The Construction of “Difference”: a Contextualization of Heunggongyahn Identification in the 1970s

Taking the Hongkonger identity as an example of an overseas Chinese identity, this paper reviews the studies of “Hongkonger” identification. The idea of a “hybridized Hong Kong—Chinese identity,” raised by media scholar Anthony Fung, is critically examined. I criticize this idea for disregarding the sociocultural context in which it was constructed, specifically the role and political aim of the colonizer, and for overemphasizing the “Other” role of the Chinese. This paper thereby contextualizes the emergence of the Hongkonger identity in the 1970s in the colonial context, examining how the role and political agenda of the colonizer related to the changing consciousness of Hongkongers and the emergence of the Hongkonger identity. In more concrete terms, this paper focuses on how the so-called “MacLehose reform” encouraged the consciousness of the “Hongkonger” as a separate category from that of the “Chinese” by “civilizing” the people of Hong Kong.