Hong Kong's official language policy of 'biliteracy' (Chinese and English) and 'trilingualism' (Cantonese, Putonghua, English), announced after the reversion to China in 1997, claims to address actualities of language use in the territory, remove inequities between English and Chinese, and consolidate the linguistic platform to launch Hong Kong as 'Asia's World City'. Public discussion of and controversy over this policy immediately followed, and have continued in the past decade. But they have tended to focus on the implementation of the policy in education, specifically the medium of instruction in schools, to the exclusion of most other areas of language use. Drawing on recent examples of translingual practice in literary writing, this essay argues first that such actually existing practices are far more verbally nuanced, self-knowing and self-reflexive than the official policy would allow, and second, that they instantiate Hong Kong's identity as 'Asian', which challenges both the official and public focus on Chinese and English. The 'world' and 'world city' that emerge from such writing are historically located in the transition before and after 1997, when the writers acquired their languages in schools. They are also provisional, generated by a poeisis of experimentation that attends to cultural change as language change in - and as - everyday life.
[Copyright of Interventions: The International Journal of Postcolonial Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2010.516100]

This monograph provides an overview of the language situation in Hong Kong from a historical perspective. Hong Kong has evolved in the past 167 years from a small fishing port to an international financial centre which forms part of a financial network hailed by Time Magazine as Ny.Lon.Kong (i.e. New York-London-Hong Kong). Hong Kong has gone through changes of sovereignty twice, once in 1842 as a Chinese territory ceded to Britain after the first Opium War, and a second time in 1997 as a British colony returned to China. It is a micro polity with no natural resources except its deep harbour. Economically, Hong Kong has gradually developed from a fishing port when British settlement began in 1841, to an entrepocirct during 1945-1950s, to a manufacturing hub during 1960-1970s, to an international financial centre since the 1980s. The historical, political and economic development has had a great impact on the language situation in Hong Kong. Its language community started with two separate monolingual groups: one consisting of local Chinese speaking Cantonese and other Chinese dialects, and the other composed of British colonists speaking English. Because of language spread and language shift as a result of political, economic and social changes, the monolingual group of Chinese speakers has become trilingual, speaking Cantonese, English and Putonghua, whereas the monolingual group of English speakers has expanded to include native speakers of such other English varieties as American English, Australian English, Canadian English, Indian English and Singaporean English. In addition, there is a large group of minorities composed of bilingual speakers of English and a south Asian language. Although the development of language use is a natural process, it can be influenced by the government's language policy and planning. In 1997 there was a major political change, and Hong Kong, a capitalist city that practised a free economy for 155 years, was handed back to a socialist

背景：香港政府自2000 年開始施實教師「語文能力要求」以及相應的「教師語文能力評估」。在這項政策之下，全港中小學的常額英文和普通話科教師必須在特定時限之前達到相關語文能力要求，否則將不獲准繼續任教英文或普通話科。政府的是項舉措在本港教育界引發了廣泛的爭論。
目的：本研究目的在於調查政府該項措施實施兩年之後，受影響的中學普通話科教師對政府此項舉措的一般意見和態度。
調查對象：本研究的調查對象為香港中學普通話科科主任教師。
調查方法：本研究採用直接問卷的方式進行。以郵寄方法向香港400 間中學的普通話科科主任進行問卷調查，成功收回問卷177 份。
調查結果：結果顯示，普通話科教師一般認為，政府的這項政策對於語文教師的專業發展有其必要；但是，由於政府強力推行是項政策，加重了教師的工作負擔，所以不受教師們的歡迎。
總結：如果想令到政府的這項政策得到語文教師的歡迎，政府必須有相應的措施有效地減輕受影響教師的工作壓力，因為是項政策的實施實際上加重了教師業已十分繁重工作量。
Background: Since 2000 Hong Kong government has pursued a new policy of Language Proficiency Requirement (LPR) and conducted Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers (LPAT). under witch all English/Putonghua teachers holding a permanent post in a public-sector schools or a local private primary/secondary day schools offering the full curriculum will not be allowed to teach English or Putonghua if he or she had not met the required language proficiency level by specific deadlines. This policy triggered off a heated debate from all sides of education circles in Hong Kong.
Aims: This study aims to collect the general opinions and attitudes of Putonghua teachers towards this new government’s policy two year after the policy had been put into practice.
Sample: Questionnaires were sent to 400 secondary schools and total of 177 questionnaires filled in by secondary school Putonghua subject chair teachers were collected.
Method: Questionnaire survey was conducted and the written responses received from the respondents were tabulated.
Results: This study found that the secondary school Putonghua teachers generally disliked the new policy of LPR which had been strongly carried out by the government, although the new policy was accepted as a necessary step for Putonghua teachers' professional development.
Conclusion: To make the new policy favorably received by language teachers, the government needs to do something substantially to lessen the burden of affected teachers, because

1997 年7 月1 日是香港回歸祖國懷抱的劃時代日子。回歸後香港行政㈵區在「一國兩制」與「高度自治」原則下繼續發展。後殖民地 (Post-colonialism) 教育將是香港教育的另一特色。誇大和忽視殖民地主義對香港的控制和幕後誘導作用，對真正認識香港實情絕無好處。而回歸前香港政府向來對公民教育是「明褒暗貶，明揚暗抑」的，故研究和展望廿一世紀香港㈵別行政區公民教育，是㈲現實需要和時代意義的。
殖民地主義以異族控制香港地域資源及戰略要塞，當然不欲被統治者民族主義高漲，故嚴禁㈻校談政治更明文規定，「重英輕中」及「暗抑中史」實是英人統治百年方針。不過，自從1967 年香港暴動以後，英人重視「懷柔政策」，於課程上不著痕跡地幕後操控，少有公然「鎮壓」，淡化年輕一代中國青年的民族意識，在一定程度上頗為成功，故回歸後在公民教育方面，須下一番不偏不倚的「撥亂返正」工夫。
[Copyright of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre at http://www.edb.org.hk/hktc]

回歸前後的香港，在政治上經歷了很多變化。這些政治上的變化不期然地也影響了香港的公民教育的發展。本文嘗試比較回歸前後香港公民教育的發展及其政治變遷的相互關係，尤其側重介紹回歸以後香港公民教育的狀況，包括課程發展、學校實施公民教育的情況、香港學生的公民觀、香港人對公民身份認同的變化，並以社會資本角度的反思作結。本文得出的結論是香港市民對香港是有歸屬感的，但不太有安全感；他們會參與社會的網路組織，有一定的社會參與，但限於傳統性的公民活動（例如選舉）和社會性的活動，較少參與政治性的公民活動；同時，他們也存在一種公民無力感，尤其是政治無力感。
Hong Kong has experienced substantial changes in its political circumstances before and after the handover. These political changes have had much impact on the development of civic education. This paper attempts to compare the development of civic education in Hong Kong before and after the handover, with a particular focus on the impact of changing political circumstances. Another focus of the paper is on the situations of civic education since its handover. This includes a review of the development of the civic education curricula, the implementation of civic education in school, student's concepts of citizenship, changes of civic identity among Hong Kong people, and the paper is concluded with a review from social capital perspectives. The paper concludes with an observation that Hong Kong people have a sense of belonging, but not much sense of security. They participate in social networks, but focus on conventional citizenship activities (such as voting) and socially oriented activities, rather than politically oriented activities. Socially, they feel they make some contributions to the society, but politically they also feel powerless.
[Copyright of Journal of Youth Studies is the property of The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups at http://yrc.hkfyg.org.hk/]