A Study on the Construction and Reconstruction of Hong Kong Identity: Focusing on the Post-80's Generation

Abstract

Recent statistics on Hong Kong identity have suggested that people in Hong Kong are still very sensitive to the contrastive difference between the authoritarian PRC state and the free and pluralistic Hong Kong. More than one and a half decade after Hong Kong's sovereignty return to her motherland China, Hong Kong people are still alert of their ethnic identity of being Hong Kongers. How and why this happens in such manner has not yet been well explained by theoretical approaches. This thesis seeks to give a normative model of analysis to the construction and reconstruction of Hong Kong identity by utilizing the framework from three distinctive yet competing theories--the primordialist theory, instrumentalist theory and the constructionist theory. Research objectives of this thesis are first, to find out the ethnic identity formation, when and how this identity came to evolve in Hong Kong. Second, it tries to find out the reasons why Hong Kong people still maintain a strong sense of Hong Kong identity even more than a decade after her sovereignty handover to China since 1997. Third, it attempts to raise attention of the identity issues of the post-80s generation in Hong Kong. Issues like why this generation shows a stronger sense of Hong Kong identity than the other generations, what their perceptions of PRC are, etc, will be explored by a hypothetical study. Fourth, this study would like to explore the relationships between having experience of living in mainland China/born in China and the strength of Hong Kong identity when compared to those who do not have such experience. Last but not least, this study seeks to find out whether Hong Kong identity and national identity of Chinese are mutually exclusive. Results of the research have suggested the special relationships between having experience of living in mainland China/born in mainland China and the strength of Hong Kong identity.

……………………………………… Keywords: Hong Kong ethnic identity, primordialist theory, instrumentalist theory, constructionist theory, post-80s generation

Student ID.: 2011-24208