Biliteracy and trilingualism: the identity of Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper explores the ground realities of language use in Hong Kong. Since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 1997, the language policy promoted by the government is "to enable students to be biliterate (to master written Chinese and English) and trilingual (to speak fluent Cantonese, Putonghua and English)." To achieve this, the government issued The Medium of Instruction Guidance for Secondary Schools in September, 1997 and successfully raised the number of secondary schools that use Chinese as medium of instruction for all academic subjects except English Language from 77 in the 1997-98 school year to about 300 in the following year. Obviously, this radical move is but one among the many decolonization projects that were meant to build up a strong national, cultural identity for people of Hong Kong. However, the language policy has met fierce resistance in the community. The ground realities in the city seem to venture ever farther into the direction of hybridization. By studying the different manifestations of biliteracy and trilingualism in advertisements, songs and poems of Hong Kong, this research aims to exhibit the special tension between nationhood and local identity as reflected in the interactions between languages.