The Missing Hong Kong Cultural Identity

As a British colony for a hundred and fifty-six years,British influence on Hong Kong's culture,education system and language preference etc.are deeply entrenched.Hong Kong people's confusion about their identity took shape during that time;ethnically being non-English yet ruled by Britain;ethnically being Chinese but there was growing estrangement of Chinese culture.Hong Kong became marginal historically and culturally.Hong Kong people's confusion about their cultural identity since the colonial era has continued till today,which has become an important topic of Hong Kong society that is worth discussing.In this thesis,Hong Kong's unique history will be the main setting and Leung Ping Kwan(pen name Ye Si)'s six novels will be the centre of analysis,analyzing Hong Kong's struggle of their cultural identity and their way forward.As the representative of Hong Kong's local culture and going through the pre and post-colonial era,Ye Si's novels have reflected the true feelings of Hong Kong people when facing the identity issue.Having travelled everywhere around the globe,his works have nonetheless all focused on the stories of Hong Kong.This thesis will be divided into seven chapters.The first chapter discusses the current literature on Hong Kong;the second chapter will provide a definition for ‘cultural identity' from a historical and theoretical perspective.The third to sixth chapter are the focus of this thesis,using historical periods to divide Ye Si's six novels,the author will analyze Hong Kong people's view on their cultural identity from the 70 s to the present day.The last chapter is the conclusion,which is the end of the thesis.