1. When the Hong Kong Dream Meets the Anti-Mainlandisation Discourse: Mainland Chinese Students in Hong Kon
- Author:
- Cora Lingling Xu
- Publication Date:
- 09-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- This article looks at identity constructions of mainland Chinese undergraduate students in a Hong Kong university. These students shared a “Hong Kong Dream” characterised by a desire for change in individual outlooks, a yearning for international exposure, and rich imaginations about Hong Kong and beyond. However, when their Hong Kong Dream met Hong Kong’s “anti-mainlandisa- tion discourse,” as was partially, yet acutely, reflected in the recent Occupy Central movement, most students constructed the simultan- eous identities of a “free” self that was spatially mobile and ideologi- cally unconfined and an “elite” self that was among the winners of global competition. This article argues that the identity constructions of these mainland Chinese students shed light on global student mo- bilisation and provide a unique, insider’s perspective into the integra- tion process between Hong Kong and the rest of the People’s Re- public of China.
- Topic:
- Education, Globalization, Domestic politics, and Students
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, and Hong Kong