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Hong Kong Video Audio Reviews

Hong Kong English still holds a disputed position within the World Englishes community. The Southeast Asian metropolis shares the colonial past with other countries where English is spoken as a second language, Hong Kong, however, was the only territory which did not achieve independence at the end of colonial rule but was passed on to be administered by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  After 155 years under the British Crown, Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (HKSAR) on 30 June 1997.

The historic presence of English in Hong Kong explains the role it still plays in the territory nowadays. During British colonialism from 1842 to 1997, English was the official language of government and law, as well as the most widely-used medium of secondary and university education, a fact that has contributed greatly to the prestige of the language in Hong Kong. Anglo-Chinese schools (English-medium schools) have been very popular among Hong Kongers until today. Nonetheless, the British had always fostered the teaching of Chinese, thus paving the way for the handover to the Chinese government.

As an administrative region of China, Chinese has gained prominence in Hong Kong, where Cantonese (a variety of Chinese) is the majority language of the population, while only a minority speaks
the official dialect of the PRC, Putonghua. In addition, the number of people claiming to speak English is steadily increasing. Some Hong Kongers thus may speak Cantonese, English, and Putonghua with varying degrees of competence.

Hong Kong Street
Queens Road, Hong Kong
© Christiane Meierkord, 2010

Formerly, Hong Kong’s orientation towards English standards was considered to
be only exonormative; today, however, more and more people are acknowledging the way Hong Kongers are rendering English a language
of their own. They have enriched it with new vocabulary by introducing loan words and loan translations from Chinese in general and Cantonese in particular, or by converting the meaning of English words.

 

Hong Kong Skyline
Kowloon from Hong Kong Island
© Christiane Meierkord, 2010

Some examples of Hong Kong English vocabulary are: ABC (Australian-born Chinese), bak choi (Chinese green and white cabbage), almond cream(a sweet dessert), or big brother (a Chinese kinship term referring to the eldest male sibling in a family).
The Hong Kong English accent is also gaining prestige among its speakers, and a particular characteristic of English-speaking Hong Kongers is their ability to code-switch and code-mix English and Cantonese at their ease. This practice is very popular among university students, who mainly use it in their ICQ or e-mail communication.

© Eva Zumhasch


 

Official government site of Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China)

Asia Television Limited (TV)

South China Morning Post (Newspaper)

Metro Plus (Radio)

 

 

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© Christiane Meierkord
and individual reviewers
2010