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The Ecology of Literacy in Hong Kong

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Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Introduction: Hong Kong as a Cultural and Linguistic Crossroads

The majority of people in Hong Kong are ethnically Chinese, and are either immigrants from southern China, especially from Guangdong and Fujian provinces, or descendants of immigrants from those regions of China. Hong Kong presents an interesting case for literacy research as one of the major meeting places of diverse peoples, cultures, and language varieties given its over 150 years’ history as a trading port ceded in 1842 from Dynastic China to Britain until 1997, when it was handed over to the People's Republic of China as a Special Administrative Region keeping many of its existing legal and civil institutions intact. As an international financial city in the twenty‐first century, it seems even more globalized than other cities in China and Asia with its advanced, globalized telecommunications systems, western free trade and legal institutions, and frequent flows of tourists and business executives from Mainland China,...

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Lin, A.M.Y. (2008). The Ecology of Literacy in Hong Kong. In: Hornberger, N.H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_238

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_238

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