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Social Networks and Ethnonational Hinges in Hong Kong:A Relational Approach to Ethnonational Identification

Anson Au
p. 51-61

Abstract

Hong Kong is a storied city of dynamic ethnonational identities, with attention growing around a Hongkonger identity purportedly distinct from a Chinese one. Using mixed methods, this article critically appraises the social construction of the Hongkonger identity by adopting a relational approach to ethnonational identification. Multivariate regressions on identity indices in a 2019 citywide survey and qualitative interviews with youth on ethnonational identification cast light on novel interpretive associations drawn between (1) a Hongkonger civic identity and (2) a pan-Chinese racial identity. Rather than being cast into a binary, these two identifications are interlocked in this article in what I will call ethnonational hinges: symbolic hinges through which individuals switch between the two identities to appease dislocated segments of their social networks (nonfamilial and familial ties) with competing worldviews, abetted by a moral cognitive impulse for conformity inculcated in Chinese networking culture.

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Editor’s notes

Manuscript received on 16 December 2022. Accepted on 24 August 2023.

Excerpt

Full text document will be published online on March 2025.

Outline

Introduction
Theorising ethnonational identification
Problematising the Hongkonger-Chinese binary
A relational approach to ethnonational identification
Ethnonational hinges
Methodology
Survey data and analysis
Interview data and analysis
Statistical results: Chinese race and Hongkonger ethnonationalism
Qualitative findings: Ideating ethnonational hinges
Discussion

First lines

Introduction

The empirical and theoretical study of ethnic identity in Hong Kong rests firmly on an enduring conceptualisation of a binary opposition, depicted as a kind of localist identity, juxtaposed against a staunchly Chinese nationalist identification (Ma and Fung 1999; Mathews, Ma, and Lui 2008).

The historical beginnings of this binary opposition are well-documented. From the 1970s onward, Hong Kong locals began identifying themselves based on perceived distance from the Mainland, amid popular constructions of Hong Kong as a modern, “forward” society emancipated from the “backward” Mainland (Ma E. 1999). Reflecting on city-wide surveys of ethnic identification from 1996 to 2006, Ma and Fung remark: “the greater the distance between Hong Kong people’s self-image and their image of Chinese, the stronger their sense of belonging to the localized culture of Hong Kong became” (2007: 173). Similarly, several case studies have descriptively shown that the rhetorical frames adopted b...

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References

Bibliographical reference

Anson Au, Social Networks and Ethnonational Hinges in Hong Kong:A Relational Approach to Ethnonational IdentificationChina Perspectives, 136 | 2024, 51-61.

Electronic reference

Anson Au, Social Networks and Ethnonational Hinges in Hong Kong:A Relational Approach to Ethnonational IdentificationChina Perspectives [Online], 136 | 2024, Online since 01 March 2025, connection on 15 February 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/16738; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.16738

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About the author

Anson Au

Anson Au is Assistant Professor of sociology at the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong (anson-ch.au@polyu.edu.hk).

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Copyright

The text and other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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