Survey: More Hong Kong people feel they are both “Hongkongers” and “Chinese”

The number of Hong Kong people who regard themselves as “Hongkongers” has remained unchanged over the past six months, but those who identify themselves as both “Hongkongers” and “Hongkongers in China” have grown, a survey has found.

In its latest survey to track the sense of identity of Hong Kong people, the Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme has found that about 44% of the respondents regarded themselves as “Hongkongers” early this month, which was the same figure recorded in early December.

Over the past six months, the number of respondents who identified themselves as “Chinese” dropped slightly from 15% to 13%, while those who identified themselves as both “Hongkongers” and “Chinese” rose from 38 to 42%.

Taking other variables into consideration, the survey found that the number of people who regarded themselves as “Hongkongers” in a broad sense grew from 69% to 72%, while those who identified themselves as “Chinese” in a broad sense dropped from 29% to 26%.

A total of 1,008 Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong residents aged 18 or above were interviewed in the survey.

Tong Pan-Hang, who is a Hong Kong Baptist University student majoring in history, said he preferred the identity of "Chinese".

"Many of my local friends don't like 'China' very much. They think they are 'Hongkongers' instead of 'Chinese' mostly because they think ‘China’ means 'backward'," he said.

Tong said that his father now works in Guangdong Province, and his family has a sense of belonging to China.

A Midland Realty worker who prefers to be known as Mr Chan said he did not regard the identities of "Hongkongers" and "Chinese" as necessarily opposite to one another.

"It's not controversial that you identify with your birthplace," he said. "But Hong Kong people do live in a part of China.”

Source: Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme