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An iconic characteristic of Hong Kong's social unrest in 2019 was the establishment of the so-called "yellow economic circle"—a networked system of retailers and consumers linked by shared political values. Movement sympathizers chose to consume products from retailers perceived as supporting movement aims and boycotted retailers thought to be in favor of closer ties with China. This research focuses on the challenges of the yellow economic circle through the lenses of class and consumer nationalism. Drawing on social media posts and interviews with pro-democracy individuals from different socio-economic backgrounds, we highlight challenges to the sustainability of the "yellow economic circle." Class-based purchasing power represented an obstacle to the success of the yellow economic circle; however, it was not the biggest challenge. Instead, an inherent incompatibility between the movement's aims and the means for achieving these aims posed the biggest hurdle. Navigating this incompatibility represented an opportunity for movement participants to develop innovations in thinking about consumer nationalism and the role purchasing power may play in participation. We conclude that the way participants defined consumer nationalism determined whether the yellow economic circle could be understood to engender a shared "Hong Kong identity" and eliminate existing class differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Native-place associations have played an indispensable role in the global migration of ethnic Chinese. Although there has been growing attention to their political role in advancing the Chinese state's interests, few studies have looked into how they are organized and how they operate vis-à-vis the state. This article focuses on post-handover Hong Kong, where native-place associations, despite their long presence, are still growing in number and sophistication after the 1997 handover. It posits that native-place associations there are forming a "cultural nexus" through which the Chinese state fosters political mobilization in support of its interests and policies. Based on an original set of event and biographical data, it shows that native-place associations are consolidating into a massive network connected by power-seeking elites. It also demonstrates how these associations seek to renew the significance of native-place and national identities. The findings point to how native-place associations may serve as a powerful cultural space for the Chinese state to project its influence offshore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the lens of sport, this article explores the trajectories of local and national belonging in various forms and degrees, which, in turn, bespeak the evolving Hong Kong–China relationship in the larger socio-political context of post-handover Hong Kong. With an eye to cross-border sports competitions (e.g., the Hong Kong-China football rivalry), sport-related events (e.g. gala performance and sports demonstrations by Chinese Olympic gold medalists in Hong Kong) as well as their media representation and repercussion, this article examines the multifarious articulations of local and national identifications registered in the athletes' and the spectators' performing bodies, their mediated images and embodiments. The ultimate goal of this article is to tease out the body and identity politics embedded in the production, mediatization and narrativization of local-national relations in an array of official and non-official discourses disclosed through sports practice and viewership partaken in different scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why have separatist sentiments increased in Hong Kong despite of China's growing economic attractiveness? This question is critical for China–Hong Kong relations. However, few studies have explored it from a comparative perspective. This study compares Hong Kong and mainland college students' national identities by making a series of interlocked surveys and interviews from 2012 to 2016. It shows that Hong Kong students have a much lower sociopolitical identity with China, which proves to be the primary cause for their separatist tendencies. Although they hold a comparably strong pan-Chinese economic identity, it does not strengthen their sociopolitical identity as it does for mainland students. This can be attributed to their post-materialist framework through which they are unlikely to believe that economic development alone can bring sociopolitical improvements. The findings imply that China faces serious difficulties in turning its economic strength into political charm in societies with strong post-materialist values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the findings the researchers obtained from a study of prominent civic education teachers in Hong Kong with regard to how they perceived national identification and the nurturing of national identification through civic education in Hong Kong schools. A qualitative method of data collection by in-depth semi-structured interviews was engaged. Original quotes are given whenever necessary so that readers can understand how the arguments in the article were derived and can arrive at their own conclusions. The teachers in general believed that national identity is ethnicity-based. But they agreed that national identity should coexist with other local and global civic identities. All of the teachers agreed that their schools worked assiduously in nurturing national identity. However, they also pointed out that a top-down compulsory national education programme, aimed at glorifying the nation, would not work in Hong Kong. Alternatively, students would accept civic education with a fair representation of the nation that allowed for critical judgment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2008, the Olympic Games were held in Beijing, capital city of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). As Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of China, Hong Kong and Macao, despite existing as separate sporting entities under the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, were surprisingly enthused with what Chinese people called an Olympic nationalism. Using a cognitive–affective–conative attitude framework, this paper examines how secondary school students (n=1391) in the two SARs constructed ‘imagined communities’ through their attitudes toward the Beijing Olympics. The average mean scores and Cohen’s Effect Size (d) were calculated between the two groups of students to reveal similarities and differences. The study concludes that, regardless of three different flags under one country, Hong Kong and Macao shared the Olympic spirit and nationalist sentiment with the rest of the Chinese in the motherland. Internal competition within the Chinese community did not necessarily exacerbate division and, indeed, resisted transcending the two systems in a one nation approach. On the contrary, the profound Chinese culture displayed throughout the Games and an appreciation of international solidarity united students in the two regions and provided a watershed in their understanding of their Chinese identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: For centuries, the notions of citizenship and citizenship education have been associated with the nation-state and civic elements. However, since the late 20th century, these traditional notions have been challenged by globalization. In the discourse of globalization, citizenship, and citizenship education, some scholars suggest a simplistic replacement or shift from national citizenship to global citizenship, regional citizenship, or local and group identities. Against these simplistic, single-leveled approaches is the argument for both the continuing importance of nation-specific characteristics of citizenship and the strong need to diversify the nation-state-oriented and civic-specific framework to form multileveled and multidimensional ones. They accommodate individuals' engagement in the various domains of human activities and their memberships at various levels, ranging from individual to community, local, national, and international or global ones. Some scholars have advocated a multidimensional model of citizenship education by regrouping human relationships and activities into four major dimensions--personal, social, spatial, and temporal--which can intersect with various levels in the multilevel polity. However, these general, static frameworks are not backed by strong empirical evidence and do not explain the complexity of interplay among different actors at the same level and/or between levels. Purpose: The purpose of the article is twofold. First, it aims to provide empirical evidence for the general framework of multileveled and multidimensional citizenship education by assessing students' views of citizenship in a multileveled polity with reference to Hong Kong and Shanghai in China. Second, with the help of the comparative study, the article is intended to supplement the general framework by proposing a theoretical framework that explains the complex interplay of different actors in their choices of citizenship elements from a multileveled polity. Setting: The study took place in three public junior secondary schools in Shanghai and three aided secondary schools in Hong Kong and assessed their students' views of the global, national, local, and personal-social domains of multiple identities in a multileveled polity. Research Design: The study adopted a mixed methodology of observations, questionnaires, and interview surveys to collect data. Data Collection and Analysis: Data are drawn from questionnaires completed by 1, 402 students attending Grades 7-9, and 38 interviews with principals, teachers, and students from both societies between 2002 and 2003. Conclusions/Recommendations: The study shows that although students of Hong Kong and Shanghai were aware of having multiple citizenships, some of their views of the relative importance of and the interrelationships among, four dimensions of citizenship differed. The patterns of their perceptions of multiple citizenships reflect similarities and differences in the organization of citizenship education between schools in Hong Kong and Shanghai, the nation-state's influences on local citizenship curricula, and local governments' development considerations in remaking collective identity. With the help of the comparative study, the article supplements the general framework by proposing a theoretical framework for interpreting citizenship and citizenship education as dynamic, context-bounded, and multileveled social constructions reinvented through the intertwined interactions of different actors in response to social changes, including globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]