Power redistribution of languages in Hong Kong under a new national flag

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mee Ling Lai
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Mother Tongue Education ◽  
One Year ◽  
National Flag ◽  
The City

Four years after the sovereignty of Hong Kong was returned from Britain to China, a Matched-guised Test (MGT) was conducted to examine the subjective reactions of students to speakers of the three major spoken languages used in the city (i.e. Cantonese, English and Putonghua). Respondents were the first cohort of students under the mandatory mother tongue education policy, which was implemented one year after the political handover. Eight years after, when further socio-economic changes had taken place in Hong Kong, the MGT was administered again to find out the attitudes of the younger generation towards the three languages. Although English and Cantonese distinctly excelled in different domains in the first test, the second MGT shows signs of power redistribution among the languages. This paper is to report a comparison between the two tests and thereby uncover the directions of language shift in Hong Kong.

Towards ‘biliteracy and trilingualism’ in Hong Kong (SAR)

AILA Review ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 72-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C.S. Li
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Hong Kong Sar ◽  
The Government ◽  
Standard Chinese ◽  
One Year ◽  
Vantage Points

Despite the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) government’s determination to implement the ‘mother tongue education’ policy amid strong social resistance one year after the handover, English remains a prestigious language in society. The need for Putonghua (Mandarin/Standard Chinese) is also increasing following ever-expanding trade and other activities with mainland China. The societal demand for both English and Putonghua in postcolonial Hong Kong is important for understanding the SAR government’s language-in-education policy called ‘biliteracy and trilingualism’. The learning of English is fraught with two main problems: (a) the absence of a conducive language-learning environment outside the classroom, which makes English in Hong Kong more like a foreign than a second language, and (b) tremendous typological difference between Chinese and English on one hand, and considerable linguistic differences between Cantonese and Putonghua on the other. Given the significant phonological differences and, to a lesser extent, lexico-grammatical divergence between the majority’s vernacular and modern written Chinese, the learning of Putonghua is no straightforward task either. The dilemmas of the medium-of-instruction (MoI) debate will be discussed by elucidating the main concerns as seen from the respective vantage points of the government and five key stakeholder groups: employers, parents, school principals, teachers and educationalists, and students.

Exploring Language Stereotypes in Post‑colonial Hong Kong through the Matched-guise Test

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mee Ling Lai
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Education ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Vernacular Language ◽  
The Status ◽  
Target Languages ◽  
The City

After the change of sovereignty in Hong Kong from Britain to China on July 1st, 1997, the status of Putonghua (the language of the new Chinese ruler) has been formally recognized in addition to Cantonese (the vernacular language) and English (the international and ex-colonizer’s language). Four years after the political handover, a Matched-guise test was conducted on a total of 1048 local Hong Kong Secondary 4 students. The aim of this study was to ascertain the respondents’ subjective reactions towards the three languages when the city was undergoing significant political and socio-economic changes. The results showed that the Cantonese guise was rated the highest on traits of solidarity, the English guise the highest on traits of power, whereas the Putonghua guise was rated the lowest in both dimensions. Although the study started from a micro perspective investigating the attitudes of the respondents towards the three target languages and their speakers, the research results helped to reveal the vitality of the three target languages in post-colonial Hong Kong and suggest directions for language education.

Language policies for Hong Kong schools since 1997

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Kan ◽  
Bob Adamson
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
International Communication ◽  
National Language ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Mother Tongue Education ◽  
Important Means

Francis of Education (print)/1474-8479 (online) Article 2010 Language in education debates in Hong Kong focus on the role and status of English (as the former colonial language and an important means for international communication); Cantonese, the mother tongue of the majority of the population; and Putonghua, the national language of China. This paper examines the language policy formulated in 1997–1998, and finds that it radically departed from previous policies by mandating the use of Cantonese as the medium of instruction in secondary schools. The paper then analyses two subsequent policy revisions and concludes that, while the tonal emphasis on mother-tongue education has remained, the policy revisions have reversed the language policy to previous practices that emphasised the importance of English.

From transnational to Chinese national?

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-117
Author(s):  
Siu Keung Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Equal Weight ◽  
National Authority ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Active Player ◽  
Systemic Control ◽  
Hong Kong Cinema ◽  
The City

Purpose This paper aims to challenge the longstanding cosmopolitan interpretation of Hong Kong, particularly why this global city fails to absorb China equally through its great inclusiveness and flexibility as before. On the contrary, rising tensions, conflicts and resistance could be founded between Hong Kong and China these days. Design/methodology/approach By using Hong Kong cinema as an analytical lens, this paper seeks to throw light on the cinematic landscape of post-1997 Hong Kong and, by implications, the overall destiny of postcolonial Hong Kong under Chinese rule. Findings The postcolonial Hong Kong, although lacking a symmetric status and equal weight, remains an active player with Chinese hegemony that appeals to the newfound market power to consolidate their systemic control on the city. By acting upon itself with the subjectivity and reflexivity from itself, postcolonial Hong Kong takes many actions to do justice that criticizes the political and ideological correctness and challenges the contemporary national authority from one-party rule. Originality/value This paper demonstrates a new in-betweenness in the relation to the making of postcolonial Hong Kong. This paper advances insights into a postcolonial reinvention of the politics of disappearance that remains underexplored.

scholarly journals Electoral behaviour in the Kraków metropolitan area: 1993–2011

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (35) ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Radosław Linkowski
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Political Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
The City

Abstract The purpose of the paper is to describe changes in support for the four principal political options (‘right’, ‘left’, ‘liberal’, ‘peasant’) available in the Kraków Metropolitan Area (KMA) in parliamentary elections in the period 1993–2011. The electoral behaviour of the residents of the various KMA zones became increasingly similar in the study period. The political ‘distance’ between the northern commuter zone of the KMA (part of the Russian partition in the 19th c.) and the rest of the KMA, decreased significantly. The suburban zone of Kraków also changed over the course of the study period by becoming significantly similar to the city in terms of voting behaviour. This political change was largely due to substantial social and economic changes in the rural parts of the metropolitan area. Urban areas in the KMA were much more stable in their voting patterns and tended to politically resemble one another much more than rural areas. The city of Kraków and the southern part of its commuter zone – part of the Austrian partition in the 19th c. – were characterized by fewer fluctuations in voting behaviour than the two remaining parts of the KMA.

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