HKU Bulletin May 2016 (Vol. 17 No.2)

Uncertainty about Hong Kong’s future identity within China, and the Government’s ineffective response to that, are fuelling mistrust on both sides of the border, suggests political scientist Dr Peter TY Cheung. The medium of school instruction impacts not only student learning, but also business, politics and culture. In Hong Kong it is usually framed as a stark choice: learn in Cantonese, or Putonghua, or English. But Professor Angel Lin proposes translanguaging and pluralingualism. An uneasy relation LANGUAGE LESSONS Dr Peter TY Cheung of the Department of Politics and Public Administration has been studying intergovernmental relations between Hong Kong and the Mainland for years, tracking Beijing’s increasingly interventionist approach in political and constitutional matters and its more hands-off approach to the economy. These areas have evolved towards greater integration since 1997 – inevitable given the progression of ‘one country-two systems’ toward 2047. But the high anti-Mainland feeling that has been building up in Hong Kong in the past couple of years is hardening opinion. “When you talk with Mainland officials, they say they do not like Hong Kong because they think Hong Kong people discriminate against Mainland Chinese. And they don’t just mean protestors but also the media. “There is mistrust of Hong Kong. The Mainland Government believes it has offered the best possible political reform option under the circumstances, and that Hong Kong people should accept it with open arms and move forward. That is a very different assessment from the democracy advocates in Hong Kong. “If you say ‘no Cantonese’ in a class, the students will slip notes to each other and illegally speak in Cantonese. If you ban anything in a class, they will always resist,” she said. What’s worst, they can end up disliking subjects that they think represent the language they are struggling with, such as Chinese literature, history and culture. While pedagogically it is best for students to learn in their most familiar language, Professor Lin does not think Hong Kong should abandon bi- and trilingualism because students gain ‘utility’ from being able to communicate in Putonghua and English. Rather, a change is needed in the notion that languages should be compartmentalised and separated from each other. Professor Lin has been researching the ‘translanguaging’ approach which recognises that people draw on whatever linguistic resources are available to them for the task at hand. “People in Hong Kong do this all the time,” she said. Any casual eavesdropping in coffee shops or on trains shows people often mix two or more languages – in theoretical terms they are ‘translanguaging’. While superficially this is similar to code-switching, the latest sociolinguistics theories hold that translanguaging better recognises the dynamic, fluid nature of language. In Hong Kong classrooms, students are expected to use only the language they are instructed in. Increasingly that has meant Putonghua, but there are also English-medium classes that supposedly teach content subjects only in English. To Professor Angel Lin in the Faculty of Education, this single-minded approach is ineffective and potentially harmful. Ultimately the Hong Kong Government has not been able to effectively mediate between Hong Kong and the Mainland over the problems arising from growing cross- boundary interactions. Dr Peter TY Cheung The more languages we speak and the more open-minded we are about the dynamic, fluid nature of language and culture, then the less likely we will become culturally essentialised. Professor Angel Lin “The anti-national education campaign and the rise of ‘pro-independence’ actions have also worried them. Beijing is increasingly concerned that nativist or localist sentiments will move Hong Kong even more out of its orbit.” The mistrust is mutual Dr Cheung traces one of the key sources of these sentiments to the rapid increase of Mainland visitors since 2003. “There have been too many Mainland visitors [47.4 million in 2014], which is affecting the way of life for certain groups of people. I think the Hong Kong Government is largely responsible for not effectively managing cross-boundary relations because while it greatly increased the inflow of visitors, this has benefited predominantly the real estate developers and retailers. Of course they provide more employment but it is largely low-end employment.” The protests against this expansion have in turn upset the Mainland. “They say, you ask more Mainland people to come and then you blame us? It is a complicated issue but ultimately the Hong Kong Government has not been able to effectively mediate between Hong Kong and the Mainland over the problems arising from growing cross-boundary interactions.” The mistrust goes both ways, evidenced in the localist movement and even local students’ lack of interest in China-related courses, as Dr Cheung has discovered as the convenor of the China Area of Inquiry under HKU’s Common Core curriculum. “It may be that Hong Kong people are still in the process of soul searching and exploring how to position their city as a city in China. And its leaders have not been able to move Hong Kong forward.” He sees the need for a strategy to address this challenge and also for a better understanding of Mainland perceptions of Hong Kong. “I hope academic research can contribute a little to this,” he added. Mixing it up “Somehow schools are under the pedagogical ideology that languages should be kept apart and that you can develop bilingualism through compartmentalised monolingualisms – that is, one classroom only in English, one only in Putonghua, one only in Cantonese.” With a translanguaging approach, all three languages would mix in the classroom in a systematic way that is built into the lesson and curriculum planning and the materials used. Professor Lin has been testing this approach in a bilingual school in Thailand that is teaching mathematics with both English and Thai materials (currently she cannot do this in Hong Kong because of the Government’s one-language policy in classrooms). That study is still underway, but Professor Lin believes the translanguaging approach could help not only student learning, but Hong Kong society. “It’s linked to the question of identity. The more languages we speak and the more open-minded we are about the dynamic, fluid nature of language and culture, then the less likely we will become culturally essentialised and say ‘I’m Mainland’ or ‘I’m Hong Kong’ or ‘I’m English’. We can be all of these at the same time and not bounded by a single identity. Language can be conducive to breaking binary oppositions and achieving plurilingualism and pluriculturalism.” Cover Story 14 | 15 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2016