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Ian Young

People of Hong Kong origin in Canada have been urged to declare themselves as Hongkongers, and not only Chinese, on the national census next month, in an effort by activists to preserve the diaspora’s “unique identity”.
The “I Am Hong Konger” campaign, launched this week, asks immigrants and their descendants to specify their Hong Kong origins in the sections of the census questionnaire about ethnicity and place of birth. The campaigners remind respondents that they can list multiple origins, such as Chinese or Taiwanese.
They are also urged to specify whether they speak Cantonese.
Campaigner Crispin Chow said in a press release that he felt as if the Hong Kong identity was “under threat and being erased”. 


 “Hongkongers have a different culture, we have a different language. We want to show that we exist,” he said. 
There were 215,750 Hong Kong-born people in Canada at the time of the last census in 2016. That was an increase for the first time since 1996, and a reverse of the flow that has resulted in 300,000 Canadian citizens living in Hong Kong. 
However, no official figures track the number of people of Hong Kong descent. 
The fact of the matter is that multiple identities could and do coexist. In other words, one could be both a Chinese and a Hongkonger
Professor Leo Shin
The long form of the 2021 census lists 11 ethnicities, including Chinese – but not Hongkonger – from which respondents can choose, as well as “other group”, which respondents can specify. 
Hong Kong-born Heiky Kwan, who lives in Vancouver, said she would be “checking myself off as a Hongkonger and as an Asian if there’s that field, but am still struggling to see if I will check the box and identify as a Chinese.”
Kwan, who was six when she moved to Canada with her family in 1996, said she didn’t “100 per cent identify myself as Chinese”.
Why don’t Hong Kong Canadians just say they are Chinese? Because of subethnicity
“A lot of the things that are being marketed to me as being ‘Chinese’ – I don’t really identify with the lived experience of being a Chinese person,” she said. “I don’t want to see Cantonese or the Hong Kong culture just fade away.
“It worries me. If we don’t preserve it, in a few generations, will any of us be able to read traditional characters, will no one know how to speak Cantonese?”
The campaigners say they want the Canadian government to recognise “Hongkonger” as an “official identity”.
“Without reliable statistics and disaggregated data, service providers, policymakers and community organisations are unable to serve the needs of this unique population,” they said in an email.

The campaign’s website also says it seeks to increase civic participation by Hong Kong Canadians, and strengthen their identity and a sense of unity
Professor Leo Shin, who started the Hong Kong Studies Initiative (HKSI) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 2017, said the sentiments of Hongkongers in Canada towards their identity were “an extension of what is happening in Hong Kong”.
“When people feel that an important part of their identities is being erased, it is only natural for them to seek to protect it,” he said.
The HKSI project, which promotes teaching and research about Hong Kong, has received an “overwhelmingly positive response”, said Shin, showing a desire to better understand the city “both as a historically constituted space and as a collective experience”.
Meet the transnationals: They moved to Canada but never really left Hong Kong
On the other hand, some people believed it was “neither reasonable nor wise to place one’s identification with Hong Kong ahead of that with China”, he said.
But “people are complicated beings”, Shin added. “They have multiple identities, and such identities are almost always situational.”
“While there are those among the diaspora who seem to take a binary approach to the question of identity, the fact of the matter is that multiple identities could and do coexist,” Shin said. “In other words, one could be both a Chinese and a Hongkonger.”

The 2019 Hong Kong protest movement spilled over to Canada, with supporters and opponents of the movement clashing in Vancouver and Toronto.
Canadian census day is May 11, when respondents must reflect the status of their household, although the online questionnaire can be filled in from May 3. The process will mostly be conducted online and by phone, reducing face-to-face interaction with census takers as a pandemic precaution.
A quarter of all Canadian households will be selected to complete the long-form questionnaire, with the rest receiving a shorter form. 
Thousands of Hong Kong-born people move back to Canada 
The results are used to inform a range of policies and the provision of services ranging from roads, schools and hospitals to language services. 
It is “is a cornerstone and an essential tool for understanding how Canada is changing over time”, said Anil Arora, Canada’s chief statistician.
Canada’s population was 35,151,728 in 2016, according to the last census.
 


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Declare yourself a Hongkonger, not simply Chinese, Canadian census campaign urges

A crowd watches cupcakes being iced in the form of  a Canadian flag during Canada Day celebrations in Richmond, British Columbia, on July 1, 2017. Richmond is the most ethnically Chinese city in the world outside Asia, and home to large numbers of Hong Kong and mainland Chinese immigrants. Photo: AFP 

A crowd watches Cera Rivers apply icing to the last of 512 cupcakes that make up a Canadian flag during Canada Day celebrations on July 1, 2017 in Richmond, British Columbia. Richmond is the most ethnically Chinese city in the world outside Asia, and home to large numbers of Hong Kong and mainland Chinese immigrants. Photo: AFP

Vancouver police separate supporters and opponents of the Hong Kong protest movement at duelling rallies on August 17, 2019. Photo: AFP

Professor Leo Shin is convenor of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Photo: UBC

Why don’t Hong Kong Canadians just say they are Chinese? Because of subethnicity, and this is why it matters

Simon Tse, seen in a pre-handover 1996 childhood photo taken at The Peak in Hong Kong. Born Canadian in Hong Kong, he calls himself a “Honger”, or “Hong Kong Canadian”, but not “Chinese Canadian”. Photo: Courtesy of Simon Tse

People hold signs and Chinese flags in support Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co., outside of a bail hearing at the Supreme Court in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018. The arrest of Meng in Canada provoked outrage from China at a critical point in trade talks with the U.S. She faces extradition to the U.S. over potential violations of American sanctions on Iran. Photographer: James MacDonald/Bloomberg

Simon Tse, who was born Canadian in Hong Kong,  now lives in metro Vancouver. Photo: Courtesy Simon Tse

VANCOUVER, BC - MARCH 06: Kuang Yang burns a Chinese flag outside the the British Columbia Superior Courts where Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou appeared on March 6, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. Yang was protesting the Chinese government's alleged human rights abuses. Karen Ducey/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

Frances Hui poses for a photo at Emerson College's library in Boston. The student penned a column title "I am from Hong Kong, not China," which generated backlash from Chinese students. MUST CREDIT: Andrew Baicker

RICHMOND, BC - JULY 01: A crowd gathers to watch as Cera Rivers applies icing to the last of 512 cupcakes that make up a Canadian flag during a celebration of Canada's 150th birthday at the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet on July 1, 2017 in Richmond, Canada. Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images/AFP

Professor Miu Chung Yan, director of the UBC social work department, says subethnic differences are clear to Hongkongers and mainland Chinese in Canada, but not necessarily to other Canadians . Photo: Ian Young

Meet the transnationals: They moved to Canada but never really left Hong Kong

Guy Ho in Hong Kong in the early 1970s. He moved to Canada in 1977, back to Hong Kong in 2004, then returned to Canada in 2015. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong immigrants Henry Lam and husband Guy Ho in Vancouver. Photo: Handout

Cherie Wong is the executive director of Alliance Canada Hong Kong, a group that supports the Hong Kong protest movement. She was born in Canada, moved to Hong Kong as a toddler, then returned to Canada in her teens. Photo: Handout

TOPSHOT - Pro Hong Kong supporters hold signs during a rally at the Broadway-City Hall SkyTrain Station in Vancouver, Canada on August 17, 2019. - Ten weeks of demonstrations have plunged Hong Kong, the international finance hub, into crisis, with communist-ruled mainland China taking an increasingly hardline tone. (Photo by Don MacKinnon / AFP)

Professor Leo Shin, pictured in Toronto in 1990. Photo: handout

Professor Leo Shin  is convenor of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative at the University of British Columbia. Photo: UBC

Dr Justin Tse is an assistant professor of humanities at Singapore Management University who has studied transnationalism among Hong Kong Canadians. Photo: Ian Young

A teenage Cherie Wong on a visit to Hong Kong's Ocean Park in 2014.  Photo: Handout

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The ‘I Am Hong Konger’ campaign aims to boost recognition of an identity that organisers say is under threat of erasure
They also want members of the Hong Kong diaspora to specify on the census whether they speak Cantonese



The “I Am Hong Konger” campaign aims to boost recognition of an identity that organisers say is under threat of erasure.


Declare yourself a Hongkonger, not simply Chinese, Canadian census campaign urges

The ‘I Am Hong Konger’ campaign aims to boost recognition of an identity that organisers say is under threat of erasure They also want members of the Hong Kong diaspora to specify on the census whether they speak Cantonese

The ‘I Am Hong Konger’ campaign aims to boost recognition of an identity that organisers say is under threat of erasure

They also want members of the Hong Kong diaspora to specify on the census whether they speak Cantonese