ABSTRACT
This chapter will examine discourses of language, identity, and threat/revival as they are currently developing in Hong Kong, where responses to a rise in political pressure from the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have led to new forms of ‘localist’ ethnonational identity building. Originally founded as a British colony in the 1840s, Hong Kong remained under British colonial rule until 1997, when it was returned to the PRC, after which handover it attained its present status as a semi-autonomous Special Administrative Region (SAR). Since the handover, Hong Kong has promoted an overall policy of ‘biliteracy and trilingualism’, meant to encourage literacy in English and written Chinese, and spoken fluency in English, Cantonese, and Putonghua (PTH). Major areas of policy contention and change have related to the medium of instruction in schools; fears of falling English standards, particularly in relation to concerns about students’ readiness for the job market, and Hong Kong’s overall global competitiveness; an ambivalent relation to the role of PTH; and discussions around provision for minority groups.
