"Die for Hong Kong"? : naturalized players in Hong Kong football since 1945

Abstract

Football was introduced by the British when Hong Kong became one of their colonies. Throughout the history of football development in Hong Kong, the ‘Chinese-foreigner’ relationship is often discussed in different fields such as politics and sociology. Meanwhile, the conception of naturalized players that developed half a century ago seeks to break the paradigm as their identity is somehow in between Chinese and foreigner. In the context of football and identity, this dissertation shows how the Hongkonger identity of naturalized players is shaped by policies and regulatory systems throughout the colonial era. As a ‘Hongkonger’ identity emerges, the civic standard of being a Hongkonger has raised, and is no longer about merely possessing permanent residency. Beyond that, this paper also shows how naturalized players are immersed in the Hong Kong identity in terms of civic values, and how naturalized players are recognized as part of Hongkongers against the imaginary ‘other’ today. Words