If you have ever wondered who your ancestors were or what being a Hongkonger really means, you might get some answers soon. National Geographic's The Human Family Tree - a show that traces our ancestry back into the mists of times through analysis of our genes - will soon air in Hong Kong. According to the Chinese University of Hong Kong's anthropology department chairman, Professor Sidney Cheung Chin-hung, being a Hongkonger has more to do with cultural identity than with ethnicity. 'I've met people who consider themselves Hong Kong yan [people] even though they have only spent a short time in the city,' Cheung said. Hongkongers are drawn from all over the world - India, the Middle East, Europe and, of course, the mainland. Prior to the British possession of Hong Kong roughly a century and a half ago, the inhabitants were mainly Hakka, Tanka, Hoklo and Yue (Cantonese) ethnic groups. The name Hong Kong was first recorded in the Treaty of Nanking - present-day Nanjing - in 1842. The modern inhabitants of Hong Kong were soon joined by Europeans and Indians as the British Empire established the colony of Hong Kong as a trading port. The population was dominated by Scottish merchants, French, Dutch, Russian and other European diplomats, along with the British garrison and largely English government officials. The city also saw further influxes of ethnic Chinese, who today make up 94.9 per cent of the city's population. They largely came from Guangdong after the end of the second world war and from as far away as Shanghai, Beijing and Sichuan in two waves - when the Chinese Communist Party assumed took power in 1949 and during the Cultural Revolution, which got underway in 1966, Cheung said. With migrants from all over the mainland, Hong Kong's ethnic Chinese population is among the most diverse in Greater China. Even though most Chinese in Hong Kong come from the southern provinces of the mainland. Cheung said it's likely many of their ancestors once lived north of the Yangtze River 800 years ago during the Song dynasty. A gradual southern migration populated the present day provinces of Fujian , Guangdong and Guangxi , Cheung said. He added that although his family is from Chaozhou in northern Guangdong, his village elders would conduct their ancestral worship rituals in Putian , which is in the south of neighbouring Fujian. Tracing family lineages past 1,000 years is difficult, and this is where National Geographic's The Human Family Tree Genographic Project comes in. It will see some 350,000 people helping scientists determine common lineages going back hundreds of thousands of years. The Human Family Tree introduces the five-year project and airs Sunday at 9pm. The Young Post has two public participation kits, worth HK$780 each, for two lucky readers. Simply write to us and explain why you would like to participate. Submissions should be sent to yp@scmp.com with 'gene machine' in the subject line. No personal information will be shared with any other parties.
