Hong Kong as a Multicultural City

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HONG KONG AS A MULTICULTURAL CITY

Whenever people mention Hong Kong in the context of where it stands on a global front, they always talk about it being a colonial city that worked its way through post colonization and successfully established itself as a world-renowned city. Or they talk about how it has recognized itself as a world-class city by excelling on the economic fore front and becoming one of the worlds leading international financial centres. However, people barely associate Hong Kong with being a multicultural city. Why is that so? Is it because the locals of Hong Kong are keener on promoting traditional culture than diversity? Or is it because multiculturalism creates more tension amongst the residents than brotherhood? Through this paper I would like to explore Hong Kong from the perspective of being a multicultural city, building up on how colonization established multiculturalism in Hong Kong and leading on to how multiculturalism affects Hong Kong as a global city, in today’s world.

But before exploring multiculturalism through the eyes of Hong Kong, we need to figure out what multiculturalism really means. Multiculturalism can be defined either descriptively or normatively. In a descriptive sense, multiculturalism can be defined as the mere survival of a diverse group of people, in a specific regional context (Webster Dictionary). Whereas the Princeton dictionary defines multiculturalism, in a normative sense, to be the laying down of certain rules and policies in order to promote peaceful and equitable co-existence amongst various cultural groups, in a single country. Hong Kong definitely meets the criteria of being a descriptive multicultural city. But does it meet the normativ...

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...om the perspective of a multicultural city, it does not. To be a world-class city it needs to establish itself as a strong multicultural city that is respectful of all its citizens, regardless of gender, colour, class and age (Sung, 2013). Hong Kong needs to re-assure the world that it will treat tourists and immigrants with respect and that their safety and well being will be taken into consideration. With the increasing worldwide competition to be the “best” city, it is vital that the Hong Kong government and citizens understand the importance of having collaborative workgroups. Hong Kong needs to come to terms with the fact that promoting multiculturalism will not necessarily make them lose ground with their cultural identity (Sung, 2013). If Hong Kong wants to be recognized on a global platform it needs to expand the definition of being a Hongkonger (Sung, 2013

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