HK Students Strongly Identify Themselves with Hong Kong

Ming Pao Daily
January 15, 2006

A survey conducted by the Pro-China Xue You Society shows that, 93% of the interviewed Hong Kong high school students consider themselves Hong Kongers, but only 75% believe themselves to be Chinese.

The survey, which the Pro-China, student-oriented, Political-minded Xue You Society conducted last October, is based on a 4-year-old questionnaire answered by 2777 students from 53 high schools in Hong Kong. 76% of the interviewees (of which 22% are immigrants from China) were born in either Hong Kong or China, whereas the remainder were born in Macau, Taiwan and others.

When asked to pick sentences which they thought associated with or best describe Hong Kongers, over 90% of the interviewees selected the option "pursuing democracy, liberty and equality, and attaching great importance to integrity". By contrast, less than half of the interviewees matched the aforesaid option with Chinese.

According to Chen Rungen, chairman of the Pro-Beijing Xue You Society, inadequate biased civic education accounts for the low degree of Chinese identity among Hong Kongers.