Why don’t Hong Kong Canadians just say they are Chinese? Because of subethnicity, and this is why it matters

A study of ethnic Chinese in Vancouver points to the wide gaps between Hongkongers and mainlanders, defying assumptions about ‘Chinese Canadian’ homogeneity

Politics, language, and battles over ‘cultural authenticity’ serve as dividing lines – but some friendships manage to bridge the subethnic gap

7-MIN READ7-MIN

Simon Tse, seen in a pre-handover 1996 childhood photo taken at The Peak in Hong Kong. Born Canadian in Hong Kong, he calls himself a “Honger”, or “Hong Kong Canadian”, but not “Chinese Canadian”. Photo: Courtesy of Simon Tse

Published: 4:12am, 19 Jun 2019Updated: 6:15am, 20 Jun 2019

Hong Kong people come from a colony and ought to act “more civilised”. Taiwanese are “old-fashioned”. Mainland Chinese are “rich but rude”.

Welcome to the awkward world of Chinese subethnicity in Canada, where its various communities tend to self-segregate, discriminate against each other and generally defy assumptions of homogeneity among “Chinese Canadians” that are imposed from outside the group.

Subethnicity among Vancouver’s ethnic Chinese is the subject of new research by academics Miu Chung Yan, Karen Lok Yi Wong and Daniel Lai. It focuses on the wide gaps between Vancouver’s mainland Chinese and Hong Kong communities, drawn on lines of language, geography, culture and politics.

“The inﬂuence of transnational politics on interpersonal interactions at the individual level cannot be underestimated,” the study concludes, with political conversation “taboo” between the groups. “Avoidance is a major strategy,” says the study, published last month in the journal Asian Ethnicity.

Professor Miu Chung Yan, director of the University of British Columbia’s social work department, says subethnic differences are clear to Hongkongers and mainland Chinese in Canada, but not necessarily to other Canadians. Photo: Ian Young

Professor Yan, the director of the social work department at the University of British Columbia (UBC), spent four years studying subethnicity for the project.

Some of the results were “common sense among Chinese”, he said, but might surprise others. People in the Chinese subethnicities tend to stick to their own kind when making friends. Language can divide them.