While China experienced seismic changes throughout the 20th century, from the fall of the Qing Dynasty to the Chinese Civil War, Hong Kong – then a British colony – was largely unaffected by these events. As a result, there were marked cultural and social differences between the two regions.
1. Cantonese and Mandarin
The official language of China is Modern Standard Mandarin. Since 1995, Beijing Mandarin has been the lingua franca and all schools in mainland China teach Mandarin, although many Chinese people still speak the dialect at home.
The official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English. In fact, “Chinese” here refers to “Cantonese” – the language widely used in the southern provinces of China and is quite different from Mandarin. But the difference here is in the way of speaking, while the written language of Hong Kong people is completely legible to mainland Chinese as long as they remember the traditional characters. This leads to the second difference between Hong Kong and mainland China.
2. Traditional and simplified characters
In terms of writing, simplified characters are used in Mainland China, while Hong Kong still maintains the use of traditional characters.
Simplified Chinese characters are a modern invention and have been promoted by the mainland Chinese government since the 1950s to increase literacy. They are based on traditional characters but have been adapted to have fewer strokes and, in theory, make them easier to learn.
It is worth mentioning that it is not difficult to learn traditional characters if you have mastered simplified characters and vice versa.
3. The prevalence of English
For English speakers, getting around Hong Kong is easy as all street signs, official documents, government services, and most menus and websites are bilingual. In addition, Hong Kong schools maintain a relatively high standard of English teaching and many middle- and upper-class families send their children to study abroad in countries such as the UK, the US, Australia or Canada.
On the other hand, it is difficult to find people who speak fluent English in daily life in Mainland China. If you plan to stay here for a short time, you should learn some basic conversational sentences in Mandarin.
4. A very different 20th century...
The 20th-century experiences of Hong Kong and mainland China were arguably quite different, and that goes some way to explaining the differences between the two regions.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, China endured decades of turmoil and drama. Lives were torn apart by the Chinese Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War; after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, millions died in the chaos of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Both campaigns failed to transform China into a productive socialist country. It was only in the 1970s, as stability gradually took hold, that China embarked on a series of economic reforms that lifted countless people out of poverty and shaped the country for the better.
Meanwhile, British colony Hong Kong received a wave of immigrants fleeing the turmoil and chaos of mainland China throughout the 20th century. Except for the Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945, Hong Kong was largely spared the horrors that China faced. Hong Kong’s economy took off in the 1950s and 1960s, fueling the city’s transformation into a financial and industrial hub. When the city was returned to China by Britain in 1997, it became a semi-autonomous territory, allowing Hong Kong’s capitalist economy and independent legal system to remain intact.
5. Social networks and the Internet
Weibo and WeChat are the two main sources of media in mainland China, which has its own internet ecosystem thanks to the “Great Firewall” that the Chinese government uses to control the internet. If you want to access foreign websites like Google and Facebook in mainland China, you need to use a VPN.
In contrast to mainland China, Hong Kongers enjoy unlimited, unfettered internet access without the need for a VPN. Hong Kongers rarely use Chinese social media apps unless they need to conduct business or chat with friends on the mainland. WeChat is the most popular messaging app in Hong Kong, but other Western social media platforms such as Facebook, Gmail, Instagram and Snapchat are also popular.
6. Superstitious culture
In the eyes of many mainlanders, Hong Kong appears to have become “Westernized,” but in fact, Hong Kongers tend to be more superstitious than mainlanders. From belief in feng shui to frequent temple visits and participation in folk festivals, Hong Kong retains many traditional beliefs and practices that may seem strange to many mainlanders.
With revolutionary fervor, many mainland intellectuals in the 20th century rejected Confucianism, feudalism, and folk superstitions. Many traditional customs were completely banned during the Cultural Revolution in the name of modernity. Since then, although attitudes toward traditional customs have softened in the mainland, Hong Kong society is still generally more superstitious than mainland Chinese society.
