Hongkongers


Hongkongers, also known as Hong Kongese, Hongkongese Hong Kong citizen and Hong Kong people, usually refer to the permanent residents of Hong Kong, in a broad sense. Very often, those terms are confined to describe Hong Kong permanent residents who are culturally associated with Hong Kong, especially through descent, birth or growth in Hong Kong or other types of deep affiliations with Hong Kong, regardless of ethnicity or nationality. In legal terms, they are usually regarded as persons who are Permanent Residents of Hong Kong and, depending on their nationality, are eligible for a Hong Kong SAR passport. In March 2014, the word "Hong Kongers" was officially included in the Oxford English Dictionary.

The majority of Hongkongers are of Cantonese Han Chinese descent and most of them trace their ancestral roots to the province of Guangdong; however, Hong Kongers of other descents such as Indonesians, Filipinos, South Asians, Vietnamese and British also make up 6% of the identity population.
In the years leading up to the 1997 transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China, many Hongkongers emigrated and settled in other parts of the world. As a result, the diaspora stretches across the globe. The largest diasporas of Hong Kongers are found in English-speaking countries, but there are many expatriates in the People's Republic of China. A second wave of mass emigration has emerged after the failure of the 2014 protests and the ongoing political crisis as integration with China continues.

Cultural identity

Hong Kong's local cultural identity had been fostered before the People's Republic of China declared a new state in East Asia in 1949. Major distinctions from the People's Republic of China are evident in the following areas: language, judicial system, street naming system, culture, customs area, international border control, system of governance, direction of driving, social attitudes and values and legal currency.
Until 30 June 1997, Hong Kong was formally a British colony. English was the lingua franca, as well as official language, used by all public institutions with Chinese being the mother tongue language. The effigy of the reigning monarch was also present on the obverse of coins issued there. Local roads were also named after past British monarchs or famous people. While it was an overseas territory, Hong Kong participated in a variety of organisations of the Commonwealth Family network. Hong Kong ended its participation with most Commonwealth Family organisations after the colonization ended in 1997; although still participates in the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association.
Due to increasing social and political tensions between Hong Kong and Mainland China and desinicisation in the territory, a recent poll found that most Hong Kong residents identify themselves as 'Hongkongers', with an "estimated" figure of over 40%, while less than 27% identify themselves as 'Hongkongers in China' and less than 18% as 'Chinese'. The identity crisis is further heightened by demographic changes, in which Chinese immigrants made up of a considerable portion of the population post-1997.

Terminology

The terms Hongkonger, and Hong Kongese are used to denote a permanent resident of Hong Kong. Formally speaking, Hong Kong does not confer its own citizenship, although the term Hong Kong citizen is used colloquially to refer to permanent residents.
The following aforementioned terms all translate to the same Cantonese term, Hèung Góng Yàhn. The direct translation of this is "Hong Kong person"; however, the term Hongkonger is also frequently used. 香港人 may also be translated as "Hongkongan".
In March 2014, "Hongkonger" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. According to the Dictionary, the term "Hongkonger" appeared in an 1870 edition of US newspaper The Daily Independent.
The term 'Hong Kong Chinese' was 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.

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.
Unlike many countries, Hong Kong does not require applicants for naturalisation to take a citizenship or language test to become a permanent resident. 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 2016 census, 92% of its population is ethnically Chinese, with 32.1% having been born in Mainland China, Taiwan or Macau. Historically, many Chinese people have migrated from areas such as Canton 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 broad 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 subgroups such as Hakka, Hokkien, and Teochew, residents who are Hong Kong-born and/or raised often assimilate into the mainstream Cantonese identity of Hong Kong and typically adopt Cantonese as their first language.
In addition to the Han Chinese majority, Hong Kong's minority population also comprises many other different ethnic and national groups, with the largest non-Chinese groups being Filipinos and Indonesians. 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, 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 European, many of whom resided on Hong Kong Island, where they constitute 2.3% of the population.