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57-595: Hong Kong Chinese may refer to: One of the official languages of Hong Kong Hong Kong written Chinese , written Chinese in Hong kong Hong Kong Cantonese , the prominent Chinese language spoken in Hong Kong Hong Kong people , with Chinese nationality or of Chinese ethnicity Hongkong Chinese Bank , a bank in Hong Kong Topics referred to by

114-758: A Foreign Language ( Test Deutsch als Fremdsprache ; TestDaF for short) and Start German A1-C2. There are currently two test centres for TestDaF in Hong Kong: the Goethe-Institut and the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). The latter one also offers a European Studies degree course of German Stream, Bachelor of Social Science in European Studies (German Stream), in parallel with the French stream. A minor programme of German

171-640: A concern to the Hong Kong Government . There was a need to expand the colony to accommodate its growing population. The Qing Dynasty 's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War had shown that it was incapable of defending itself. Victoria City and Victoria Harbour were vulnerable to any hostile forces launching attacks from the hills of Kowloon. Alarmed by the encroachment of other European powers in China, Britain also feared for

228-423: A population density of 4,140 per square kilometre (10,720/sq mi). Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain in 1842 and Kowloon south of Boundary Street and Stonecutters Island in 1860. The colony of Hong Kong attracted a large number of Chinese and Westerners to seek their fortune in the city. Its population increased rapidly and the city became overcrowded. The outbreak of bubonic plague in 1894 became

285-515: A shopping mall for Hong Kong youngsters in Causeway Bay . There are also some private estates named with the kanji 駅 . These loanwords are pronounced by Hong Kong people as if they were their Chinese counterparts (i.e. の as 之 , and 駅 as 站 ). The Japanese 駅 is the shinjitai of the hanzi 驛 (Jyutping: jik6 ; Sidney Lau : yik ). However, 驛 has fallen out of usage to 站 in modern Cantonese and become obsolete. Therefore, it

342-698: A small number of churches in Hong Kong that have masses or services in Filipino, for example the afternoon masses provided by the St. John's Cathedral in Central. Indonesian is the common language for the significant number of Indonesians working in Hong Kong , though Javanese is also widely spoken. Most are domestic workers; On their days off, they often gather at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay where Indonesian languages can be heard. Thai prevails among

399-526: Is Yucca de Lac in Ma Liu Shui . Sometimes only French elements such as articles and prepositions are added to the name, as in the case of the restaurant chain Café de Coral . Similar mixing of English and French can be seen on the menu of Délifrance , a French-style restaurant chain in Hong Kong. The number of German speakers in Hong Kong is about 5 thousand, significant enough for the establishment of

456-545: Is standard Cantonese ( Chinese : 粵語, 廣州話, 廣東話, 廣府話, 白話, 本地話 ), spoken by 88.9% of the population. It is used as a colloquial language in all areas of daily life, government, and administration. As a written language, Cantonese became more popular with the boom of the Cantonese-language Hong Kong entertainment industry in the 1980s. Movie subtitles, magazines, popular literature, and comics have been published in written Cantonese. The publication of

513-420: Is a less standardized form of Modern Standard Chinese that is read with Cantonese phonology. There is also a written language based on the vocabulary and grammar of spoken Cantonese known as written Cantonese . Although the "biliterate and trilingual" policy implies an absence of support for written Cantonese, it has gained popularity in news media where entertainment and local news are related. Written Cantonese

570-606: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Language and nationality disambiguation pages Languages of Hong Kong During the British colonial era , English was the sole official language until 1978. Today, the Basic Law of Hong Kong states that English and Chinese are the two official languages of Hong Kong . All roads and government signs are bilingual, and both languages are used in academia, business and

627-529: Is meant, Cantonese is the vernacular variety spoken by most of the population. As a result of immigration into Hong Kong from Canton Province, Cantonese is the dominant Chinese variant spoken in the territory with smaller numbers of speakers of other dialects. There are also numerous Chinese languages spoken by the native peoples of the New Territories , many of which are mutually unintelligible. The written language used in official and formal settings

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684-487: Is not uncommon to mispronounce 駅 as its phonetic compound 尺 ( Jyutping : cek ; Sidney Lau : chek ). Koreans in Hong Kong only make up a small minority while Korean culture has gained popularity since the early 2000s. Korean pop music was the first Korean media to enter Hong Kong's market. Since then, several Korean TV series such as Dae Jang Geum have been broadcast to numerous audiences. There are roughly 1,000 students that took Korean courses at

741-558: Is offered at the Language Centre of HKBU. The Hong Kong University offers a Major in German. The Chinese University of Hong Kong offers a Minor in German and popular summer courses. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology offers German for science and technology. There are over 25,000 Japanese people in Hong Kong , so it is not uncommon to hear Japanese conversations. More than 10,000 people in Hong Kong had taken

798-942: Is the Weitou dialect (圍頭話), which is mostly spoken by the older generation living in walled villages in New Territories. Additionally, the Tanka people ( Chinese : 蜑家人, 疍家人, 水上人 ) from the fishing villages on outlying islands speak their own variant of Cantonese. However, this dialect is now largely limited to those middle aged and above. Hakka is indigenous to many villages in the New Territories and within Hakka communities in Hong Kong. Nowadays, outside these rural villages and older populations, younger Hakka Chinese populations communicate primarily in Cantonese. Hai Lok Hong , Teochew , Hokkien (including Taiwanese ) are

855-443: Is unintelligible to non-Cantonese speakers and is considered nonstandard by some educators despite its widespread usage in Hong Kong. Some have also credited written Cantonese for solving the challenges that standard written Chinese had faced in popular culture. Traditional Chinese characters are widely used, and are the de facto writing standard in Hong Kong. Simplified Chinese is seen in some posters, leaflets, flyers and signs in

912-785: Is used in Hong Kong among the ethnic Chinese from Vietnam who had initially settled in Vietnam and returned to Hong Kong. The language is also used by Vietnamese refugees who left their home during the Vietnam War . In 2006, there were at least 44,744 persons of South Asian descent living in Hong Kong. Signboards written in Hindi or Urdu can be seen, and conversation in South Asian languages including Nepali , Sindhi and Punjabi , as well as Urdu, Hindi and Tamil can be heard. Hong Kong has two Nepalese newspapers, The Everest and

969-612: The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University , offer programmes which aim at developing proficiency in French language and culture. The language was included as a subject in the HKCEE , but not in HKALE , the two former public exams that Hong Kong high school students take, with accordance to British International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) standards. The IGCSE French syllabus used by

1026-805: The Chinese University of Hong Kong each year, including undergraduates as well as professionals who enrolled in continuing education programs. Roughly 3,000 people have taken the Test of Proficiency in Korean since its introduction to Hong Kong in 2003. Surveys and statistics from course enrolments have shown that nine-tenths of the students studying Korean in Hong Kong are female. Filipino ( Tagalog ) and other Philippine languages are used by Filipinos in Hong Kong , most of whom are employed as foreign domestic workers . Newspapers and magazines in Filipino can also be easily found in Central, Hong Kong . There are also

1083-669: The German Swiss International School ( Deutsch-Schweizerische Internationale Schule ), which claims to number more than 1,000 students, at The Peak of Hong Kong Island . Many institutions in Hong Kong provide German courses. The most well-known one is the Goethe-Institut , which is located in Wan Chai . After spending a certain period in learning German, students can take the German Test as

1140-844: The Government Common Character Set (GCCS) in 1995 and the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) in 1999 by the Information Technology Services Department further helped with standardizing the Chinese character set used for writing Cantonese. Yet it still has the status of spoken language , 口語 hau jyu , and students are corrected by their teachers for using it as a literary language. A few closely related dialects to standard Cantonese continue to be spoken in Hong Kong. Most notable

1197-592: The JLPT in 2005. Hong Kong-based R by R Production produces a television travel show set in Japan, which, as of April 2016, is broadcast on ViuTV . However, the language is often misused. Japanese culture, especially the popular culture, has been popular in Hong Kong for decades. Hong Kong people occasionally replace Chinese characters with Japanese kanji . In addition, the Companies Registry also permits

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1254-567: The Six-Day War of 1899 , a number of clans attempted to resist the British, mobilising clan militias that had been organised and armed to protect against longshore raids by pirates. The militia men attempted a frontal attack against the temporary police station in Tai Po that was the main British base but were beaten back by superior force of arms. An attempt by the clansmen at guerilla warfare

1311-503: The Southern Min Chinese commonly found in Hong Kong. However, their usage is largely limited to the migrant families from the around the 20th century or so, especially the cold war era after the communist takeover of China in 1949 , to the 21st century, such as middle aged descendants of immigrants from native Chinese regions of these variants, specifically for Hai Lok Hong speakers from Swabue , Teochew speakers from

1368-825: The Sunrise Weekly Hong Kong . In 2004, the Home Affairs Bureau and Metro Plus AM 1044 jointly launched radio shows Hong Kong-Pak Tonight in Urdu and Hamro Sagarmatha in Nepalese . The history of Indians in Hong Kong can be traced back to the early days of British Hong Kong. When the Union flag of the United Kingdom was hoisted on 26 January 1841, there were around 2,700 Indian troops that participated, and they played an important role in

1425-515: The Teoswa region (such as Chaozhou , Chaoyang , etc.) of Southeast Guangdong , and Hokkien speakers from Southern Fujian (such as Quanzhou , Xiamen , Zhangzhou ), Taiwan , and cold war -era returnee migrants from Southeast Asia , such as the Philippines , Indonesia , Malaysia , Singapore , etc. since many of them migrated out to the aforementioned Southeast Asian countries during

1482-589: The Thai population in Hong Kong , who mostly work as domestic workers. The Thai language is found in many shops and restaurants owned by Thais in Kowloon City . A number of Thai movies have been imported since the early 2000s, such as The Wheel in the medley Three , Jan Dara , the Iron Ladies , My Little Girl , and Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior and Tom-Yum-Goong starring Tony Jaa . Vietnamese

1539-706: The United Kingdom in 1898 for 99 years in the Second Convention of Peking (The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory). Upon the expiry of the lease, sovereignty was transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1997, together with the Qing-ceded territories of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula. In 2021, the population of the New Territories was recorded at 3,984,077, with

1596-490: The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) is adopted in the examination. The only French book store, Librairie Parentheses , in Hong Kong is located on Wellington Street , Central . Real estate developers in Hong Kong sometimes name their buildings in French, such as Bel-Air , Les Saisons and Belle Mer . This kind of foreign branding is also used in boutiques and restaurants . An example

1653-407: The communist takeover of China in 1949 . Their descendants assimilated into mainstream Cantonese-speaking society. However there is still a sizeable immigrant community after China's economic reform in 1978 , and about 1.1% of the population speaks Shanghainese according to a 2016 census. When Hong Kong was a colony of the United Kingdom , Mandarin Chinese ( Chinese : 普通話, 現代標準漢語, 國語, 北方話 )

1710-556: The hiragana の ‘ no’ in Chinese business names that are registered in Hong Kong. The hiragana の is usually used in place of the Chinese character 之 (zi1) and is read as such in Hong Kong. In fact, Aji Ichiban has adopted の in their company name ( 優の良品 ). There are also borrowings from Japanese shinjitai kanji 駅 ‘eki’ to substitute 站 ( Jyutping : zaam ; Sidney Lau : jaam ) (both 站 and 駅 mean "station" in their respective languages), as in Nu Front ( 東角駅 ),

1767-432: The indigenous inhabitants with regards to land use, land inheritance and marriage laws; the majority of which remained in place into the 1960s when polygamy was outlawed. Some of the concessions with regard to land use and inheritance remain in place in Hong Kong to this day and is a source of friction between indigenous inhabitants and other Hong Kong residents. Lord Lugard was Governor from 1907 to 1912, and he proposed

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1824-558: The 1980s, talks between the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China led to the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration (1984), in which the whole of Hong Kong would be returned, instead of only the New Territories. The New Territories comprises nine districts each with their own District Council : According to the 2021 census , the population of the New Territories was 3,984,077, representing 53.7% of Hong Kong's total population. 90.4% of

1881-407: The Chinese grammar syntax 'verb - not - verb' to ask "Do you (verb) ?". Some code-switched words are used so often that they have become loanwords in Cantonese, for example, In Hong Kong, French is the second most studied foreign language after Japanese. Many institutions in Hong Kong, like Alliance française , provide French courses. Local universities, such as the University of Hong Kong ,

1938-487: The Mainland) has increased the number of Mandarin-speaking people, particularly in districts close to the border, such that Mandarin-speaking children make up large proportions or even the majority of primary-school students in those districts, causing the beginnings of a language shift in those areas. English is a major working language in Hong Kong, and is widely used in commercial activities and legal matters. Although

1995-571: The Republic, were established there as well. Yet, due to the British colonial government favouring English over Chinese for most of its rule, there was not much official effort to further regulate the language. The local name for written Chinese is 書面語 ( Jyutping : syu min jyu ; lit. 'Written language') in contrast to 口語 ( Jyutping : hau jyu ; lit. 'Spoken language'), i.e. Cantonese. This form of written Chinese must be distinguished from written Cantonese on

2052-533: The West and other Asian countries have contributed much to Hong Kong's linguistic and demographic diversity. The geographical element of this diversity can be seen in the Hong Kong Language Maps, which shows oral languages from the 2011 Census, and oral and written languages from the 2016 Census. Statistics for the 27 self-reported spoken languages/dialects reported in the 2011 Census, can be found in

2109-462: The courts, as well as in most government materials today. As the majority of the population in Hong Kong are descendants of migrants from China's Canton Province , the vast majority speak standard Cantonese or other Yue Chinese varieties as a first language, with smaller numbers of speakers of Hakka Language or the Teochew dialect of Southern Min . In addition, immigrants and expatriates from

2166-601: The development of Hong Kong in the early days. The most prominent contributions were the founding of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and the Star Ferry. Although nearly all of the Indian people who live in Hong Kong speak and write Indian English, some have maintained the usage of Hindi as a second language. Arabic is used frequently among members of Muslim communities in Hong Kong. Some Islamic organisations do teach

2223-678: The extension of the urban areas of Kowloon, New Kowloon was gradually urbanised and absorbed into Kowloon. The New Territories now comprises only the mainland north of the Kowloon Ranges and south of the Sham Chun River, as well as the Outlying Islands. It comprises an area of 952 square kilometres (368 sq mi). Nevertheless, New Kowloon has remained statutorily part of the New Territories instead of Kowloon. The New Territories were leased from Qing China by

2280-615: The future Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In March 1987, the Official Languages Ordinance was amended to require all new legislation to be enacted bilingually in both English and Chinese. In 1990, the Hong Kong Basic Law affirmed English's co-official language status with Chinese after the 1997 handover . No variety of Chinese has been specified to be official in Hong Kong; while it is usually understood that by Chinese Modern Standard Chinese

2337-581: The language as well, but the current status can best be described as developing. Hong Kong Sign Language is used by the Deaf community of Hong Kong; it is derived from the southern dialect of Chinese Sign Language , but is now an independent, mutually unintelligible language. New Territories Later, after New Kowloon was defined from the area between the Boundary Street and the Kowloon Ranges spanned from Lai Chi Kok to Lei Yue Mun , and

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2394-406: The late 1970s, when many new towns were built to accommodate the population growth from urbanised areas of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Despite rapid development of the new towns, which now accommodate a population of over 3 million, the Hong Kong Government confines built-up areas to a few areas and reserves large parts of the region as parkland . As the expiry date of the lease neared in

2451-568: The late 20th century before the Handover of Hong Kong but some also remained or came back to Hong Kong, especially around North Point and nearby areas. Taishanese originates from migrants from Taishan County in Mainland China. The variant can still be found in some areas in Hong Kong where migrants concentrated, such as Sai Wan . Shanghainese , or Wu Chinese in general, was commonly spoken by migrants who escaped Shanghai after

2508-872: The one hand and from Putonghua , the standard language/national variety of Mainland China , on the other. Thus it has also been called Hong Kong-style Chinese ( Chinese : 港式中文 ; pinyin : gǎngshì zhōngwén ) to distinguish it from Putonghua. Although texts in Hong Kong-style Chinese are read in Cantonese phonology , its grammar and lexicon are largely derived from the Mandarin-based Modern Standard Chinese. Consequently, people proficient in other varieties of Standard Chinese, like Beijing Mandarin or Taiwanese Mandarin , are able to understand it at least in writing. The principal vernacular language of Hong Kong

2565-437: The report: Language Use, Proficiency and Attitudes in Hong Kong. English was the sole official language of Hong Kong from 1883 to 1974. Only after demonstrations and petitions from Hong Kong people demanding equal status for Chinese did the language become official in Hong Kong from 1974 onward. Annex I of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration provided that English may be used in addition to Chinese for official purposes in

2622-430: The residents of New Territories use Cantonese as their main language. 3.5% of its residents use English , 2.0% use Mandarin Chinese , and 2.3% of New Territories' residents use other Chinese dialects. 93.1% of the district's population is of Chinese descent. The largest ethnic minority groups are Filipinos (2.1%), Indonesians (1.8%), South Asians (1.1%), Mixed (0.8%) and Whites (0.7%). New Kowloon covers

2679-417: The return of Weihaiwei to the Chinese government, in return for the ceding of the leased New Territories in perpetuity. The proposal was not received favourably, although if it had been acted on, Hong Kong might have remained forever in British hands. Much of the New Territories was, and to a limited extent still is, made up of rural areas. Attempts at modernising the area did not become fully committed until

2736-431: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Hong Kong Chinese . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hong_Kong_Chinese&oldid=1213168884 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

2793-741: The security of Hong Kong. Using the most favoured nation clause that it had negotiated with Peking, the United Kingdom demanded the extension of Kowloon to counter the influence of France in southern China in June 1898. In July, it secured Weihaiwei in Shandong in the north as a base for operations against the Germans in Qingdao (Tsingtao) and the Russians in Port Arthur. Chinese officials stayed in

2850-561: The sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred to the PRC by the United Kingdom in 1997, English remains one of the official languages of Hong Kong as enshrined in the Basic Law . Many Hong Kong people use both Cantonese and English , or "code-switch", in the same sentence when speaking. For example, " 唓，都唔 make sense!" ("Wow, it does not make sense!"). The code-switching can freely mix English words and Chinese grammar, for instance " 你 un 唔 understand?" ("Do you understand?") which follows

2907-537: The takeover of the New Territories was fixed as 17 April 1899, and Tai Po was chosen as the administrative centre. The transfer was not smooth and peaceful. In early April 1899, Captain Superintendent of Police, Francis Henry May and some policemen erected a flagstaff and temporary headquarters at Tai Po and posted the Governor's proclamation of the takeover date. Fearing for their traditional land rights, in

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2964-423: The tourist areas. In Hong Kong, Modern Standard Chinese has traditionally been an exclusively written language, used for official and formal purposes, just as Classical Chinese had been in China prior to the 20th century. With the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, educational materials were imported into the then British colony and schools teaching Modern Standard Chinese, the official language of

3021-454: The town. There was no mountain range as a natural border. Lockhart suggested moving the frontier to the line of hills north of Shenzhen. This suggestion was not received favourably and the Chinese official suggested the frontier be moved to the hill much further south of the Sham Chun River. It was settled in March 1899 that the boundary remain at the Sham Chun River. The new Hong Kong Governor, Henry Blake arrived in November 1898. The date for

3078-430: The walled cities of Kowloon City and Weihaiwei. The extension of Kowloon was called the New Territories. The additional land was estimated to be 365 square miles (950 km ) or 12 times the size of the existing Colonial Hong Kong at the time. Although the convention was signed on the 9 June 1898 and became effective on 1 July, the British did not take over the New Territories immediately. During this period, there

3135-423: Was no Hong Kong Governor and Wilsone Black acted as administrator. James Stewart Lockhart , the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong , was sent back from England to make a survey of New Territories before formal transfer. The survey found that the new frontier at Sham Chun River (Shenzhen river) suggested by Wilsone Black was far from ideal. It excluded the town of Shenzhen (Sham Chun), and the boundary would divide

3192-408: Was not widely used in Hong Kong. Since the 1997 handover , the huge increase in inbound tourism from the mainland has led to much more widespread use of Mandarin, particularly in tourism-related commerce, though little impact has been seen in locally based commerce or public services. In addition, the large number of soeng1 fei1 (雙非) children (children born in Hong Kong whose parents are both from

3249-417: Was put down by the British near Lam Tsuen with over 500 Chinese men killed, and collapsed when British artillery was brought to bear on the walled villages of the clansmen. Most prominent of the villages in the resistance Kat Hing Wai , of the Tang clan , was symbolically disarmed, by having its main gates dismounted and removed. However, in order to prevent future resistance the British made concessions to

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