Student identity formation and negotiation in post-colonial Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper explores the construction of local and national identities among secondary school students in postcolonial Hong Kong. As a Chinese society that has undergone a prolonged period of British colonial rule, the reunification of capitalist Hong Kong with the motherland under socialism in 1997 has set the context for a negotiation of identities. It has been revealed that the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has tried to foster a stronger sense of national identity among the younger generations through its education reform measures in the new millennium. Nation-building is part and parcel of the reform, although it is being interpreted and implemented diversely by local officials, school principals and teachers. The intersecting and overlapping nature of students different identities has set the parameters of their identity formation but allow different latitudes of observance and/or choice of different identities.