Canada 500,000[2] Australia 71,803 Netherlands 9,935 | Mainland China 472,900[3] Macau 19,355[4] | |
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Hong Kong 7,184,000 in mid-2013[1] | ||
Hong Kong people (Chinese: 香港人), also known as Hong Kongers or Hong Kongese, are people who originate from or live in Hong Kong. Besides their use to refer to Hong Kong residents, these terms may also be used more loosely to refer to those who may not be residents, but have lived in the city for an extensive period of time or have a strong cultural connection with Hong Kong. The terms have no legal definition by the Hong Kong Government; more precise terms such as Hong Kong Permanent Resident (香港永久性居民) and Hong Kong Resident (香港居民) are used in legal contexts. However, the words "Hongkonger" and "Hong Kongese" were officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in March 2014.
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Hong Kong people do not comprise one particular ethnicity, and people that live in Hong Kong are independent of Chinese citizenship and residency status. The majority of Hong Kongers are of Chinese descent and are ethnic Chinese (with most having ancestral roots in the province of Guangdong); however there are also Hong Kongers of, for example, Indian, Filipino, Nepalese, Indonesian, Pakistani, Vietnamese, and British descent. Expatriates from many other countries live and work in the city.
During the years leading up to the 1997 handover of sovereignty from Britain to China, many residents left Hong Kong and settled in other parts of the world. As a result, there are groups of Hong Kongers that hold immigrant status in other countries. Some who emigrated during that period have since returned to Hong Kong. Due to China's "one country, two systems" policy, Hong Kong is a highly autonomous region and operates largely independently of China, having its own passport, currency, flag, and official languages (Cantonese and English instead of Mandarin). Furthermore, due to increasing social and political tensions between Hong Kong and Mainland China and desinicisation in the territory, a recent poll found that approximately 20% of Hong Kong residents now identify themselves solely as Chinese, 38% identify themselves solely as a Hong Kong citizen, and the largest group (43%) identify as both a Hong Kong and Chinese citizen.
Terminology
The terms Hongkonger, Hong Kongese, and Hong Kong people all translate to the same Cantonese term, Hèung Góng Yàhn (Chinese: 香港人; Cantonese Yale: Hèung Góng Yàhn). The direct translation of this is "Hong Kong people"; however, the term Hong Konger is also frequently used. 香港人 may also be translated as "Hongkongan".
In March 2014, "Hongkonger" and "Hong Kongese" were both added to the Oxford English Dictionary. According to the Dictionary, the first time that the term "Hong Kongese" appeared was in 1878, while the term "Hongkonger" appeared even earlier, in an 1870 edition of US newspaper The Daily Independent.
The term Hong Kong Chinese was frequently used during the British colonial era, when the British residing in Hong Kong made up a greater percentage of the population. It was common at that time to refer to an individual as Hong Kong Chinese to differentiate them from a Hong Kong Briton. The term is still used to refer to Hong Kongers of Chinese ethnicity.
Legal definition and right of abode
The Hong Kong Basic Law gives a precise legal definition of a Hong Kong resident. Under Article 24 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong residents can be further classified as permanent or non-permanent residents. Non-permanent residents are those who have the right to hold a Hong Kong Identity Card, but have no right of abode in Hong Kong. Permanent residents are those who have the right to hold a Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card as well as the right of abode.
The Basic Law allows residents to acquire right of abode by birth in Hong Kong, or in some other ways. For example, residents of China may settle in Hong Kong for family reunification purposes if they obtain a One-way Permit (for which there may be a waiting time of several years).
Unlike many countries, Hong Kong does not require applicants for naturalisation to take a citizenship or language test to become citizens. However, Hong Kong migrants and residents are assumed to understand their obligation under Article 24 of the Hong Kong Basic Law to abide by the laws of Hong Kong.
Ethnicity and background
According to Hong Kong's 2011 census, 93.6% of its population is ethnically Chinese, with 32.1% having been born in Mainland China, Taiwan or Macau. Historically, many Chinese citizens have migrated from areas such as Guangdong to Hong Kong, for example in the 1850s-60s as a result of the Taiping Rebellion and in the 1940s prior to the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Thus, immigrants from Guangdong and their descendants have long constituted the majority of the ethnic Chinese residents of Hong Kong, which accounts for the city's broadly Cantonese culture. The Cantonese language, a form of Yue Chinese, is the primary language of Hong Kong and that used in the media and education. For that reason, while there are groups with ancestral roots in more distant parts of China such as Shanghai and Shandong, as well as members of other Han Chinese groups such as Hakka, Hokkien, and Teochew, people who are Hong Kong-born or raised often assimilate the mainstream Cantonese identity of Hong Kong and typically adopt Cantonese as a first language.
In addition to ethnic Chinese, Hong Kong people also comprise different ethnic and national groups, with the largest groups being Filipinos (1.9%) and Indonesians (also 1.9%). There are long-established South Asian communities, which comprise both descendants of 19th and early 20th-century migrants as well as more recent short-term expatriates. South Asians include Indian, Pakistani, and Nepalese groups, who respectively made up 0.4%, 0.3%, and 0.2% of Hong Kong's population in 2011. Smaller groups include Americans, Britons, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, Japanese, Koreans, Russians, Vietnamese and Thais. In 2011 0.8% of Hong Kong's population were white, many (53.5%) of whom resided on Hong Kong Island, where they constituted 2.3% of the population.