HONG KONG — When crowds calling for greater democracy occupied the streets of Hong Kong three years ago, a skinny teenager led them. When voters went to the polls last year, they elected a 23-year-old legislator, the youngest in the city’s history. And when calls for Hong Kong’s independence from China gained momentum, young people were again at the forefront.
Many of the most influential voices in Hong Kong today belong to those who have little or no memory of this former British colony’s return to Chinese rule two decades ago. But this generation’s identity has been shaped by the handover.
People between the ages of 18 and 29 in Hong Kong are more likely than at any time since 1997 to see themselves broadly as Hong Kongers, according to a survey by the University of Hong Kong. Only about 3 percent now describe themselves broadly as Chinese, the lowest level since the handover.
By contrast, Carrie Lam, who will be sworn in Saturday as Hong Kong’s new chief executive, says she wants to make sure that children will learn from an early age to say, “I am Chinese.”
We asked a half-dozen young people in Hong Kong how they identify themselves, what it has been like to grow up in a city newly returned to Chinese rule and what they expect from the future. These are excerpts from their answers, edited for clarity and length:
Matthew Chan, 19
Student beginning at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in September
I was born after the handover. When I was growing up, society told me I was Chinese. When I was young, I was proud to be Chinese. I was excited when I saw China shoot a rocket into space.
But when I grew up, I learned more and more about China and the Communist Party, and I felt ashamed to be Chinese. Especially in recent years, the Communists kind of control Hong Kong. When a foreigner asks me who I am, I will always say I’m a Hong Konger but not Chinese. In my mind, I know I’m Chinese, but I don’t want to say I am from China. I would rather say that I’m from Hong Kong.
The thing I don’t like is the truth — that Hong Kong is a part of China. Our city has to follow every rule set by Beijing. We have no rights to our politics. We couldn’t really vote for the chief executive. The Communist Party is actually assigning the people to control Hong Kong.
Monkey Chan, 20
High school graduate pursuing a nursing career
I started to pay close attention to politics after the Umbrella Movement in 2014. Everyone in my class, which had about 30 people, had been to the protest sites at some point, and the school held a forum the next day after the protest erupted. The whole assembly hall was full.
Hong Kongers should unite as a nation, and then go independent. As long as Hong Kong is under China’s rule, there will not be democracy. That’s one reason. But another important reason is that I want to tell the world we’re not Chinese.
Our differences with Chinese people are mainly cultural. You can tell very easily when you travel. Hong Kongers queue up and won’t talk too loud, and they don’t spit or squat everywhere. We have our language — traditional scripts and Cantonese — and shared experience and spirits.
Hong Kong needs to be economically independent as well. Hong Kong’s economy has tilted too much toward the mainland and has become overreliant on it. If China’s economy collapses, Hong Kong would be doomed.
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