Hong Kong identity crisis

2012/01/17 Labels: ,



Another embarrassing episode unfolded last week for Beijing by the recent surveys regarding national / citizenship identity conducted by the Hong Kong University.  The results, unsurprisingly, showed the number of Hong Kongers who identify themselves as "Chinese" is hitting a new low.    Here is the abstract of the surveys.
While the Beijing government may not understand why more people in HK do not want to associate themselves with the term "Chinese citizens", its immediate reflex had led a series of denunciation and suggested the poll was either politically motivated or uncalled for since we are already by default in the same ethnic group.
Here is an article by The Washington Post.

Chung has been surveying Hong Kong identity since the territory’s return to China, and the results of his latest poll merely confirmed anecdotal evidence of a significant trend among residents: growing resentment toward — and a sense of separateness from — mainland Chinese. 

I guess this guy speaks my mind on this:

What can be done about it? Well, a first step would be stop trying to make Hong Kong like the rest of China. I often compare Hong Kong to Quebec in Canada. Both places have “distinct societies”, both places have different historical ties, and both places have different languages. Canada made a decision to preserve the uniqueness that is Quebec; China could do the same with Hong Kong. 

My only criticism is you cannot really be serious if you actually try to compare China with Canada in term of protecting minority interests (or anything else in respect to universal human values).   If we act like those in Quebec we would have been carpet bombed long time ago as Beijing would literally shit on its pant if you ever mention the term "referendum."
Anyways, why the divide between the HKers and our cousins in the mainland?   Youtube is worth a thousand words.   Here is a recent footage showing how one of the passengers reacted to the mainlanders eating inside the MTR train where no food was allowed. 

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