Identity Negotiation Process and Well-being of Gang Piao (Recent Mainland Chinese Stayers in Hong Kong)

Abstract

The encounter of Hong Kong natives with newcomers from Mainland China is one of the world’s most significant recent encounters of co-ethnic people, especially the Mainlanders who arrived after the colony’s “handover” in 1997 (Post et al., 2015). It is also unique that it is neither an international (it is still within one country) nor simply a regional (within a country) migration. It is a migration movement with people from the “sovereign” society (i.e., the nation, the central) to a “district” (i.e., the city, the local). The number of Mainland immigrants to Hong Kong keeps increasing at a time under increasing tension between the places (and possibly two groups). That makes the situation unique in the world. It would be time to investigate this phenomenon, which is different from other migration studies. This study is not purely about how an individual adapts but is investigated against the bigger socio-political context. All the factors make the immigrants’ experiences more complicated. As such, a burgeoning body of studies has suggested the importance and explored the post-migration experiences of Mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong.

Gang piao is a newly emerging type of identity referring to the new generation of immigrants from Mainland China to Hong Kong. This study defines gang piao as immigrants from Mainland China to Hong Kong under new migration schemes instead of OWP (One-Way Permit). Earlier studies mainly focus on the adaptation problems, such as finding a job, getting a place to live, school enrolment for children, and the discrimination against Mainland immigrants. However, due to the different migration policy purposes and criteria, gang piao have relatively better educational, social and financial backgrounds, which may lead to a different adaptation pattern than migrants who move through OWP. Therefore, this study focuses on the new adaptation pattern of gang piao. Moreover, in earlier studies, identity was not the core concern, as they implicitly assumed that immigrants must surrender their initial identity. As an international metropolis, diversity and tolerance are the cultural characteristics of Hong Kong. However, in recent years, negative stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination against Mainland China and Mainland people have become severe in Hong Kong due to various factors. Social movements and conflicts show there is a split in society. Accordingly, the tension against migrants from the Mainland affects how gang piao perceive and adapt to the city. Therefore, it is timely to explore the lives of this sandwich group of people who are living in Hong Kong but hold an identity that is negatively evaluated or even regarded as opposite to Hong Kong identity to some of Hong Kong people.

This study explores the specific identity negotiation process of gang piao that focus on their active negotiation instead of passive resilience. New Mainland immigrants challenge the Hong Kong cultural identity border (Chan, 2014). From the perspective of gang piao, whether they identify themselves as the so-called gang piao, how they construct their identity and challenge the Hong Kong cultural identity border, and what the underlying meanings of this specific identity are understudied. Moreover, identity issue has been raised again recently, primarily due to the issue of nationalism and the potential negative impact of a strong local identity. Therefore, another focus of this study is on identity and the negotiation process of identity. Moreover, this study also connects the adaptation pattern to the identity negotiation process to understand the adaptation outcomes of gang piao in terms of identity achievement and well-being. Herein, this study aims to examine the identity negotiation process of gang piao and their well-being influenced by their negotiation outcome through constructing an integrated framework based on symbolic interactionism.

The current thesis has several contributions and implications. Theoretically, it proposes an identity negotiation model in comprehending the identity negotiation logic and strategies of gang piao and their influence on the well-being of gang piao. On the one hand, post-migration is a crucial period with a specific life crisis requiring immigrants to reconstruct or reconfirm identities in a new environment. Similarly, gang piao, as newcomers, initiate to reconstruct self-identity and explore identity match in a new environment, and then actualize their identity achievement and well-being. On the other hand, as newcomers from the same country but with different cultural and economic backgrounds, gang piao are bea identity pressures from various origins, such as courtesy stigma. Notably, the identity negotiation model mainly integrates the perspectives of identity control theory, social identity theory, and identity negotiation theory. The theoretical integration with quantitative and qualitative studies indicates that identity mismatch initiates the identity negotiation process of gang piao and promotes their adoption of negotiation strategies. Moreover, their identity achievement significantly and positively influences their well-being. Briefly, the identity negotiation model integrates goal setting at the start of migration, identity negotiation strategy utilization, and perspectives to investigate gang piao’s identity negotiation process and well-being. The current study further has practical implications for promoting the well-being of gang piao and the mutual understanding between Hong Kong and Mainland China.

Date of Award	10 May 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Kwok Hong Raymond CHAN (Supervisor) & Chau Kiu Jacky CHEUNG (Supervisor)