ABSTRACT
The two 2018 World Cup qualifiers between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Hong Kong were played out under a politically charged backdrop. Although the politicized atmosphere of these two matches was unprecedented, previous matches between the two teams did trigger two small scale riots, once in Hong Kong in 1980, and once in Beijing in 1985. This essay suggests that, since the PRC and Hong Kong first met in 1975, there have been three different stages concerning the political meanings of matches between these two sides. These three stages reflect the evolving political context and changing identities of the Hong Kong people. In the ongoing third stage, a rivalry between the PRC and Hong Kong has emerged because the fixture now embodies the conflicts between Hong Kong’s localism and the PRC’s nationalism.
