Colonial and postcolonial perspectives kingsley bolton abstract hong kong ceased to be a colony of britain on june 30th, 1997, thus entering a new stage of its development and evolution as a uniquelyconstituted city state and urban metropolis. The english language in hong kong is a fascinating account which compares the roles english and chinese have played and continue to play in hong kong. Acquisition of language and contentbased subject knowledge. Numerous changes have also occurred in the university education sector since the 1990s when the rapid expansion of. Speakers of the colloquial variety are essentialized as lazy and said to be responsible for destroying chinese culture. Hong kong is a part of china, but it has a unique history that affects the way people from hong kong also known as hongkongers interact with and perceive the mainland today. Previous studies of hong kong codemixing mostly focus on the major pattern commonly found among locally educated ethnic chinese. In examining the language policy in hong kong, one has to look at not only the linguistic conditions in the school setting but also at those in the wider social environment. In fact, when hong kong was handed back to china from the united kingdom in 1997, only a fourth of the residents of hong kong spoke mandarin, the official language of mainland china.
Major issues of university education policy in hong kong michael h. Then i will examine the language policy since the handover in 1997. Hong kongs protests explained amnesty international. A substantial debate on the language policies governing the three principal languages has continued for more than two decades among policymakers and educators. Comparative education research centre, the university of. The mandatory use of mother tongue education in hong kong after 1997 met strong objections from the local community. The politics of language policy voice of hong kong. During the past five decades chinas language engineering projects transformed its linguistic landscape, affecting over one billion peoples lives, including both the majority and. It is about power, identity, opportunities, and, above all, passion and nationalism. Hong kong was a british colony until 1997, when sovereignty of the territory was returned to china. Facing a dramatic decline in english standards over the past decade, the hong kong government introduced the finetuning medium of. Mothertongue education in hong kong is the act of teaching in the native language of the pupils in a certain area of country, as opposed to teaching in a foreign language. During the past five decades chinas language engineering projects transformed its linguistic landscape, affecting over one billion peoples lives, including both the majority and minority populations. The region is bordered by guangdong province to the north and the south china sea to the east, south, and west.
Food shortages impel many residents to flee to mainland china. Mandarin dialects are spoken by about 70 percent of the chinese population norman, 1988. As the majority of the population in hong kong are descendants of migrants from chinas canton province, the vast majority speak standard cantonese or other yue chinese varieties as a first language, with. The book shows how the processes of colonialism and globalisation have influenced the changing roles of the languages and considers how the increasing influence of china itself will. The language policy of any society cannot be separated from politics. Rubio said he expects the hong kong human rights and democracy act to easily pass. It consists of hong kong island, originally ceded by china to. Hong kongs prospects for a changing language situation depend on its political and economic development as well as prcs policy. Department of education studies hong kong baptist university.
In conclusion, the development of the language policies in hong kong was an ongoing process which involved various socioeconomic and sociopolitical issues. The official languages of hong kong are chinese and english. Pdf language use, and language policy and planning in hong. The basic law of hong kong stipulates that chinese and english are the two official languages of hong kong. Founded in 2015, hong kong free press is a nonprofit, englishlanguage newspaper run by journalists and completely independent. The political transition in 1997 has greatly affected hong kong society, including language education.
The deal also guaranteed the continued protection of a range of human rights in hong kong. Hong kong is largely free to manage its own affairs based on one country, two systems, a national unification policy developed by deng xiaoping in. The chinese language and language planning in china the. Democracy in hong kong council on foreign relations. Cantonese, which is central to the hong kong identity, originated around the year 220, while mandarin dates to. Hong kong makes it a language contact zone in which different patterns of codemixing occur. Pdf get the market out of hong kongs language policy. The firm also advises clients on significant crossborder transactions in the rest of asia and elsewhere in the world. After the peoples republic of china prc resumed sovereignty over hong kong, the hong kong government introduced the first wave of. Implications of hong kongs change of sovereignty pp.
The changes of language policies in hong kong education in. Virtually all hong kong cantonese speakers know of lazy pronunciation, which refers to the colloquial pronunciation of cantonese that differs from prescribed dictionary pronunciation. Language policy in the peoples republic of china theory. The hong kong institute of education notification to admittees of the ugcfunded programmes on the language enhancement courses and other measures pertaining to the new language policy the institutes language policy 1. When implemented, the new language policy will end the process of convergence between the english and chinese streams which has been going on since the late 1970s, and mark a return to the dual system which characterised hong kongs education system for much of the colonial period. Language use, and language policy and planning in hong. During the british colonial era, english was the sole official language until 1974. More information about hong kong is available on the china country page and from other department of state publications and other sources listed at the end of this fact sheet. Pdf the language situation in hong kong is knowingly complex. Finetuning mediumofinstruction policy in hong kong. Under the new language policy of the institute, all fulltime undergraduate students1 will be. Lee the chinese university of hong kong hong kong, china university education is believed to be one of the most controversial public policies in hong kong.
Hong kong has evolved in the past 167 years from a small fishing port to an international financial centre which forms part of a financial network hailed by time magazine as ny. This paper intends to examine hong kongs english language policy. Although the basic law stipulates that chinese and english are the two official languages in hong kong, nearly 97 per cent of the local population learn cantonese a chinese dialect that is not an official language as their commonly used daily language. The hong kong institute of education notification to. In hong kong, use a little cantonese, the locals language. This monograph provides an overview of the language situation in hong kong from a historical perspective. In addition, hong kong used to have the educational structures greatly modeled on those of the united kingdom, including six years of primary school, seven years of secondary school, with three years of tertiary education for those who could succeed in the hong kong certificate of education examination and hong kong advanced level examination. Although hong kong people refer to the language as cantonese, publications in mainland china describe the variant as hong kong speech, due to the differences between the pronunciation used in hong kong cantonese and that of the cantonese spoken in neighbouring guangdong province where cantonese based on the guangzhou dialect is a lingua franca. From hong kongs establishment as a colonial port, through its period as a manufacturing hub, and up until its current role as an international financial centre, the citys population has always looked outwards. The language situation in hong kong is knowingly complex.
Hong kong institute of education peter bodycott has taught in schools and higher education in australia, singapore and hong kong. Hong kong has a population of 5,902,100 people crowded into its land area of 1076 sq. This publication contains key findings of the thematic household survey conducted during march to june 2018. Hkfp is only answerable only to readers, not shareholders.
Education reform in hong kong dowson education policy. Hong kongs official tourism guide includes tourist information on attractions, events, shopping and dining, vacation holiday packages, street maps, virtual tours and travel planning itineraries to experience hong kongs unique international living culture. Under the deal struck between the uk and china, hong kong was guaranteed a separate legal and economic system. Putonghua education and language policy in postcolonial. Journal of panpacific association of applied linguistics, 201, 5155. Pdf this monograph provides an overview of the language situation in hong kong from a historical perspective. The subject is especially important in regions where there is a foreign language that is highly prevalent for historical, political or.
These language ideologies about the aesthetics and cultural. For example, the mother tongue policy implemented in hong kong has. To understand the longstanding feud that keeps hongkongers and mainland chinese from getting along, you need to first understand the basics of hong kongs modern history. The national government of china has been promoting mandarin as the official language since its establishment. Dla piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 30 countries throughout the americas, asia pacific, europe, africa and the middle east, positioning us to help companies with their legal needs anywhere in the world. This vast number of speakers provides a valid foundation for mandarin as the common language of china. The survey collected information on hong kong residents having studied outside hong kong, training needs of economically active persons, desire of economically inactive persons to take up jobs, keeping of dogs and cats and use of language. Hong kongs new english language policy in education. The university of hong kong hku toggle first menu panel.
Life and death of languages ccgl9024 created by chan chung wing sally kwong ho hin leibniz lam ka chun ken pan xuetan jackie xia chengwei cherry. Major issues of university education policy in hong kong. It is apparent that the medium of instruction policy in secondary schools has triggered. Its impact on language education and language use in posthandover hong kong. Many nations have language regulatory bodies which are specifically charged with formulating and implementing language planning policies. In 1997 there was a major political change, and hong kong, a capitalist city that practised a free economy for 155 years, was handed back to a socialist regime in china and now functions as a special administrative region of the peoples republic of china prc under the one country two systems policy. Today, it is the language of preference in the government, business and tourism sectors. Hong kong is linguistically complex and diverse with three principal languages. Hong kong relations in 1997, china resumed the exercise of sovereignty over hong kong, ending more than 150 years of british colonial rule. Discover hong kong official travel guide from the hong. In this paper i will first provide an overview of hong kongs language policy in the prehandover period. His most recent teaching, research interest and publications focus on pre service teacher thinking, second language learning and teaching, and the role of narrative in leadership and teacher education. While the government put forward a comprehensive educational agenda to justify the implementation of the policy, this paper raises the question of whether the change in language policy was mainly driven by an educational agenda, or whether there were other underlying.
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