HKU POP SITE releases the latest findings on people's ethnic identityBack

The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the latest findings on people's ethnic identity. POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday at 2 pm via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the forthcoming week. We will review and adjust this operation regularly. According to this schedule, the date and time of our next release will be March 25, 2003, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest rating of CE Tung Chee-hwa, people's satisfaction with CE's policy direction, their appraisal of the performance of the HKSAR Government and members of the Legislative Council in general will be released.

Between March 1 and 4, 2003, POP conducted a random telephone survey which successfully interviewed 1,035 Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. Results showed that, when asked to make a choice among four given identities, namely, "Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Citizen" and "Hong Kong Chinese Citizen", 29% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong Citizens", 32% as "Chinese Citizens", 22% as "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens", while 15% identified themselves as "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens". In other words, 51% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong People" in the broader sense (i.e. either as "Hong Kong Citizens" or "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens"), whereas 47% identified themselves as "Chinese People" in the broader sense (i.e. either as "Chinese Citizens" or "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens"). Compared with the findings obtained in mid-December last year, the proportion of respondents who identified themselves as "Hong Kong Citizens" has dropped by 3 percentage points, whereas that of "Chinese People" in the broader sense has increased by 3 percentage points, back to the level registered in early September last year. Other figures have remained more or less the same.

Because concepts of "Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Citizen" and "Hong Kong Chinese Citizen" may overlap with each other, and making a one-in-four choice may not reflect the actual strengths of one's ethnic identities, POP has therefore conducted parallel tests on the strengths of people's separate identities as "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" using a scale of 0-10. The latest ratings registered in early March for "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" were 7.97 and 7.76 marks respectively, representing significant increases of 0.20 and 0.32 marks from those of mid-December last year respectively.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, made the following observations on the latest findings: "Brushing aside fluctuations in separate polls, the strength of Hong Kong people's identity as "Chinese Citizens" has significantly increased since the handover, roughly from 7.3 to 7.8 marks, as far as half-yearly figures are concerned. People's identity as "Hong Kong Citizens", however, has only fluctuated laterally between 7.6 and 8.0 marks. As one advances while the other remains stable, the gap between the two naturally diminishes. In fact, between the 4^th and 5^th anniversaries after the handover, the two scores have almost overlapped with each other. They pulled apart a bit after that, probably because our leaders in the Central Government have begun to make more comments on specific Hong Kong affairs."

The new poll released in the POP Site today is a random telephone survey conducted by interviewers, targeting at Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. The sample size of the survey is 1,035 respondents. At 95% confidence level, the sampling errors of people's ratings towards their strengths of identities as "Hong Kong citizens" and "Chinese citizens" are plus/minus 0.14 and 0.16 marks respectively, while that of all percentages is less than plus/minus 3 percentage points. The meaning of "95% confidence level" is that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site, members of the POP Team will be happy to answer them, but we will not further comment on the findings. Shall any person or journalist have any other questions, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. The Director of Public Opinion Programme would answer them as soon as possible. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.