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

The Public Opinion Programme at the University of Hong Kong interviewed 1,002 Hong Kong people in June 8-13, 2009 by means of a random telephone survey conducted by real interviewers. The survey finds that although the strength of "Hong Kong citizens" is highest among Hong Kong people, "Chinese citizens" has the highest importance score. Combining the two factors, people feel most strongly being "Chinese citizens", followed by "Hong Kong citizens", "members of the Chinese race", "Asians", "citizens of PRC", and finally, "global citizens". Compared to six months ago, the relative rankings of "Hong Kong citizens" and "members of the Chinese race" have swapped, while others have remained unchanged. Director of POP Robert Chung explains, when the "identity index" is high for a certain individual on a certain identity, theoretically, one should have a strong feeling towards that identity. A score of 0 means no feeling, 100 means full feeling, while 50 means half and half. The purpose of constantly expanding the scope of our identity studies is to enhance our discussion of ethnic identity beyond the simple dichotomy of "Hong Kong citizens" versus "Chinese citizens". The sampling error of all percentages is +/-3 percentage points at 95% confidence level, while sampling error of rating figures needs another calculation. The response rate of the survey is 68%.

Points to note:
* The address of the "HKU POP SITE" is http://hkupop.pori.hk, journalists can check out the details of the survey there.
* The sample size of this survey is 1,002 successful interviews, not 1,002 x 67.7% response rate. In the past, many media made this mistake.
* The maximum sampling error of all percentages is +/-3 percentage points at 95% confidence level, while the sampling error of rating figures needs another calculation. "95% confidence level" means 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. When quoting these figures, journalists can state "sampling error of various ratings not more than +/-0.26 and sampling error of percentages not more than +/-3% at 95% confidence level".
* When quoting percentages of this survey, journalists should refrain from reporting decimal places, in order to match the precision level of the figures.
* The data of this survey is collected by means of random telephone interviews conducted by real interviewers, not by any interactive voice system (IVS). If a research organization uses "computerized random telephone survey" to camouflage its IVS operation, it should be considered unprofessional.

POP today releases on schedule via the POP Site the latest findings of people's opinions towards ethnic identity. As a general practice, all figures have been weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2008 year-end. Herewith the contact information for the latest survey:

Recent figures on Hong Kong people's sense of ethnic identity are summarized as follows:

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", 25% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong Citizens", 29% as "Chinese Citizens", 32% as "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens", while 13% identified themselves as "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens". In other words, 57% 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"), 45% 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 right from the beginning conducted parallel tests on the strengths of people's separate identities as "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" using a scale of 0-10. In June 2007, POP expanded its study to include four new identities for strength rating, namely, "citizens of PRC", "members of the Chinese race", "Asians" and "global citizens". In December 2008, the study was further expanded by including separate importance ratings for different identities, and the compilation of a separate index for each identity using geometric means. Herewith the latest results:

Latest findings showed that the identity ratings for "Hong Kong citizens", "Asians" and "members of the Chinese race" were 7.83, 7.79 and 7.73 marks respectively. Using the same rating method, the strength of people's identity as "Chinese citizens", "citizens of PRC" and "global citizens" were 7.72, 6.99 and 6.74 marks respectively. As for the importance ratings, "Chinese citizens", "members of the Chinese race" and "Hong Kong citizens" scored 7.57, 7.39 and 7.38 marks respectively, while those for "Asians", "citizens of PRC" and "global citizens" were 6.95, 6.83 and 6.45 marks respectively.

With respect to ethnicity indices, the order for each identity was "Chinese citizens", "Hong Kong citizens", "members of the Chinese race", "Asians", "citizens of PRC" and "global citizens". Their respective scores were 75.9, 74.9, 74.8, 72.0, 68.2 and 64.7 marks.

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, in order to let readers judge by themselves the reasons for the ups and downs of different opinion figures. In July 2007, POP collaborated with Wisers Information Limited whereby Wisers supplies to POP each day starting from July 24, a record of significant events of that day, according to the research method designed by POP. These daily entries would be uploaded to "Opinion Daily" as soon as they are verified by POP.

For the polling items covered in this press release, the previous survey was conducted from December 9 to 12, 2008 while this survey was conducted from June 8 to 13, 2009. 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.

Robert Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Two years ago, on top of 'Hong Kong citizens' and 'Chinese citizens', POP began to study the strength of Hong Kong people's identification with a wide range of identities, including 'members of the Chinese race', 'citizens of PRC', 'Asians' and 'global citizens'. Since December 2008, we have added the dimension of importance rating to each of them, in order to compile their 'identity index', which is calculated for each identity of a respondent by taking the geometric mean of the strength and importance ratings of a certain identity, multiply by 10. Theoretically, when the 'identity index' is high for a certain individual on a certain identity, one should have a strong feeling towards that identity. A score of 0 means no feeling, 100 means full feeling, while 50 means half and half. For example, in our latest findings, although the strength of 'Hong Kong citizens' is highest among Hong Kong people, 'Chinese citizens' has the highest importance score. Combining the two factors, people feel most strongly being 'Chinese citizens', followed by 'Hong Kong citizens', 'members of the Chinese race', 'Asians', 'citizens of PRC', and finally, 'global citizens'. Compared to six months ago, the relative rankings of 'Hong Kong citizens' and 'members of the Chinese race' have swapped, while others have remained unchanged. The purpose of constantly expanding the scope of our identity studies is to enhance our discussion of ethnic identity beyond the simple dichotomy of 'Hong Kong citizens' versus 'Chinese citizens'. As for the ups and downs of different figures, we will leave it to our readers to form their own judgment using the detailed records displayed in our 'Opinion Daily'."

• June 18, 2009 (Thursday) 1pm to 2pm: Taiwan and Tibet issues
• June 23, 2009 (Tuesday) 1pm to 2pm: Popularity of CE and HKSARG