Defining fellow compatriots as 'others' - National identity in Hong Kong

Government and Opposition

Volumn 35, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 499-519

  Chan, Elaine ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0034359438     PISSN: 0017257X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1477-7053.00043     Document Type: Article

References (87)

1. Unlike many other colonies, Hong Kong society was generally satisfied with its colonial ruler. A poll found that 39.4 per cent of respondents had affectionate memories of the British administration, compared to 20.6 per cent who had negative feelings (Apple Daily, 30 June 1997). Another poll reported that two-thirds of respondents believed that the British government had done more good than harm in the development of Hong Kong (Pop Express, Social Science Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Special Release of 19 June 1998). See also Lau Siu-kai, 'The Rise and Decline of Political Support for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government', Government and Opposition, 34:3 (Summer 1999), pp. 352-71.
2. Unlike many other colonies, Hong Kong society was generally satisfied with its colonial ruler. A poll found that 39.4 per cent of respondents had affectionate memories of the British administration, compared to 20.6 per cent who had negative feelings (Apple Daily, 30 June 1997). Another poll reported that two-thirds of respondents believed that the British government had done more good than harm in the development of Hong Kong (Pop Express, Social Science Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Special Release of 19 June 1998). See also Lau Siu-kai, 'The Rise and Decline of Political Support for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government', Government and Opposition, 34:3 (Summer 1999), pp. 352-71.
3. Unlike many other colonies, Hong Kong society was generally satisfied with its colonial ruler. A poll found that 39.4 per cent of respondents had affectionate memories of the British administration, compared to 20.6 per cent who had negative feelings (Apple Daily, 30 June 1997). Another poll reported that two-thirds of respondents believed that the British government had done more good than harm in the development of Hong Kong (Pop Express, Social Science Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Special Release of 19 June 1998). See also Lau Siu-kai, 'The Rise and Decline of Political Support for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government', Government and Opposition, 34:3 (Summer 1999), pp. 352-71.
4. See Lau Chi-kuen, Hong Kong's Colonial Legacy, Hong Kong, The Chinese University Press, 1997, pp. 15-17.
5. Max Weber, 'The Nation', in John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith (eds), Nationalism, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 25.
6. Craig Calhoun, Nationalism, Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1997, p. 5.
7. Following Anthony D. Smith, the nation is 'a named human population sharing an historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members'. See Anthony D. Smith, National Identity, London, Penguin, 1991, p. 4.
8. Adopting Mann's Weberian understanding, the state is defined as 'a differentiated set of institutions and personnel embodying centrality, in the sense that political relations radiate outward to cover a territorially demarcated area, over which it claims a monopoly of binding and permanent rule-making, backed up by physical violence'. Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, Vol. 1: A History of Power from the Beginning to A.D. 1760, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 37.
9. The nation and the state may work closely together, but one does not dominate the other. There are cases when the nation rises up against the state.
10. Anthony D. Smith, Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1995, p. 159.
11. David Miller, On Nationality, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1995.
12. Sidney Verba, 'Sequences and Development' in Leonard Binder (ed.), Crisis and Sequences in Political Development, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1970, p. 299.
13. The official emigration estimates showed an overall upward trend since the 1980s. The out-migration estimates in 1980 were 22,400 and peaked at 62,000 in 1994. See Ronald Skeldon, 'Emigration from Hong Kong, 1945-1994' in Ronald Skeldon (ed.), Emigration from Hong Kong: Tendencies and Impacts, Hong Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 1995, p. 57.
14. Eric Hobsbawm, 'Introduction: Inventing Traditions', in Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983.
15. Karen A. Cerulo, 'Symbols and the World Systems: National Anthems and Flags', Sociological Forum, 8:2 (1993), pp. 243-71.
16. Karen A. Cerulo, Identity Designs: The Sights and Sounds of a Nation, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1995.
17. Michael Billig, Banal Nationalism, London, Thousand Oaks, Cal. and New Delhi, Sage, 1995.
18. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition, op. cit.; and Janet Siskind, 'The Invention of Thanksgiving: A Ritual of American Nationality', Critique of Anthropology, 12:2 (1992), pp. 167-91.
19. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition, op. cit.; and Janet Siskind, 'The Invention of Thanksgiving: A Ritual of American Nationality', Critique of Anthropology, 12:2 (1992), pp. 167-91.
20. Anthony D. Smith, National Identity, London, Penguin, 1991; Prys Morgan, 'From a Death to a View: The Hunt for the Welsh Past in the Romantic Period', in Hobsbawn and Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition, op. cit.
21. Anthony D. Smith, National Identity, London, Penguin, 1991; Prys Morgan, 'From a Death to a View: The Hunt for the Welsh Past in the Romantic Period', in Hobsbawn and Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition, op. cit.
22. David Miller, On Nationality, op. cit.
23. John R. Gillis (ed.), Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994; Lyn Spillman, Nation and Commemoration: Creating National Identities in the United States and Australia, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
24. John R. Gillis (ed.), Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994; Lyn Spillman, Nation and Commemoration: Creating National Identities in the United States and Australia, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
25. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, London and New York, Verso, 1991; Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1983; Eric Hobsbawn, Nations and Nationalism Since 1789: Programme, Myth, Reality, 2nd edn, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990; Michael Schudson, 'Culture and the Integration of National Societies', International Social Science Journal, 46:1-2 (1994), pp. 63-81.
26. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, London and New York, Verso, 1991; Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1983; Eric Hobsbawn, Nations and Nationalism Since 1789: Programme, Myth, Reality, 2nd edn, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990; Michael Schudson, 'Culture and the Integration of National Societies', International Social Science Journal, 46:1-2 (1994), pp. 63-81.
27. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, London and New York, Verso, 1991; Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1983; Eric Hobsbawn, Nations and Nationalism Since 1789: Programme, Myth, Reality, 2nd edn, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990; Michael Schudson, 'Culture and the Integration of National Societies', International Social Science Journal, 46:1-2 (1994), pp. 63-81.
28. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, London and New York, Verso, 1991; Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1983; Eric Hobsbawn, Nations and Nationalism Since 1789: Programme, Myth, Reality, 2nd edn, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990; Michael Schudson, 'Culture and the Integration of National Societies', International Social Science Journal, 46:1-2 (1994), pp. 63-81.
29. Seymour Martin Lipset, Continental Divide: The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada, New York and London, Routledge, 1990, for example, compares the United States with Canada. By comparing two similar nations, the uniqueness of each can be better captured.
30. Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1992, p. 23.
31. Bernhard Giessen, Intellectuals and the National Collective Identity in a German Axial Age, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
32. Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson, The Established and the Outsiders: A Sociological Enquiry into Community Problems, 2nd edn, London and Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, Sage Publications, 1994.
33. Anna Triandafyllidou, 'National Identity and the "Other" ', Ethnic and Racial Studies, 21:4 (July 1998), pp. 593-612.
34. For a recent review of the overall development in research in the area of identity, see Karen A. Cerulo, 'Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions', Annual Review of Sociology, 23 (1997), pp. 385-409.
35. Polling data from the Hong Kong Transition Project show that there have been a consistently higher percentage of respondents identifying themselves as Hong Kong people rather than Chinese. In February 1993, 19 per cent of respondents called themselves 'Chinese', 36 per cent 'Hong Kong Chinese', and 37 per cent 'Hong Kong people'. The corresponding figures in January 1998 were 25 per cent, 27 per cent and 39 per cent. For a longitudinal comparison, see Michael E. DeGolyer, 'Tomorrow Has Not Died', pp. 21-2, Table 25.
36. Ming Pao [Chinese language Hong Kong newspaper], 4 February 1998.
37. Ibid., 20 August 1998.
38. Pop Express, Social Science Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Special Release of 25 June 1998.
39. Pop Express, Social Science Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Special Release of 30 June 1998.
40. Ming Pao, 2 June 1998.
41. Hongkongers were perceived to be more moral, friendly, sophisticated, optimistic, disciplined, sympathetic, tolerant, adaptive, sharp, pragmatic, and more willing to speak out, care about society, and Westernized. Anthony Fung and Eric Ma, 'Summary findings of Hongkongers' cultural identifications', Department of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 3 February 1998.
42. Shui-fong Lam, Chi-yue Chiu, Ivy Lau and Ying-yi Hong, 'Social Identity of Hong Kong Adolescents Before 1997'. Unpublished manuscript, 1996.
43. The process of labelling Mainlanders as 'others' did not begin with this CFA ruling. As Ma has demonstrated persuasively, Mainlanders were portrayed as outsiders in popular television serials in the 1970s and 1980s. See Eric Kit-wai Ma, Culture, Politics, and Television in Hong Kong, London, Routledge, 1999. It seems that the right-of-abode issue was the first large-scale stigmatization of Mainlanders carried out by the government, and ironically this took place after Hong Kong had become part of the PRC.
44. South China Morning Post [Hong Kong English language newspaper], hereafter cited as SCMP, 29 April 1999;
45. Ming Pao, 29 April 1999.
46. Ming Pao, 30 April 1999.
47. SCMP, 29 April 1999.
48. Sing Tao [Hong Kong Chinese language newspaper], 29 April 1999.
49. Ming Pao, 2 May 1999.
50. Ibid.
51. SCMP, 29 April 1999.
52. Ibid.
53. Ibid., 30 April 1999.
54. SCMP, 6 May 1999. For an interview with the Assistant Commissioner of the Census and Statistics Department on how the survey was conducted, see Ming Pao, 2 May 1999.
55. SCMP, 6 May 1999. For an interview with the Assistant Commissioner of the Census and Statistics Department on how the survey was conducted, see Ming Pao, 2 May 1999.
56. SCMP, 6 May 1999.
57. '30 pc may not claim abode right', SCMP, 6 May 1999.
58. SCMP, 6 May 1999.
59. Ming Pao, 30 April 1999.
60. Altogether ten top officials attended the Legislative Council session. They included: the Acting Chief Secretary for Administration, the Secretary for Health and Welfare, the Secretary for Security, the Secretary for Transport, the Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands, the Secretary for Education and Manpower, the Commissioner for Census and Statistics, the Director of Immigration and Government Economists. See SCMP, 6 May 1999.
61. SCMP, 7 May 1999.
62. Ibid.
63. Ming Pao, 7 May 1999.
64. 'Influx may hurt SAR visa status', SCMP, 9 May 1999.
65. '$710b for migrants in 10 years', ibid., 7 May 1999.
66. For challenges to various government estimates, see 'Spending figures fail to pass test', SCMP, 9 May 1999; 'Lee Cheuk-yan and Ho Hei-wah question Census' estimation formula', Hong Kong Economic Journal, 11 May 1999.
67. For challenges to various government estimates, see 'Spending figures fail to pass test', SCMP, 9 May 1999; 'Lee Cheuk-yan and Ho Hei-wah question Census' estimation formula', Hong Kong Economic Journal, 11 May 1999.
68. Ming Pao, 7 May 1999.
69. See 'Figures based on too many assumptions' and 'Legislators urged for a review of the validity of estimation', ibid.; 'Loopholes in the estimation of Mainlander children', ibid., 15 May 1999. A pressure group, The Human Rights Monitor, reported that the HKSAR government had overestimated the number of potential Mainland immigrants by more than 1 million. See Press Release, 'New Survey on Right of Abode Casts Doubt on Government's "Taxi Method" Survey', Human Rights Monitor, 18 October 1999.
70. See 'Figures based on too many assumptions' and 'Legislators urged for a review of the validity of estimation', ibid.; 'Loopholes in the estimation of Mainlander children', ibid., 15 May 1999. A pressure group, The Human Rights Monitor, reported that the HKSAR government had overestimated the number of potential Mainland immigrants by more than 1 million. See Press Release, 'New Survey on Right of Abode Casts Doubt on Government's "Taxi Method" Survey', Human Rights Monitor, 18 October 1999.
71. See 'Figures based on too many assumptions' and 'Legislators urged for a review of the validity of estimation', ibid.; 'Loopholes in the estimation of Mainlander children', ibid., 15 May 1999. A pressure group, The Human Rights Monitor, reported that the HKSAR government had overestimated the number of potential Mainland immigrants by more than 1 million. See Press Release, 'New Survey on Right of Abode Casts Doubt on Government's "Taxi Method" Survey', Human Rights Monitor, 18 October 1999.
72. 'Nearly 80 per cent thought that the ruling was wrong', Wen Wei Pao [Hong Kong Chinese language newspaper], 8 May 1999.
73. '60 per cent object to arrivals: poll', SCMP, 10 May 1999.
74. The survey was commissioned by The Better Hong Kong Foundation and conducted by Asia-Pacific Research Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. It was a telephone survey carried out on the evenings of 9 and 10 May. See Wen Wei Pao, 13 May 1999.
75. The Legislative Council, which is supposed to represent public opinion, resolved to support the government's request to get the Standing Committee of the People's National Congress to reinterpret the laws involved in the ruling. See Ming Pao, 20 May 1999. The Standing Committee eventually overruled the decision of the CFA. It ruled that the CFA's interpretation did not reflect the 'true legislative intent', and that children born before one of their parents had Hong Kong residency did not have right of abode. The reinterpretation substantially reduced the number of potential Mainland immigrants. See SCMP, 27 June 1999.
76. The Legislative Council, which is supposed to represent public opinion, resolved to support the government's request to get the Standing Committee of the People's National Congress to reinterpret the laws involved in the ruling. See Ming Pao, 20 May 1999. The Standing Committee eventually overruled the decision of the CFA. It ruled that the CFA's interpretation did not reflect the 'true legislative intent', and that children born before one of their parents had Hong Kong residency did not have right of abode. The reinterpretation substantially reduced the number of potential Mainland immigrants. See SCMP, 27 June 1999.
77. See for example, Hugh Baker, 'Life in the Cities: the Emergence of Hong Kong Man', The China Quarterly, 95 (1983), pp. 469-79; Lau Siu-kai and Kuan Hsin-chi, The Ethos of the Hong Kong Chinese, Hong Kong, The Chinese University Press, 1988; Helen Siu, 'Remade in Hong Kong', in Tao-tao Liu and David Faure (eds), Unity and Diversity, Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong Press, 1996; Choi Po-king, 'From Dependence to Self-Sufficiency: Rise of the Indigenous Culture of Hong Kong, 1945-1989', Asian Culture, 14 April 1990, pp. 161-77; Eric Kit-wai Ma, Culture, Politics and Television in Hong Kong, London and New York, Routledge, 1999.
78. See for example, Hugh Baker, 'Life in the Cities: the Emergence of Hong Kong Man', The China Quarterly, 95 (1983), pp. 469-79; Lau Siu-kai and Kuan Hsin-chi, The Ethos of the Hong Kong Chinese, Hong Kong, The Chinese University Press, 1988; Helen Siu, 'Remade in Hong Kong', in Tao-tao Liu and David Faure (eds), Unity and Diversity, Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong Press, 1996; Choi Po-king, 'From Dependence to Self-Sufficiency: Rise of the Indigenous Culture of Hong Kong, 1945-1989', Asian Culture, 14 April 1990, pp. 161-77; Eric Kit-wai Ma, Culture, Politics and Television in Hong Kong, London and New York, Routledge, 1999.
79. See for example, Hugh Baker, 'Life in the Cities: the Emergence of Hong Kong Man', The China Quarterly, 95 (1983), pp. 469-79; Lau Siu-kai and Kuan Hsin-chi, The Ethos of the Hong Kong Chinese, Hong Kong, The Chinese University Press, 1988; Helen Siu, 'Remade in Hong Kong', in Tao-tao Liu and David Faure (eds), Unity and Diversity, Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong Press, 1996; Choi Po-king, 'From Dependence to Self-Sufficiency: Rise of the Indigenous Culture of Hong Kong, 1945-1989', Asian Culture, 14 April 1990, pp. 161-77; Eric Kit-wai Ma, Culture, Politics and Television in Hong Kong, London and New York, Routledge, 1999.
80. See for example, Hugh Baker, 'Life in the Cities: the Emergence of Hong Kong Man', The China Quarterly, 95 (1983), pp. 469-79; Lau Siu-kai and Kuan Hsin-chi, The Ethos of the Hong Kong Chinese, Hong Kong, The Chinese University Press, 1988; Helen Siu, 'Remade in Hong Kong', in Tao-tao Liu and David Faure (eds), Unity and Diversity, Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong Press, 1996; Choi Po-king, 'From Dependence to Self-Sufficiency: Rise of the Indigenous Culture of Hong Kong, 1945-1989', Asian Culture, 14 April 1990, pp. 161-77; Eric Kit-wai Ma, Culture, Politics and Television in Hong Kong, London and New York, Routledge, 1999.
81. See for example, Hugh Baker, 'Life in the Cities: the Emergence of Hong Kong Man', The China Quarterly, 95 (1983), pp. 469-79; Lau Siu-kai and Kuan Hsin-chi, The Ethos of the Hong Kong Chinese, Hong Kong, The Chinese University Press, 1988; Helen Siu, 'Remade in Hong Kong', in Tao-tao Liu and David Faure (eds), Unity and Diversity, Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong Press, 1996; Choi Po-king, 'From Dependence to Self-Sufficiency: Rise of the Indigenous Culture of Hong Kong, 1945-1989', Asian Culture, 14 April 1990, pp. 161-77; Eric Kit-wai Ma, Culture, Politics and Television in Hong Kong, London and New York, Routledge, 1999.
82. 'Polls show that abode right issue disintegrated Hong Kong society', Hong Kong Economic Journal, 1 September 1999.
83. Anna Triandafyllidou, 'National Identity and the "Other" ', Ethnic and Racial Studies, 21:4 (July 1988), pp. 593-612.
84. 'Polls show', Hong Kong Economic Journal, 7 September 1999.
85. 'Speed abode cases, says top official', SCMP, 7 August 2000.
86. 'Mainlanders face backlash', SCMP, 4 August 2000.
87. Ming Pao, 12 August 2000.