, and 7 through two direct grants, Faculty of Social Science, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. We greatly appreciate this support of our research. G.M. E.K.M. T.L. Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 Notes on Hong Kong and Chinese Hong Kong geography Hong Kong has been described as a pimple on the hide of an elephant, a tiny bump on the southern coast of the vast land that is China. It is often thought of as a city, but it is not: it is full of steep mountains and numerous small islands, and has many isolated rural villages, and hundreds of miles of country trails. The territory of Hong Kong is roughly 1,100 square kilometres, or 684 square miles, some six times the size of Washington DC. The urban heart of Hong Kong is Hong Kong Island, particularly Victoria Harbor, on the north of the island, and Kowloon, across the harbour from Hong Kong island: these are the most densely populated urban areas of the territory. The New Territories are the area north of Kowloon that is most immediately adjacent to China; it is much larger in area, and now contains a greater share of Hong Kong’s population than either Hong Kong Island or Kowloon. Between the New Territories and China is a tightly controlled border; China is effectively a foreign country. The narrative that follows mentions a number of specific places, which we have placed upon the accompanying maps 1–2. Romanization and names Chinese titles in Hong Kong have been Romanized using the Yale Romanization of Cantonese; this has not, however, applied to names, which are generally Downloaded by [ISTEX] at 03:47 06 September 2013 Romanized in the more casual Hong Kong style that most people in Hong Kong use. Mainland Chinese titles have been Romanized in pinyin. Names in Chinese are generally given in the Chinese order of surname first, unless the person uses a Western given name, in which case the Western order of surname last is generally followed.

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