Why do we need an English media platform for the Hong Kong diaspora communities?
Patrick Poon, Co-Director of The Hong Konger
Hong Kong used to be an international media hub. Many international media used to have their Asian headquarters in Hong Kong. They covered many major events, including Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China in 1997, mass rally against the Article 23 legislation in 2003, the Umbrella Movement in 2014, the violent clashes during the “Anti-Extradition Bill” protests in 2019, the impact of the National Security Law which was passed in 2020 as well as the passage of the Article 23 legislation earlier this year and all the mass arrests and trials of political dissidents.
Many media platforms, including New York Times and Wall Street Journal, decided to move their Asian headquarters to Taipei, Seoul, Singapore and other places, and their correspondents were also relocated to these cities. Certainly, there is still English media coverage in Hong Kong, but definitely not the scale we used to see in the past. An anonymous survey of the members of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong conducted in May 2023 also found that many foreign journalists in Hong Kong found the working conditions to be increasingly difficult.
As it has become difficult for many Hong Kong journalists to continue their work following the crackdown on Apple Daily and the arrests of its founder Jimmy Lai and other senior executives, we have seen many new Chinese platforms in the diaspora. They have been doing a great job to continue their professional efforts to report what is happening in Hong Kong and in the diaspora communities. We certainly appreciate all these efforts. But we also feel that Hong Kongers or people who have lived in Hong Kong or who are in any way connected with Hong Kong would want to have an English media platform to read news about Hong Kong, not only about politics and current affairs in Hong Kong, but also art and culture, food, lifestyle and other issues of people who are still in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong diaspora communities around the world as well as Hong Kong’s cultural legacy among many other things related to Hong Kong.
It was against this backdrop that we established The Hong Konger earlier this year. In addition to the efforts of the Chinese media platforms in the Hong Kong diaspora, we hope that The Hong Konger can offer a platform for the English-speaking audience to have a better understanding of Hong Kong and Hong Kongers’ identities, cultures and worldviews, not restricted to geographical location. “Hong Kong spirit”, which we often see in Hong Kong’s old movies and hear in various celebrities’ speeches, is an example of how we try to define our cultural identities. Despite the stereotypes, Hong Kong does not only consist of the predominantly Cantonese-speaking ethnic Chinese people, but the city used to be, and hopefully can still be to a certain extent, multicultural and cosmopolitan. Likewise, many Hong Kongers are living in different parts of the world and they often partially assimilate into local cultures while maintaining their Hong Kong identities and cultures. It’s “cultures” in the plural form as there is no single culture in, from and of Hong Kong, the concept but geographical location.
As the situation in Hong Kong is becoming more repressive, it’s inevitable that the news and information from Hong Kong will be more and more like mainland China, meaning that there will be more censorship and self-censorship. Hong Kong will become less multicultural. The Chinese government has already evidently reduced Hong Kong’s culture to be more and more mainlandized.
We believe that The Hong Konger’s existence can help to connect Hong Kongers and people who are culturally related with Hong Kong, and people who are simply interested in Hong Kong. Our writers are located in different parts of the world. That gives us a global reach. As press freedom in Hong Kong is declining, we will gradually rely on the diaspora communities to maintain Hong Kong’s cultures. Diaspora media will become an important part of Hong Kong cultures.
博德的疑惑 Patrick's Doubts 