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Transnational Lives in Global Cities pp 63–93Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Being Chinese in a Chinese Global City: Hong Kong

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Abstract

This chapter analyzes the transnational lives of 25 Chinese Singaporean who lived in Hong Kong in 2009, focusing on their (dis)embeddedness in transnational work, family, and/or friendships/lifestyle contexts. These different transnational spaces spanned Hong Kong, Singapore, frequently mainland China, and possibly western and English-speaking, and/or other asian, societies. This research shows that the Chinese Singaporeans mostly reckoned that their transnational work contexts were incongruous because they either lacked cultural capital in Hong Kong, and/or in mainland China, and/or did not wish to adapt Hong Kong, and/or mainland, Chinese definitions of appropriate practices of socialities. On the other hand, this research yields that the Chinese Singaporeans thought that their transnational family socialities nearly always were homogenous. The analysis of the participants’ transnational friendships/lifestyle contexts yields that these contexts also foremost were experienced as homogenous, often because the Chinese Singaporeans preferred friendships with people in Hong Kong who did not have differences that the participants assessed as too high to be bridged.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Only two participants were university students in Hong Kong. Their transnational education contexts are referred to in this chapter in terms of how they fit with others of the Hong Kong participants’ transnational contexts: work, and friendships/lifestyle.

  2. 2.

    One participant had just resigned from her job. She is included as a ‘working’ participant to consider her work experience in Hong Kong and elsewhere.

  3. 3.

    Onwumechili et al. (2003) think this applies also to migrants who return to live in a society in which they lived before. This is because the migrants, and people and collectivities who did not move, changed while the migrants lived abroad.

  4. 4.

    Hong Kong and Singapore often are listed in global rankings as being among the most expensive cities to live in.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Liverpool, Singapore, Singapore

    Caroline Plüss

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  1. Caroline Plüss
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Correspondence to Caroline Plüss .

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Plüss, C. (2018). Being Chinese in a Chinese Global City: Hong Kong. In: Transnational Lives in Global Cities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96331-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96331-0_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96330-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96331-0

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