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If Hong Kong people were travelling in USA or Europe and people referred to them as "Chinese," would they correct them and say "No, we are Hongkongnese"?
Most HK'ers I know have nothing against admitting they are Chinese ethnically and culturally, which is of course true. They are more likely to say that they are from Hong Kong; sometimes this may be because they are purposely differentiating between the Mainland and HK (either because they themselves don't want to be thought of as a mainlander, or because they worry about negative perceptions of China abroad whilst HK tends to be thought of in a more sympathetic light), or simply for the same reason that someone, asked where they are from, would say they are from London or New York... that answers the question of nationality, but also notes that they are from major cities with their own cultural nexus and identity, sometimes because they don't want to be associated with "ugly American" stereotypes.
I do know a handful of HK'ers who reject their Chinese identity totally but they are not common. If anything, in my experience, they are more likely to take the same view as Taiwanese people - that since their populations survived the latter 20th century without an internal, concerted destruction of Chinese culture, they are the "rightful" inheritants of the Chinese identity.
So some people are confusing ethnicity with political allegiance. Hong Kong is Chinese but not necessarily in alignment with the policies of the Chinese government in Hong Kong or anywhere else in China proper.
Hong Kong and Taiwanese people are ethnically Chinese, except for the small group of Taiwanese aboriginals or Taiwanese with aboriginal admixture. Politically, culturally and nationality-wise, maybe they identify more with their city-state or nation-state than they do with their ethnic group, but they are still Chinese. I also group other diaspora Asian peoples primarily by their ethnicity (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, etc.) and not by the geopolitical boundaries they live in. For instance, the Koreans in China's Yanbian prefecture or Zainichi Koreans in Japan, I consider to be Korean, not Chinese or Japanese. If you were to ask me their nationality or citizenship, however, I would say they are Chinese or Japanese. Same goes for ethnic Germans in Alsace.
Hong Kong and Taiwanese people are ethnically Chinese, except for the small group of Taiwanese aboriginals or Taiwanese with aboriginal admixture. Politically, culturally and nationality-wise, maybe they identify more with their city-state or nation-state than they do with their ethnic group, but they are still Chinese. I also group other diaspora Asian peoples primarily by their ethnicity (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, etc.) and not by the geopolitical boundaries they live in. For instance, the Koreans in China's Yanbian prefecture or Zainichi Koreans in Japan, I consider to be Korean, not Chinese or Japanese. If you were to ask me their nationality or citizenship, however, I would say they are Chinese or Japanese. Same goes for ethnic Germans in Alsace.
It seems like the VAST majority of young people in Taiwan nowadays would say they are Taiwanese and not Chinese. How would you respond to that?
Do you think most people from Hong Kong and Taiwan are distancing themselves from the Mainland Chinese because of the coronavirus? It seems like they don't want to be associated with the country that unleashed the virus across the entire globe.
The interpretation is wrong. Chinese is not an ethnicity but a nationality. An Uyghur in Xinjiang is a Chinese national (even though he may wish otherwise) but ethnically he is not a Chinese as our fellow posters define.
Most residents in Hong Kong are ethnic Han. Whether they are Chinese nationals depend on the passports they hold.
So if one is asked overseas, the answers may vary. It may be:
I am a Chinese coming from Hong Kong, or
I am a Canadian residing in Hong Kong,
or maybe I am a Hong Konger.
P.S. But I have never heard anyone mentioning that I came from Hong Kong, China.
In fact, if you mail a letter to the City, it will be faster to arrive by just writing Hong Kong on the envelope instead of Hong Kong, China.
Not so simple as in the historical sense HK is China and the people remain of Chinese ethnicity. It is doubtful that China will ever allow a situation where HK could go it alone. Hardly unique though. Look at Catalonia or Kashmir as other examples of some similarity.
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