Saturday 1 November 2008

Hongkongers Embrace Their National Identity

The city’s inhabitants are increasingly seeing themselves as “Hongkongers but also Chinese”, a study has found.

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Guanyu said...

Hongkongers Embrace Their National Identity

Fanny W. Y. Fung
1 November 2008

The city’s inhabitants are increasingly seeing themselves as “Hongkongers but also Chinese”, a study has found.

In a poll of 1,014 people by Chinese University’s Centre for Communication Research in the middle of last month, 40 per cent of respondents said they were “Hongkongers but also Chinese”, followed by 25 per cent who said they were “Chinese but also Hongkongers”.

The two figures went up by 1.9 and 3.8 percentage points respectively compared with the previous poll two years ago. Both were at their highest since the study was first launched in 1996.

A minority of 17.8 per cent considered themselves only Chinese, while 16.8 per cent identified themselves as only Hongkongers - falls of 0.8 and 4.7 percentage points respectively from 2006. Both numbers were record lows.

The survey also found people held more positive attitudes towards the national flag and the national anthem than before. A record 53.4 per cent indicated they felt a sense of pride towards the flag, and 53 per cent towards the anthem. Half of the interviewees said they felt a sense of affection towards the flag, and 51.3 per cent towards the anthem.

It was the first time the four figures had exceeded 50 per cent.

The Great Wall remained the top icon of pride, while a night view of Victoria Harbour continued to be the top icon of affection, as rated by respondents.

The pollsters interviewed citizens aged 18 and above and had a response rate of 65 per cent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 per cent. The centre will hold a seminar today to discuss the findings.