The DECLINE of NATIONAL IDENTITY of HongKongers (Kwok Tsz Ling, Crystal )

‘Hong Kong People,’ Looking in Mirror, See Fading Chinese Identity

By EDWARD WONG and ALAN WONG October 08, 2014

香港人的身份认同困境

黄安伟, ALAN WONG 2014年10月08日

HONG KONG — If there is one phrase that has come to define the protests that have swept across Hong Kong in the last week and a half, appearing on handwritten billboards and T-shirts, and heard in rally speeches and on radio shows, it is this: “Hong Kong People.”

香港——如果用一个关键词来定义过去10天左右，我们在手写标语牌和T恤衫上看到、在集会演讲和广播节目中听到的这场席卷香港的抗议活动，这个词应该是“香港人”。

“I wouldn’t say I reject my identity as Chinese, because I’ve never felt Chinese in the first place,” said Yeung Hoi-kiu, 20, who sat in the protest zone at the government offices on Monday night. “The younger generations don’t think they’re Chinese.”

“我不认为自己是在抗拒中国人身份，因为我从来就没觉得自己是中国人，”周一夜里，在政府办公地点附近抗议区静坐的现年20岁的杨海乔（Yeung Hoi-kiu，音译）说。“年轻人都不把自己看成是中国人。”

More than 90 percent of Hong Kong residents are ethnically Chinese. However, ask residents here how they see themselves in a national sense, and many will say Hong Konger first — or even Asian or world citizen — before mentioning China. The issue of identity is one that the Chinese Communist Party has grappled with since Britain turned over control of this global financial capital to China 17 years ago. But what the student-led protests show is that Beijing’s efforts have backfired, helping turn the issue into an occasionally explosive problem as members of an entire generation act on their sense of alienation from China and its values.

超过90%的香港人是中华民族成员。然而，当被问到如何看待自己的国民身份时，许多人首先会说香港——甚至亚洲或世界公民——然后才会提到中国。自从17年前英国将这个全球金融中心的主权移交中国之后，中国共产党一直在努力解决香港人的身份认同问题。但年轻一代与中国及其价值观逐渐疏离，这也催生了他们的诸多实际行动。此次由学生领导的抗议活动就显示出，北京的努力产生了事与愿违的结果，结果只是帮助把这一问题变成了时不时引发强烈争议的焦点。

Officials in Beijing began recognizing the problem years ago and tried in 2012 to impose a patriotic education curriculum in the schools. By then it was too late. Mr. Yeung and his peers saw the move as China mounting another assault on Hong Kong, a city of 7.2 million. They took to the streets in a prelude to the movement known as the Umbrella Revolution, the biggest challenge to the party’s authority in years.

北京的官员多年前就开始意识到这一问题，他们在2012年曾试图在香港的中小学课程中强行加入爱国主义教育课程。但这也已经太迟。杨海乔及其同龄人认为，此举是内地对香港这个拥有720万人口的城市的又一次侵犯。他们走上街头进行抗议，这成为了此次被称为“雨伞革命”的运动的前奏。而雨伞革命是中共权威数年来遭遇的最大挑战。

The current conflict has served only to bolster Hong Kong’s identity, already strengthened in recent years by what many residents saw as intensifying attacks from China against its culture, political values and economic well-being. There was a growing sense in Hong Kong, especially among the young, that the city was being “mainlandized,” whether through the migration of Chinese or through the party’s insistence that judges must love China. Many of those who were proud to see 156 years of British colonial rule end in 1997 as Hong Kong returned to China now say they prefer to identify with the mother city rather than the motherland.

当前的矛盾最终只是强化了香港身份，而在此前的几年中，许多港人眼中的中国内地对香港文化、政治价值、和经济状况的侵犯，已经令这种身份感有所增强。在香港，尤其是年轻人中间，人们越来越感到，无论是因为来自内地的移民，还是共产党表达的法官必须爱国的主张，这座城市正在被“内地化”。许多人曾经对156年的英国殖民统治的结束感到骄傲，但他们当中的不少人如今却表示，自己更倾向于把这座城市看做家乡，而不是把中国看做祖国。

“We don’t want to associate ourselves with Communist China,” said Euler Cheung, 38, as he stood one night in the main protest tent in Mong Kok, surrounded by police officers and shadowy, hostile men. “They destroyed the Chinese culture.”

“我们不想与共产主义的中国产生联系，”38岁的尤勒·张(Euler Cheung)说，他站在旺角主要的抗议帐篷旁，周围是警察和一些充满敌意的神秘男子。“他们毁掉了中华文化。”

The spark of the Umbrella Revolution is political: Demonstrators want Beijing to grant Hong Kongers a free and direct election of the chief executive in 2017. But the passions that have driven people into the streets are rooted in the desire to preserve a distinct identity from China — in areas like rule of law, freedom of speech and of the press, financial infrastructure, anticorruption institutions, education, Cantonese language, and Western influence.

雨伞革命的导火索是政治议题：抗议者希望北京允许香港人2017年自由地直接选举特首。但人们走上街头的情绪动力则源自于保留独特身份的渴望——这种身份涉及法治、言论和出版自由、金融基础设施、反腐机制、教育、粤语、和西方影响等方面。

Many of those values and institutions are derided as subversive by the Communist Party and are not tolerated. It is an increasingly untenable contradiction that arises from the “one country, two systems” principle created to guide Beijing’s governance after 1997, when Hong Kong was labeled a special administrative region. Under President Xi Jinping, many Hong Kongers have, to their alarm, witnessed the party growing more hostile to the values they embrace.

上述的许多价值和机制被中国谴责为是具有颠覆性的，并且是不可容忍的。“一国两制”所产生的矛盾越来越难以调和。该原则的设立是为了指导北京对香港在回归后进行治理，因而在1997年后，香港被设立为特别行政区。中国国家主席习近平上台后，许多港人亲眼看到了中共对他们所拥抱的价值观越发存有敌意，这为他们敲响了警钟。

But the seeds of the identity crisis were planted before Mr. Xi. In the last decade, policy proposals by Beijing that aimed to impose the kind of party ideology and control familiar to mainlanders — including an antisubversion bill and the patriotic education curriculum — ignited large protests. That forced Chinese officials to shelve the plans. More recently, a ruling in August by Beijing on the 2017 election law and a report released in June that sought to redefine main elements of governance — for example, insisting that judges be patriotic — have inspired fiery criticism.

但是，身份危机的种子在习近平之前就已埋下。过去10年，北京旨在把内地人习以为常的意识形态和控制强加给香港的政策提议——包括一部反颠覆法和爱国主义课程的设置——引发了大规模的抗议活动。这让中国官员不得不搁置这些计划。不久前，北京在8月份做出的有关2017年香港特首选举法的决定，以及6月份发布的一份寻求重新定义对香港主要政策的报告——例如，要求法官必须爱国——引发了激烈的谴责。

“People used to not care so much about politics, and they used to not think so much of Hong Kong as home before 1997,” said Dennis Kwok, 36, a Hong Kong-born lawyer and lawmaker who returned in 2000 and renounced his Canadian citizenship. “But since 1997, the younger people want to have a greater say in public affairs, and they think of Hong Kong as home.”

“人们过去不那么关心政治，在1997年以前，对香港也没有那么强烈的归属感，”36岁的律师、香港立法会议员郭荣铿(Dennis Kwok)说。在香港出生的郭荣铿2000年放弃了加拿大国籍，重新回到香港。“但1997年之后，年轻人想要对公共事务有更大的话语权，他们把香港看做自己的家乡。”

A June poll by University of Hong Kong researchers showed an increase this year in people identifying themselves as Hong Kongers, while those identifying as “Chinese” and as a “citizen of the People’s Republic of China” dropped to the lowest levels since 1997 and 2007. Those last two categories ranked last among the six ways in which the respondents could choose to identify themselves. “Asians,” “members of the Chinese race” and “global citizens” were all higher, and “Hong Kongers” was first. The university has conducted the poll every six months since 1997.

香港大学的研究人员6月份的一项调查显示，认为自己是香港人的民众人数今年出现了增长，认为自己是“中国人”和“中华人民共和国国民”的被调查者比例分别降到了1997年和2007年以来的最低点。被调查者可以从六个类别中做出选择。选择“亚洲人”、“中华民族一分子”和“世界公民”的比例都更高，比例最高的是“香港人”。自1997年以来，香港大学每六个月开展一次这样的调查。

“We prefer to be ruled by a democratic country,” said Jeff Leung, 23, who was in the besieged Mong Kok tent, wearing a black T-shirt with a Union Jack on the chest. “We don’t want to be ruled by a country that massacres its own people.”

“我们宁可被一个民主国家统治，”23岁的杰夫·梁（Jeff Leung，音译）说。他身处被包围的旺角营地，穿着一件胸前印有英国国旗的黑色T恤。“我们不想被一个屠杀自己人民的国家统治。”

It is not only Beijing’s policies but also its alliances with local tycoons that alienate many Hong Kongers. People here also resent the growing presence of mainlanders, which has transformed the economic, social and even linguistic landscape.

让许多香港人不满的，不仅有北京的政策，还有它与当地富豪的联盟。越来越多的内地人也让他们心生芥蒂。内地人改变了香港的经济与社会面貌，乃至语言构成。

Mainland businesspeople and party elites have bought real estate, driving up prices that were already among the highest in the world. That has made housing unaffordable for many in the middle class, especially for recent high school and college graduates. Mainlanders also take other coveted resources, like slots in elite schools and hospital beds in maternity wards, as women arrive to give birth so that their children can have Hong Kong residency and the related economic benefits.

内地商人和党内精英不断购入香港房产，将本已处于世界前列的地产价格推至新高。这使得许多中产阶级无力承担住房开销，尤其是从高中或大学毕业不久的年轻人。内地人还挤占了其他一些稀缺资源，比如名牌院校的位置、产科的床位，因为孕妇会来香港生产，以让孩子拥有香港身份并享受相应的经济好处。

Even the huge presence of Mandarin-speaking mainland tourists— derisively called locusts by some — reinforces the feeling among many Hong Kongers that the tide of another culture threatens to drown all that they say makes this city unique.

就连大量说普通话的内地游客的存在，也强化了许多香港人心中的一种感觉：外来文化的浪潮可能会淹没他们眼中的香港的独特之处。这些内地游客被一些香港人讥讽为“蝗虫”。

So incendiary are these issues that the chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, often criticized as a functionary of Beijing, has had to enact laws that impose restrictions on mainlanders. The anxieties of Hong Kongers are not unlike those of Tibetans or Uighurs in other Chinese borderlands, where the ethnic Han majority’s migration is altering the local way of life.

这些问题实在太能煽动人们的情绪，以致于常被批为北京代言人的行政长官梁振英(Leung Chun-ying)也不得不实施一些法规，对内地人严加限制。香港人的焦虑与同样生活在中国边陲的藏人和维吾尔人不无相通之处。在那些地方，中国人口中占多数的汉人移民也在改变着当地的生活方式。

But unlike a significant portion of Tibetans and Uighurs, Hong Kongers generally do not seek independence from China. Even Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy media tycoon who is a strident critic of the Communist Party, said Hong Kong “can never be divided from China.”

不过，与相当一部分藏人和维吾尔人不同，香港人大多并不寻求从中国独立出去。就连大力抨击中共的泛民系媒体大亨黎智英(Jimmy Lai)也说，香港“永远不能同中国分割”。

“What we have to keep is to keep our differences, the core values that are the legacy of the English colonial past,” he said in an earlier interview. “We’re an international city; we have internationally shared core values.”

“我们一定要保住自己的独特性，保住从英国殖民地历史传承而来的核心价值，”他在早前的一次采访中说。“我们是座国际都市；我们拥有国际公认的核心价值。”

Because Hong Kong is a creation of the British Empire, many Hong Kongers have thought of themselves as apart from China for the entirety of the city’s existence. The distinct identity has been reinforced by the enduring dominance of Cantonese and the Cantonese popular culture — film, music, television — that is not only beloved by Hong Kongers but also embraced by the Hong Kong diaspora, keeping their identities rooted more in their home city than in China. Overseas Hong Kongers have returned to join the protests.

因为香港是大英帝国的产物，在这座城市的整个历史里，许多港人认为，他们与中国是隔着一段距离的。这种独特的身份认同感因粤语及其流行文化的持久统治力而得到了强化。这种以粤语影视音乐作品为代表的文化不仅受到本港人士的喜爱，还深受海外港人的欢迎，让他们的身份认同更多地植根于家乡香港，而不是中国。此次抗议活动中，就有旅居国外的港人回来参加。

After Mao Zedong and his comrades took over China in 1949, many Hong Kong residents felt anxious about the new Communist power but also developed a sense of superiority to their mainland counterparts, looking down on ordinary Chinese as bumpkins struggling under economic and political deprivations.

毛泽东及其共产党战友1949年执掌中国以来，许多香港居民对这个新出现的共产党政权颇为担忧，但与此同时，也产生了一种对大陆同胞的优越感。他们瞧不起普通中国人，觉得他们是经济上贫困、政治上受压迫的乡巴佬。

Even today, Hong Kongers are still seen as much more cosmopolitan than urban mainlanders, and their identity is shaped by their travels, language skills and sense of global citizenship.

就算时至今日，香港人也被认为比内地的城市人更洋气。旅行、语言技能和全球公民的感觉塑造了他们的身份认同。

“The reason why I really want to fight against the government to have more rights is because I lived in Denmark for six months and learned how good it can be in a socialist and democratic society,” said Gemma Yim, 21, an art student and protester. “So I feel like we have the right to have a good life. We have the right to be protected by a government that is representative of the people.”

“我热切希望对抗政府、争取更多权利的原因是，我在丹麦待过六个月，知道一个信奉社会主义的民主社会可以是多么美好，”21岁的抗议者、艺术系学生杰玛·严（Gemma Yim，音译）说。“所以我觉得，我们有权享受美好生活。我们有权受到一个代表民众的政府的保护。”

For many Hong Kongers, one event — the massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989 — casts a long shadow over much of what the Communist Party says and does, even today, and contributes to the sense of separation. Memories of that violence continually manifest themselves here — in the enormous candlelight vigil held in Victoria Park every June 4, one that draws many young people, and in the sense of dread over the past 10 days, as residents wondered whether Beijing would order Chinese troops to fire on the protesting students. The use of tear gas against students by the local police on Sept. 28 had already evoked 1989 for many.

对许多香港人而言，1989年的天安门广场屠杀事件，给共产党后来的诸多言行蒙上了长久的阴影，到今天也挥之不去，而且是这种疏离感的一大来源。对那次流血事件的记忆不断在这里浮现出来——每年6月4日，维多利亚公园会举行规模巨大的烛光追思会，并能吸引到众多的年轻人；过去10天里，则是弥散着一种恐惧感，居民们猜测北京是否会下令驻港部队向抗议学生开枪。9月28日当地警察向学生施放催泪瓦斯的举动已让不少人想起了六四。

That was the case with Rowena Leung, 32, a kindergarten teacher, who said in an interview at an antiviolence protest on Saturday that she remembered watching the television news with her parents on the night in 1989 that the shooting began in Beijing and other mainland cities. She recalled her mother and grandmother crying. “My mother came to my room and told me before I went to sleep, ‘You are so lucky you are in Hong Kong, you are not in mainland China,’  ” she said.

32岁的幼儿园教师罗伊娜·梁（Rowena Leung，音译）就是其中的一位。在上周六的反暴力抗议活动中，她接受采访称，记得1989年北京等内地城市开枪的那天晚上，自己和父母一起看电视新闻。她说母亲和祖母都哭了。“母亲来到我的房间，在我睡前告诉我，‘你好幸运是在香港，不是在中国内地，’”她说。

“This week I have thought about that a lot,” Ms. Leung said. “This week, I told my husband, ‘I now know what my mother meant.’  ”

“这个星期我总是想到这个，”梁女士说。“这个星期，我跟丈夫说，‘现在我明白了母亲的意思。’”

Bilingual Elements

1.Transliteration:

It is used frequently in the news , for example:

-Tiananmen=天安门

- Leung Chun-ying=梁振英

-Denmark=丹麦

The sound of the Chinese wordings is translated into English wordings, vice versaà literal translation of sound

2.Translation:

The term of words translated and the sound is ignored.

The example is the umbrella revolution invented by BBC is translated into 雨伞革命.

3.Re-contextualization

It is used when the writer write the historical issue and discuss the impacts brought by the issue.

For instance, the issue of massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989 is mentioned in the passage and the writer said this issue makes the national identity of HongKongers decrease.

Contact

Although the content of the two articles seems similar, the use of language is quite different from one another. The use of language of the Chinese one is more aggressive than the English one. For example, the word ‘tried’ is replaced by 强行 in the Chinese one.

In my opinion, the Chinese one may want the readers to receive a message that the relationship between China and Hong Kong is worst than they believed. Therefore, it can urge the people to improve their relationship as soon as possible. Or it may be one of the means to worsen the relationship.

On the other hand, the one conducted in English is more objective. And report the situation to the readers in a more trustable way. And the relationship among them is still harmonious.

Presentation of multimedia language

1.The largest photo used in two article is different.

Chinese article:

English article:

The people of the photo of the Chinese one seem upset and hopeless. This creates the feeling that most of the Hong Kong people do not satisfy with the Chinese government and there is a kind of hatred towards the communist party. However, the couple in the photo of the English article seems peaceful and they enjoy the life in Hong Kong. The feeling of peace and love is reflected from this image.

2.The video about a protestor feelings and hope towards the umbrella revolution only appreaed in the English article. In my view, as the English is the international language, it wants to raise the awareness of the people all over the world.

3.The size of this photo is different in presentation of the two articles

Chinese article:

 English article:

The reason behind may be the same as the previous one. It wants to attract the global readers to focus on this umbrella movement instead of only the Chinese.