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When asked to make a choice among 4 given identities, namely, "Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Citizen" and "Hong Kong Chinese Citizen", 23% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong Citizens", 27% as "Chinese Citizens", 32% as "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens", while 16% identified themselves as "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens". In other words, 55% 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 43% identified themselves as "Chinese People" in the broader sense (i.e. either as "Chinese Citizens" or "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens"), 42% chose a mixed identity of "Hong Kong Citizen plus Chinese Citizen" (i.e. either as "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens" or "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens").^
Because the 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 mid-December for "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" were 8.09 and 7.87 marks respectively. Using the same rating method, the strength of people's identity as "Asians" and "members of the Chinese race" were 8.69 and 8.23 marks respectively, while those for "global citizens" and "Citizens of PRC" were 7.56 and 6.72 marks respectively.
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In January 2007, POP opened a feature page called "Opinion Daily" at the "POP Site", to record significant events and selected polling figures on a day-to-day basis. Our purpose is to provide readers with accurate information so that they can judge by themselves the reasons for the ups and downs of different opinion figures. When "Opinion Daily" began to operate on January 17, 2007, it only contained significant events and popularity figures of the Chief Executive over the past few months. As of today, it contains a chronology of events starting from May 1, 2006, and many poll figures registered since January 1, 2006. Readers can now check on the results of 9 different polling items compiled by POP, including the popularity of the Chief Executive, the HKSAR government, and the Secretaries of Departments under the accountability system. In near future, the content of "Opinion Daily" will continue to expand, in order to promote the science of opinion polling.
In July 2007, POP collaborated with Wisers Information Limited whereby Wisers supplies to POP since July 24 each day a record of significant events of that day, according to the research method designed by POP. These daily entries would be uploaded to the "Opinion Daily" feature page as soon as they are verified by POP, in order to provide readers with swifter and more accurate information.
In August 2007, POP began to include in its regular press releases a list of significant events which happened in between two surveys, so that readers can make their own judgment on whether these events have any effect on the ups and downs of the polling figures. This press release is no exception.
For the polling items covered in this press release, using the previous survey as a reference point for comparison, our "Opinion Daily" for this release starts on June 11, 2007, because the previous survey of some items was conducted from June 8 to 12, 2007 while this survey was conducted from December 11 to 14, 2007. During this period, herewith the significant events selected from counting newspaper headlines and commentaries on a daily basis and covered by at least 25% of the local newspaper articles. Readers can make their own judgment if these significant events have any impacts to different polling figures.
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Commentary
Robert Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Compared to six months ago, our survey shows that Hong Kong people's identity rating as 'Chinese citizens' has strengthened, but 'Hong Kong citizens' in the broad sense is still the dominant identity. Given sufficient choices, over 40% would choose a mixed and unclear identity of 'Hong Kong and Chinese citizens'. In order to study Hong Kong people's self identity more clearly, 6 months ago, we began to study the strength of Hong Kong people's identities other than 'Hong Kong citizens' and 'Chinese citizens', namely, 'members of the Chinese race', 'Citizens of PRC', 'Asians' and 'global citizens'. Our latest survey shows that Hong Kong people has strongest identity as 'Asians', 'members of the Chinese race' and 'Hong Kong citizens', all with scores over 8, followed by 'Chinese citizens' and 'global citizens', both with scores over 7, then followed by 'Citizens of PRC', with a score less than 7. Compared to 6 months ago, only the identity of 'Citizens of PRC' has dropped, probably related to people's trust in the Central Government, but readers can form their own judgment using detailed records displayed in our 'Opinion Daily'. We at POP will continue to monitor these figures in order to study Hong Kong people's self identity from a wider and more global perspective." ^
News about POP
POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday afternoon via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the next 7 days. According to schedule, our next release of regular survey findings will be December 28, 2007, Friday, between 1pm and 2 pm, when the latest popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and the HKSAR Government will be released. Besides, as next Tuesday is a public holiday, POP Site will release our survey result on December 31, 2007, Monday, between 1pm and 2pm, when the latest figures of the 2007 year-end and 2008 forecast survey will be released.
Our general practice is to answer all questions on the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site as soon as we receive them, but we will not further comment on the findings. We welcome questions for follow-up purpose, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. 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 POP, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.
Starting from January 2006, we have included in our press release a small educational section for the purpose of general civic education, the content of which is usually based on previous questions and comments we have received from the public. The subject of our education section today is "About HKUPOP".
About HKUPOP
Mapping people's opinions towards ethnic identity
Be it under British colonial rule or under "one country, two systems", Hong Kong has always been part of China. It thus seems natural for HKUPOP to survey people's opinion on various national and ethnical issues, if we can squeeze some resources. Moreover, the study of ethnic identity has always been one important element of all societal studies. Therefore, immediately after Hong Kong's handover, we embarked on conducting regular surveys on people's ethnic identity. The survey comprises two series. The first series deals with people's categorical ethnic identity, and the strength of Hong Kong or Chinese citizen identity, while the second series asks about people's citizenship and their desired ethnicity. We have explained the development of the former series in our press releases of December 21, 2006 and June 26, 2007. Today we release it again, so that readers can refresh such development.
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Since August 1997, we began our regular surveys on Hong Kong people's opinions towards ethnic identity (first series). Starting from the beginning to June 2000, the survey was conducted once every two months, but between September 2000 and December 2003, its frequency was changed to once every three months. Since June 2004, it was further changed to once every six months to match the changing social conditions. Starting from June 2007, four new questions were added to measure people's rating of strength of "Citizens of PRC", "members of the Chinese race", "Asians" and "global
citizens".
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In terms of wording, the questions used in the questionnaire are "You would identify yourself as a Hong Kong citizen/Chinese citizen/Hong Kong Chinese citizen/Chinese Hong Kong citizen?", "Please use a scale of 0-10 to rate your strength of identity as a Hong Kong citizen, with 10 indicating extremely strong, 0 indicating extremely weak, and 5 indicating half-half. How would you rate yourself?", "Please use a scale of 0-10 to rate your strength of identity as a Chinese citizen, with 10 indicating extremely strong, 0 indicating extremely weak, and 5 indicating half-half. How would you rate yourself?" and "Please use a scale of 0-10 to rate your strength of identity as a citizen of PRC / a member of the Chinese race / an Asian / a global citizen, with 10 indicating extremely strong, 0 indicating extremely weak, and 5 indicating half-half. How would you rate yourself?"
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Regarding sample size, from the beginning to April 2000, the sample size of the survey was set at slightly over 500. From June 2000 onwards, it was increased to at least 1,000.
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Our first findings of ethnic identity surveys in June 1999 or before were published in our newsletter POP Express. After our HKU POP Site was established in June 2000, the survey findings were released online since September 2002, respectively. All previous findings published in our POP Express were also uploaded on-line in various formats.
^ Some errors in the original version had been corrected, with apology.
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