Background of HKSAR official language policy

Hong Kong is currently under the 'one country, two system' principle and is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. At present, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English. The majority of the population speak Cantonese, accounting for 89.5% of the population. Meanwhile, English plays an important role in professional workplace environments, such as the business and legal sectors. It is also used in the Government. This official language policy gives rise to a great number of bilingual and trilingual speakers of Chinese and English, and affects Hong Kong in various ways.

Hong Kong was a former British colony and English is still used as an official language. The British rule lasted from 1842 to 1997. After the handover, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China on 1 July 1997. Historical and political factors contribute to the language policy of Hong Kong nowadays.

Such a language policy leads to different degrees of conflicts and raises a number of problems. From the Education aspect, Hong Kong citizens' language ability in Chinese and English affects their chances of pursuing higher education. From the tradition of public examination system in Hong Kong, we can see the significant role of Chinese and English language ability in attaining success. The education policy also creates an unfavorable environment for linguistic minority students and increases the difficulty for them to assimilate into the Hong Kong society. Since it is crucial for employees to be well-equipped with Chinese and English language ability in order to find a job or climb up the corporate ladder, Hong Kong's language policy may put citizens with lower education level or language ability in a disadvantaged position.

 Although it is claimed that Chinese and English have equal status, this statement is questionable. Hong Kong culture is also deeply related to the languages used in this region, and when there is an imbalance of status in languages, one may dominate the others and cause a loss of cultures and customs.

This is why the Hong Kong Government should carefully implement language policies in Hong Kong, consider the impacts on different stakeholders and strike a balance.



Reference
GovHK (2013) Hong Kong - The Facts. Retrieved from http://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/facts.htm

Legco (2013) History of the Legislature. Retrieved from
http://www.legco.gov.hk/general/english/intro/hist_lc.htm

Peter Dickson & Alister Cumming (1996) Hong Kong Language Policy. National Profiles of Language Education in 25 Countries. Berkshire, England: National Foundation for Educational
Research. Retrieved from
http://www.cbs.polyu.edu.hk/ctdso/paper/lang%20in%20ed%20hk%20.pdf