In-between nationanlism and colonialism: Constructing Hong Kong-Chinese identities in the development of China

grantor: University of TorontoThis study is about Hong Kongers' engagement in the social development of mainland China. I show that China-development is a discursive space in-between colonialism and nationalism, colonizer and colonized, and Self and Other. In this in-between space, Hong Kong-Chinese identities are articulated and contested. The study begins with the question: What is invested in Hong Kongers' will to China-development? I look at the historical context with which China-development is associated and which sustains its existence, and how individuals as subjects become invested in the discourse. I argue that China-development creates a discursive space where Hong Kongers' ambivalent identification with and alienation from China are reconciled. I show how Hong Kongers, the former British colonized, assume colonial agency in developing China in the name of nationalism. What organizes the discourse is the liberalizing mission of opening China to the "outside." This colonial subjectivity, however, is articulated as a redefined Chinese subjecthood in resistance to the authoritarian regime of their ancestral country. This convoluted postcolonial Hong Kong situation challenges existing theories of development and postcoloniality. I also discuss how Hong Kongers engaged in the liberatory politics of alternative China-development are implicated in colonial domination even as they seek to subvert it. For constitutive of the alternative China-development discourse are the construction of the Chinese state as oppressive and mainland people as victims. In particular, mainland Chinese women are taken as metaphors of what China does not have and as signs of resistance to the dominant Chinese state. The research methodology is grounded in taking China-development as discursive practices. Taking the approach of localizing discourses of colonialism, nationalism, and development, I ground my analysis in geo-social space where discourses are materially and practically mediated. Through local inquiry we witness how subjects relate to the discourses, make meanings of their experiences, and perpetuate, rupture, and transform colonial and nationalist domination. Moreover, through local inquiry we observe how colonial discourses can produce the Hong Kong colonized as agents who "speak." Therefore, alongside my analysis of the public discourse of China-development, I give much weight to the personal narratives of Hong Kongers who participate in China-development.Ph.D