Political Challenges in Hong Kong: Identity Politics, Legitimacy Crisis, and Cultural Clash

Abstract

With its trade potential and rich cultural tradition, Hong Kong is now facing significant political challenges resulting from polarization in Hong Kong society, where localists are looking for their political identity. Drawn from contextual and textual analysis of the documentary analyses of periodicals, policy papers, official statistics, and relevant readings and empirical evidence, this paper aims to explore and analyze historical discourses delimited to the political identity, legitimacy crisis, and bursting cultural clash in HKSAR to address the political development in Hong Kong. The issue in Hong Kong is not to assess who is a loser or gainer as a result of the shift in authority from British to China and change in the policy arena endeavored to be sustainable but rather what is required, how policies are framed, and what are the consequences as a result of adopting different approaches. Hong Kong exhibits both political and cultural forms of localism. Political localism carries the idea that supports deliberative democracies in Hong Kong, while cultural localists distinguish themselves from mainlanders and reject the yoke of Chinese identity in its current form. Nevertheless, localist has been able to express a pluralist and alternate vision against globalism and neo-liberalist implications. Thus far, the future of Hong Kong has seen localists transitioning in their stances—initially advocating for Hong Kong nationalism and independence, and now seeking a distinct local identity through reforms within the region. This shift has ushered in a new era of identity politics, transcending the postcolonial handover phase.

Keywords

• localism
• mainlanders
• identity politics
• legitimacy crisis
• culture
• china
• hong kong