In contrast, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region must be commended for its efforts to remind Hong Kong residents of their history. For example, a gallery in the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence showcases the multiethnic soldiers in the Hong Kong garrison as the symbol of true inclusion, embracing a diversity of races and ethnicities — Chinese-British, Chinese, Indian, Nepalese, etc. The thriving Tai Kwun compound continues to bring alive the city’s multicultural history. All these serve as important reminders that multiculturalism has always been an integral part of Hong Kong’s history and social fabric.
Per the 2001 population census, 95 percent of Hong Kong’s population was Chinese, i.e., about 5 percent was of non-Chinese ethnicity. The fact that the 2021 census chronicled that 91.6 percent of Hong Kong’s population is Chinese, i.e., the non-ethnic Chinese population has increased to 8.4 percent, is an encouraging sign of the growing multiculturalism. It also indicates that all ethnicities are endeavoring to grow into the socioeconomic fabric. Such encouraging signs need to be nurtured and facilitated via positive, tangible actions, and this is precisely what the Federation of Hong Kong Hubei Associations (FHKHA), the Silk Road Economic Development Research Center (SREDRC), and Integrated Brilliant Education Ltd (IBEL) have been doing in their humble way.
The collaboration between the FHKHA, a provincial union that brought together people of Hubei decent, and the SREDRC, a think tank focused on how ethnic minorities development could help Hong Kong to shine in the country’s Belt and Road Initiative, came at a suitable time and a right place with the right people too. Driven by the enthusiasm to contribute their resources to enlighten Hong Kong residents, both have put in a lot of effort to study the blending of ethnic minority groups into Hong Kong’s mainstream society and in the bigger context of the Chinese mainland.
The fundamental basics of integration mandate inclusion and immersion. Only then can all ethnicities become an inseparable part of the social fabric and become the most productive contributors to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland’s robust future and sustainability
They have organized sports events in Hong Kong and in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, to encourage the local born-and-bred ethnic minority kids to get to know China more, and to learn that China is a multicultural country with 55 ethnic groups, and 18 of them have a population of over 1 million. Hubei has a most impressive 2.8 million ethnic-minority people residing in the province, making it an attractive destination to welcome Hong Kong’s ethnic minority children to explore.
As an innovative social experiment, in August 2023, the FHKHA, with the help of the SREDRC, worked with IBEL, an educational NGO based in Hong Kong, and debuted the trip of 20 children and their parents belonging to underserved ethnic minority families to visit Wuhan — a city that has a lot of colors in modern China. Meticulous care was taken to involve multiple generations and age demographics. The deliverables of this initiative were to take affirmative action and provide the underresourced nonethnic Chinese communities of Hong Kong with the rare opportunity to learn more about China and to observe, experience and appreciate the advancements, culture, cuisine, language and geography of China.
The trip was not without hiccups despite a carefully planned itinerary after a complicated visa application amid a three-year COVID-19 lockdown on the Chinese mainland. The volunteers from the FHKHA did a brilliant job assisting with the paperwork and giving the visitors a lesson on setting up WeChat and payment apps to ensure they could do their shopping. We began our trip with everyone’s long-awaited high-speed train from Kowloon West to Shenzhen en route to Wuhan, but with an unexpected recovery of tourists to the mainland after the reopening of the border, the foreign passport-holders had to endure an extremely long process to get through immigration and customs, not to mention that at the time we also needed to go through the health code, and we missed our train to Wuhan. This was when our organizer’s dedication came to the rescue. They managed to book a bus to take the visitors for a Shenzhen tour and lunch while back in the office of the FHKHA; the staff scrambled to book enough plane tickets for the entire group so that they could make the trip; and off they went, though not without further hiccups given that the flight was delayed and the group finally got to the hotel after midnight. The children and their parents were most appreciative of the incredible support that the volunteers provided.
The next four days were packed with visits to tech and history museums, a university, and a tested driverless bus in the industrial park. The children were encouraged to study hard and maybe switch to one of the tech universities in the mainland, and one of those in Wuhan would be possible. The parents also enjoyed their precious time with their kids, which was such an enriching experience. The children penned thank-you notes to hotel staff and presented flowers to the tour guides. They vowed to come back to visit other parts of the mainland as soon as they could.
Buoyed by the incredible success and gains of the August 2023 initiative, in March this year, during the Easter holiday break, another trip to Wuhan was organized by the FHKHA and the SREDRC, and the partnership with IBEL was renewed. This year, the trip coincided with the “Thousands’ Visit to Hubei” campaign that saw young graduates from Macao — doctors, nurses, university students, as well as the nonethnic Chinese group from Hong Kong — attending the opening ceremony officiated by officials from the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the Hubei provincial government as well as former Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who happened to be lecturing in universities in Wuhan. IBEL’s 11-year-old student, Swarup Gurung, delivered a thank-you speech in both English and Cantonese at the ceremony and was warmly applauded by the audience.
The four-day trip was, as usual, eventful and packed with visits to the Yellow Crane Tower, the bridge and history museum, and the tech park. The group also took time to walk around the streets of Wuhan to observe and experience the daily life of Wuhan, a city of over 10 million with a rich modern and colonial legacy. IBEL’s beneficiary parents thoroughly enjoyed the precious family time with their children. They enjoyed the food and hospitality from the local officials. The excellent tour guide was immensely appreciated by the IBEL group, who were most amazed by the ambience of Wuhan and the friendly demeanor of the local people. The return journey was by high-speed train to Shenzhen — yet another first-time dazzling experience for the IBEL entourage.
The organizers are assured that such carefully curated trips provide a good opportunity for the 650,000 ethnic minorities in Hong Kong to blend into mainstream Chinese society, and they would give a big contingent to the talent market for Hong Kong and even the Chinese mainland.
The fundamental basics of integration mandate inclusion and immersion. Only then can all ethnicities become an inseparable part of the social fabric and become the most productive contributors to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland’s robust future and sustainability.
Joseph Chan is a financial services veteran in the Belt and Road development and is chair of the Silk Road Economic Development Research Center think tank.
Manoj Dhar is the co-founder and CEO of Integrated Brilliant Education, an NGO providing inclusive and equal-language learning opportunities to Hong Kong’s underserved non-Chinese-speaking children.
