LSS Newsletter #3

Conflicts between “locusts” and “running dogs”

Pages 9-10

Prizes for you! Answer questions for the quiz asap!

Page 18

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Content Page Numbers

Introduction to Identity 2-3

Importance of Identity 4

Factors Leading to Changes in National Identity

5-6

Overseas Example 7

Example Across the Taiwan Straits 8

Identity Crisis in Hong Kong—Mainland Hong Kong Conflicts

9-10

Reasons for Mainland Hong Kong Conflicts

11-13

Course of Mainland Hong Kong Conflicts

14-17

Quiz Time 18

Content Page

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National Identity (eg Chinese people)

Group Identity (eg student of the school, member of the

family)

Personal Identity (eg male, female)

Introduction to Identity

How do you perceive yourself? How would you define yourself? Would your definition be bound by major roles you play on a daily basis? Our way of identifying oneself is always related to the environment we are surrounded by, our own personal experiences, interpersonal interactions and the social groups we are a part of. These are the key factors that shape us, and make us identify ourselves as unique and discrete individuals.

Classifications of identity These are some basic concepts about identity. Identity is defined to be the role taken on by an individual in a certain group, also known as the sense of recognition of a certain group. This sense can actually be determined by the explorations and commitments that an individual makes. We know ourselves because the groups we are in give us references to the question. The categorization methods vary under different benchmarks and circumstances. Some of the identities are ascribed and achieved statuses, which can never be altered because one is born with them. The examples to this will be the facts that one will always be one’s father and mother’s son or daughter, the oldest or youngest member of a family. Some of the identities are largely dependent on the environment we are indulged in, affected by personal, social, national and global criteria. We can be a part of the fandom of a particular celebrity, members of a class and a company, citizens of a city, people of a nation and one of the many human beings habituating on this planet Earth. Moreover, another way of classification will be categorizing according to the subjectivity and objectivity of the identity. For instance, the roles of being a legal resident of a nation and being biologically-related to your family members are undeniable and subjective facts. The roles of being somebody’s friend and being accepted into some social groups are rather intangible and objective, which are hard to be proved.

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Features of identity Here is a list of the key features of identity. To begin with, some identities changes over time, meaning it is not entirely static. As you emigrate from a country, you lose your national identity with that nation and become a legal resident of another place. Besides, a person can be entitled to pluralistic and multiple identities at the same time. You can be a parent of your children while being the child of your parents, there is no contradiction between the relationships. Also, different identities require various contributions from each of their members, and these are the obligations of being part of an identity. Obviously speaking, different rights are attached to the titles at the same time. You have to pay tax if you are a city’s residents and you need to practice hard if you are a member of a school team. Contrastingly, as a citizen, you are entitled to receive welfare from the government and gain experiences along with scholarships as a team member. On the other hand, the behaviors of the members of a society or a group are somehow identical due to the norms developed between them. People try to look and act alike to get in-group. Despite all, the sense of identity is developing through socialization, which means the influences from school, family education, peers and the media. The identities of an individual are mostly shaped by external forces.

Who are we? Under different circumstances and events, we may have different identities. All kinds of identity can be divided into three main categories: personal, group and national. Hong Kong residents’ multiple identities can stimulate cultural reflection and innovation. This promotes social diversity and raises the freedom and adaptability of the society.

Social Identity Theory People naturally classify things into ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’. When people identify themselves as a member of a particular ‘group’, they will consider the whole group as ‘we’, showing their involvement in the 'group'. Also, people usually favour the ‘in-group’ at the expense of ‘out-group’, i.e. they like to be in the group more than the others. As they belong to that ‘group’, they hope to contribute something to the group. This phenomenon is known as ‘In-group Favourism’. Moreover, group membership helps building up a positive self-esteem of a person.

Emily Ha Tirzah Tam

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Importance of National Identity

National identity is the sense of belonging towards a nation. It means that one belongs to a group (i.e. the nation) with same language, descent, culture and religion.

• Determine rights (e.g. right of abode) and obligations (e.g. duty to follow rules) • Influence our values (e.g. importance of filial piety and respect for elderly which are essential in

Chinese culture) and behaviour • Provide a sense of security (e.g. social welfare and protection) • Bolster self-esteem (e.g. a sense of pride due to achievements of one’s nation)

Common unifying national symbols are national flag and national song. These are the important elements to build national identity as they are presented in some important occasions like the Olympic Games.

Leung Kawai

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Factors leading to Changes in National Identity

(1) Political aspect

Let’s take Hong Kong as an example to explain the political factor that may change people’s

national identity.

Before 1997, Hong Kong was under the colonial governance of the British government. After

the handover of Hong Kong back to Mainland China in 1997, the policy of “One Country, Two

Systems” is introduced in Hong Kong. This policy symbolizes the political reunification and

integration between Hong Kong and Mainland China. After Hong Kong politically reunified with

Mainland China, people started to develop a stronger sense that Hong Kong was a special

administrative region under China (instead of a colonial city under the British’s governance) in the

political aspect.

However, at the same time, many people still cannot create a sense of affection towards

Mainland China because of fundamental discrepancies in understanding issues and values. Also,

the chronic problems in the Mainland, such as serious corruption, also make many people

concerned and worried. Moreover, with the emphasis of one-party rule of the Chinese Communist

Party, Hong Kong people are afraid that the preexisting core values like freedom (e.g. freedom of

speech, press, etc.), democracy and the rule of law will eventually be undermined in Hong Kong.

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Food for thought

Other than the above three possible factors that lead to changes in national identity, the personal

experience of a person can also change his or her sense of belonging and national identity to a

place. Can you think of the reason for this?

(2) Social & Cultural aspect

Mainland-Hong Kong conflicts have been actively debated in society recently. These

conflicts are mainly caused by the competition for resources and differences in social norms

between people of the two places.

Hong Kong people have been complaining that the Mainlanders snatched many resources

like hospital places, school places and even infant milk formula. Moreover, the acts of Mainland

relieving themselves in the public arouse Hong Kong people’s concerns and hatred towards

Mainlanders. Hong Kong people stresses the importance of civic awareness and decency in

behaviour, while Mainlanders think that they have been very contributory to Hong Kong’s

economy and their behaviour are not problematic as they are widely accepted in Mainland.

Conflicts as such inevitably affect the national identification of Hong Kong people.

(3) Economic aspect

The economy of a region will lead to changes in national identity among the people. If the

economy is booming and prosperous, the quality of life and general well-being of the locals will be

relatively high. They are satisfied with their lives and the overall living standard of the place,

resulting in stronger sense of belonging and national identity.

However, if the economy is poor and the living standard of people is low, the public will

feel outraged towards the incapability of the government and fail to develop a sense of belonging

to the place. They suffer from hardships in lives due to poor economic conditions, and this results

in a relatively weaker national identity.

With the Mainland-Hong Kong integration being more omnipresent nowadays, Hong Kong

often benefits from China’s rapidly developing economy. Many agreements such as CEPA (Closer

Economic Partnership Arrangement) are signed and Hong Kong entrepreneurs enjoy economic

benefits like free trade and preferential treatment in entering into the Mainland market. Thus, we

may develop a stronger sense of national identity because of China’s economic support for Hong

Kong people.

Tiger Yip

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Example of Ukraine Recently, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has attempted to collaborate more closely with Russia, which has sparked heated controversy all over the multi-ethnic country. Starting from the 16th century, under Tsar Peter the Great, most of Eastern Ukraine was under the rule of Russia. Autonomy of Eastern Ukraine was crushed with the denial of local cultural and political identities. In 1804, for instance, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools and universities. Later in 1863, it was forbidden to print anything in Ukrainian language. In 1920s, there was a brief renaissance, ensued by the cruel rule of Stalin, who emphasised on Russification and repression. Ukraine has become independent since 1991. However, most Ukrainians are still fluent in both Russian and Ukrainian languages, some ethnic Ukrainians even only speak Russian (what they consider native language) at home. In March this year, Crimea Status Referendum was held to decide the status of Crimea, whether it should join Russia’s federal subjects or restore 1992 Crimean Constitution and become part of Ukraine. The latter was chosen by over 80% registered voters whereas only a mere 2-3% opted for the latter. Crimea thus is currently under control of Russia. Ukrainians are ambivalent about their national identities. Some consider Russia an oppressor whereas some believe that Russia is their motherland.

Overseas Example

Leung Kawai Natalie Fung

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Have you heard of Sunflower Student Movement? It was a protest movement driven by a group of Taiwanese students between March 18 and April 10 2014. The aim of this movement was to stop the passage of the Cross -Strait- Service Trade Agreement (hereafter known as the pact), a pact that aims at facilitating freer trade in services with China, which was feared by many to hurt the local economy and affect the quality of life of ordinary people. The students occupied the Legislative Chamber. About 300 student protesters slept on the Chamber floor overnight and ultimately succeeded to suspend the deliberation of the pact. As revealed in the Movement, many Taiwan citizens identify themselves as “Taiwan people” instead of “Chinese people”. They would like to prevent establishing closer ties with Mainland China as it might allow China to gain greater economic and eventually political control over the island. The goal of the Movement is not merely opposing the pact but it seeks to solidify the Taiwanese identity in face of growing China’s influence.

Example Across the Taiwan Straits

Jackie Wu

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In Hong Kong, civilians mostly have undergone three main stages of different senses of identity. To begin with, from post-WWII (after 1945) to the 1960s, most Hong Kong people shared “refugee mentality” as they mostly fled from China to Hong Kong due to Civil War and hence, did not consider Hong Kong a permanent home. They only attempted to look for economic opportunities and had no sense of belonging at all. From the 1970s to 1990s, the situation, however, altered. Local identity began to build up with the prosperous economy in Hong Kong as well as measures implemented by the British colonial government. Hong Kongers felt superior with economic achievements, improved living standards and various policies practiced by the colonial government e.g. establishment of ICAC to promote clean governance. After handover in 1997, mixed identities have developed in Hong Kong people. On one hand, they have embraced their motherland China; on the other hand, however, they value their collective memories during colonial rule. This ambivalent feeling has resulted in confusion of some local citizens, leading to the formation of marginal men, meaning people uncertain of their identities or sense of belonging. In recent years, many Hong Kong people have developed even weaker national identity yet stronger local identity towards Hong Kong. According to Hong Kong University Public Opinion Programme 2012, respondents scored their local “Hong Kong Citizen” identity 8.11 out of 10 marks while national “Chinese Citizen” identity was only scored 6.99 marks. Furthermore, only 18% Hong Kongers regarded themselves as “Chinese Citizens”, as opposed to a high 46 % for “Hong Kong Citizen” identity. As revealed, Hong Kong people’s sense of national identity towards China is rather low, incurring an identity crisis in Hong Kong.

Identity Crisis in Hong Kong—Mainland Hong Kong Conflicts

Natalie Fung

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Food for thought: (a) Based on Source A, identify the cartoonist’s attitude towards mainlanders. (b) With reference to Sources B and C and your own knowledge, explain why the

cartoonist has such an attitude towards the mainlanders. (c) “Hong Kong citizens are proud of being Hongkongers.” Based on the above sources

and your own knowledge, how far do you agree with the statement?

Source A

Reference: http://yellowcranestower.blogspot.hk/2012/01/scmp-anger-at-mainland-visitors.html Source B The opinion of a Golden Forum user “babyloveHK”: "Mainlanders have already crossed our bottom line, why are mainland mothers flooding in to take up resources in public hospitals, getting our social welfare? Why do mainlanders refuse to follow our rules and order? We can't accept that. Our city—Hong Kong, is dying." User “Sunday”: “It has to be admitted that the mainlanders contribute a lot to our economy. Hong Kong people are becoming less competitive. It is also true that we are now relying the mainlander in various aspects. ” Source C The viewpoint of Mr. Denny Ho Kwok-leung, the Associate Professor of Polytechnic University's Department of Applied Social Science: “Placing the “Anti-Locust” ad in a mainstream newspaper indicated the conflicts are unlikely to end soon. The city's authorities must uphold Hong Kong's core values, including the rule of law and freedom of speech. It is important for the police and the courts to stick to the principles because if they cannot do that, people will lose their faith, and Hong Kong will collapse."

William Wong

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Cultural Differences For the past two centuries, mainland was governed by the Chinese government whereas Hong Kong was a British colony. As such, both places had utterly different ways of development, which continue up to now. A more conspicuous difference is the varied cultural values. While Hong Kong was already internationalised through 1970s and 1980s with diverse cultures, China was still backward and primitive as she was suffering from the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. During the Revolution, the Four Olds (Old Ideas, Habits, Cultures and Customs) were attacked; cultural development was inhibited. At the same time, as brutality was advocated with people being purged, denounced and criticised by means of beating, dunce caps and placards, traditionally moral values such as Confucianism were diminished and neglected. Furthermore, as Economic Reforms and Openness Policy was implemented by Deng Xiaoping after 1978, people only focused on economic development and ignored moral values. They stressed merely on materialistic enjoyment and paid no attention to cultural values at all. Cultural disparity between the two regions incurs mainland-Hong Kong conflicts.

Reasons for Mainland-Hong Kong Conflicts

Natalie Fung

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Political Defects Since Hong Kong was a British colony, people were under the influence of more liberal western thinking. We are hence well aware of such “core values” as human rights, the rule of law and so on as a result of our previous taste of what a democratic, civilised society should be like. Yet, China, our motherland has a completely different approach in ruling her subjects. Contrary to liberalism and democracy, China is rather authoritarian by suppressing people who try to fight for their political rights and oppose her political “dictatorship”. Human activists like Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, Hu Jia, Ai Weiwei and more, for instance, are under imprisonment on account of their voicing out opinions. In particular, Li Wangyang, a Chinese dissident labour rights activist, died under long imprisonment and the so-called “suicide” was suspected of being committed by Chinese officials. The activists are merely expressing their thoughts for the betterment of China, yet their actions elicited tragic consequences. Corruption in China has also aroused much discontent among its people. Instead of rebuilding homesteads and improving livelihoods of natural disaster victims, donations from Hong Kong people to China were discovered to be pocketed by corrupt government officials. These selfish acts have made Hong Kong people discontented. The vulgar behaviours of the Chinese government make Hong Kong people feel ashamed and thus propel the Hong Kong-mainland conflicts.

Moreover, the Chinese government constantly interferes Hong Kong, which threatens our “high degree of autonomy” as well as “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” principles as stipulated in the Basic Law. For instance, the Chinese government is often accused of intervening in the Chief Executive elections and not allowing democratic elections to take place. Furthermore, plant rigging is prevalent during elections as China wishes to include more pro-establishment or pro-China members in the Legislative Council to counter the influence of the pan-democrats. Additionally, the

seemingly less tolerant attitudes of the Hong Kong Police Force towards protesters such as the more frequent use of pepper sprays and the surging number of charges against protesters for breaching the Public Order Ordinance are being perceived by the public as “mainlandisation” of the Police Force. As such, Hong Kong people feel dissatisfied with China and this touches off Hong Kong-mainland conflicts.

Eunice Liu

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Competition for Resources Since the launch of Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) in 2003, tremendous numbers of mainlanders have entered Hong Kong. On one hand, this has led to numerous economic benefits like increased job opportunities. On the other hand, however, this has incurred competition for resources between Hong Kongers and mainlanders. For instance, property prices have skyrocketed as a result of speculation by Chinese people. This has made the lives of poor people much harder as housing has become unaffordable. At the same time, competition for school places are intense. As mainlanders send their children to Hong Kong schools for the sake of better education, Chinese kids compete with Hong Kong youths to fight for school places. This has led to serious discontent among Hong Kong parents. Plus, as counterfeits and prominent of the mainland, mainlanders fear the poor quality of goods. As a result, Chinese people constantly purchase daily necessities ranging from electrical appliances to infant milk formula, and from medicine to even Yakult drinks in Hong Kong, resulting in the competition of daily essentials between Hong Kongers and Chinese. As local resources are strained on account of the influx of Chinese people to Hong Kong, Hong Kongers are extremely dissatisfied and thus, become somewhat hostile to mainlanders.

Natalie Fung

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In February, there was a protest in Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui which is a hot spot for shopping. It was initiated by some netizens to express criticism towards the IVS that has allowed a tremendous number of mainlanders to come to Hong Kong, leading to mainland-Hong Kong conflicts.

In September 2012, more than 100 people went to Sheung Shui MTR station to protest against Mainland smugglers who affected daily life of people living in the North District by causing overcrowding in Sheung Shui and inflation. Many of the protesters took banners with anti-Mainlanders slogans. Some smugglers quarreled with the protesters.

1. Anti-mainland Protests

Course of Mainland-Hong Kong Conflicts

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2. Hong Kong Independence Movement Because of differences in political and economic systems with Mainland China as well as historical backgrounds, there has been Hong Kong Independence Movement advocating Hong Kong to become an independent sovereign state. There are organizations which stand for protecting Hong Kong culture and against Mainland. For example, Hong Konger Front is an organization advocating independence of Hong Kong. According to the survey carried out by the University of Hong Kong in 2013, 38% of the interviewees classify themselves as “Hong Kong citizen”. Compared with the same survey done 6 months ago, there was a sharp increase of 11%. More people identifying themselves as “Hong Kong citizen” rather than “Chinese citizen” and there is an increasing trend. In many protests, the Hong Kong Flag used during the colonial period was raised by the protesters. It was considered the symbol of independence of Hong Kong. Reference: http://hkupop.hku.hk/chinese/release/release1042.html

3. Blackmouthing Locusts come in a big group and places they pass will be severely damaged. It is now a term used by Hong Kong people to regard rude mainlanders nowadays. Hong Kong people think that Mainlanders are lazy and always cause trouble to Hong Kong, for example, draining of resources. On the other hand, however, Mr. Kong Qingdong, a Chinese professor in University of Beijing has blamed Hong Kong people as dogs. According to Kong, Mainland visitors should not be complained for eating cup noodles in MTR. Hong Kong people ought to identify themselves as Chinese but not Hong Kongese. Hong Kong people enjoyed being ‘dogs’ for British and till now they still are dogs. His speech has been criticised by most Hong Kong people and thus, has worsened mainland-Hong Kong relations.

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4. D & G Issue In 2012, some Hong Kong people took photos on the pedestrian road outside D&G in Tsim Sha Tsui. However, they were stopped by the security guards who allowed Mainlanders to do so. The unfair treatment of Hong Kong people and Mainlanders was resented by Hong Kong people, who then went on protest. At last, D&G apologised and claimed that they banned people from taking photos because they were afraid that those Hong Kong people would invade their intellectual property.

5. Public Defecation Recently, a mainland couple has made their child defecate publicly in Mong Kok. A local reporter has passed by and has taken photos of the child, whose father has then grabbed the memory card from the reporter. After the issue, some Hong Kong officials including Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Mr. Greg So Kam-leung, have even said that we Hong Kongers should accept and

tolerate mainlanders so as to facilitate Hong Kong-mainland integration. This has made some Hong Kongers even more furious. On 1st May 2014, some mainlanders vowed to defecate on Hong Kong streets while Hong Kongers were determined to take photos of these selfish people.

Joanne Tsang Becky Fong

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1. Which country currently controls Crimea? 2. Name two Chinese human activists. 3. Who called Hong Kong people “dogs”? 4. What is national identity? 5. Name one reason for the mainland-Hong Kong conflicts. (ALL ANSWERS CAN BE FOUND IN THE NEWSLETTER)

Quiz Time

Do you know the answers? Send them to Fung Chi Ying Natalie 4G (14) through e-class! Prizes are waiting for you!