It’s daunting moving to a place where you don’t speak the language. Yet before leaving for Hong Kong, everyone assured me I’d be able to get around with only English: my study abroad advisor, my cousin who frequently visits there on business, friends who had been before, even my parents who have never set foot in Asia. These people were right—if you’re in the Central business district or live in the gated ex-pat community of Victoria Peak.
Where I am in Sha Tin, part of the New Territories and an hour’s MTR ride from Central, it’s completely different. English is visible, but seldom heard. Due to Hong Kong’s status as officially bilingual, English translations are generally present on storefronts, street signs, and packaged goods. However, it often looks like it was run through Google Translate. Signs of mopped floors caution “beware of slippery”; ordering food in campus canteens is always a guessing game; and even signs in Central command “no drink drive.” My classes are in English, but my professors frequently revert to Cantonese for clarification, and students never ask questions in English. All students must demonstrate exam-based proficiency in English to enroll at CUHK, yet my first year roommate is taking a foundational English course for university students. I’ve met a few local students who went to international or English high schools and speak English well, but most students are uncomfortable asking more than a few basic questions. Among the older generations, English is scarcer; cab drivers, custodians, and street vendors seldom speak English.
How did Hong Kong get the reputation of being bilingual? Hong Kong was a British colony from 1842 until 1997. There was a small, British ruling minority and a much larger population of locals. Until 1974, English was the only official language in Hong Kong, establishing its reputation as an English-speaking place internationally, even though 94% of the population is Chinese. Today, English is still primarily used in formal settings like university education and business. Interestingly enough, while all school-age children are required to learn English through secondary school, there are no standards for the quality or amount of English instruction. Some selective-admission high schools are taught entirely in English, while quality of English education in rural areas is poor. Since introducing Chinese as an official language in 1974, Cantonese has seen a rise in status, dominating news and pop culture. According to a 1996 study by Hong Kong Polytechnic University, it’s estimated only 29% of the population speaks basic English and only 2% natively. While people must speak English in order to be among the elite, Cantonese is more than good enough for the masses.
It’s important to note though that the 1974 change in language policy added Chinese as an official language, not Cantonese. Chinese is not one language, but many mutually unintelligible languages spoken throughout China that share a writing system. It makes sense that Cantonese is Hong Kong’s de facto variety because 89% of the population speaks it, although dialects like Mandarin and Hokka are present. The current standard is “tri-lingual and bi-literate.” Since the 1997 handover, Mandarin has slowly been gaining increasing status, although it has been met with some resistance, since Hong Kong’s status as a Special Administrative Region is complex and many Hong Kongers resent Beijing’s government. Cantonese is not threatened as the dominant dialect, but outside of Hong Kong and surrounding cities in southern China, Cantonese is futile. Although Mandarin was once associated with impoverished mainlanders who fled to Hong Kong during the glorious revolution, people today are starting to see its practicality, and Beijing is pushing to require all schools to teach it. Although the two varieties of Chinese are not mutually intelligible, they are more closely related to each other than they are to English. Cantonese regions tend to use traditional characters Chinese whereas most of mainland uses simplified, but it’s fairly easy to learn simplified after having learned traditional first, and written Cantonese grammar is very similar to spoken Mandarin in order to keep all dialects of Chinese mutually intelligible through writing. Although local students I’ve talked to resent Beijing for trying to exert control over Hong Kong’s laissez-faire economy, they seem ambivalent about learning Mandarin, and many of them understand spoken Mandarin quite well, even if they don’t speak it. English might be necessary for global business, but Mandarin is taking over in Asia. As countries in Asia grow increasingly good for business, there is less desire to leave.