Hong Kong, China: Learning to belong to a nation

by Gordon Mathews, Eric Ma, Tai-Lok Lui

Overview

The idea of ‘national identity’ is an ambiguous one for Hong Kong. Returned to the national embrace of China on 1 July 1997 after 150 years as a British colony, the concept of national identity and what it means to "belong to a nation" is a matter of great tension and contestation in Hong Kong.

Written by three academic specialists on Hong Kong cultural identity, social history, and mass media, this book explores the processes through which the people of Hong Kong are "learning to belong to a nation" by examining their relationship with the Chinese nation and state in the recent past, present, and future. It considers the complex meanings of and debates over national identity in Hong Kong over the past fifty years and especially during the last decade following Hong Kong’s return to China. It also places these arguments within a larger, global perspective, to ask what Hong Kong can teach us about national identity and its potential transformations.

Multidisciplinary in its approach, Hong Kong and China explores national identity in terms of theory, mass media, survey date, ethnography and history, and will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese history, cultural studies, and nationalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415426541
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/20/2007
Series:	Routledge Contemporary China Series , #23
Pages:	214
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gordon Mathews teaches in the Department of Anthropology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Eric Kit-wai Ma teaches in the School of Journalism and Communication, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Tai-lok Lui teaches in the Department of Sociology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Table of Contents

1. The Significance of Hong Kong 2. Fleeing the Nation, Creating a Local Home, 1949-1983 3. Rejoining the Nation, 1983-2006 4. Representing the Nation in Hong Kong Mass Media 5. Hong Kong Schools and the Teaching of National Identity 6. Hong Kong People’s Changing Comprehensions of National Identity 7. How American, Chinese, and Hong Kong University Students Understand "Belonging to a Nation" 8. Hong Kong People Encountering the Nation in South China 9. Hong Kong’s Market-Based National Identity: Harbinger of a Global Future?

Editorial Reviews

'..how do Hongkongers themselves view their identity, and how is their relationship to the Chinese nation changing? These are the questions addressed in this important and highly readable book. It highlights the peculiar ambivalence of Hongkongers’ affective ties to “China,” attributing this to a history of mass flight from Communism, colonial depoliticization and economic success.' -The China Review, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Fall 2008)

'this book is undoubtedly one of the most important works on the dynamics of identity change in Hong Kong. Students, teachers, and researchers will find it very useful, insightful, and valuable' - Sonny Lo, China Perspectives (Spring 2009)

From the Publisher