HONG KONG AS A MULTICULTURAL CITY
Whenever people mention Hong Kong in the context of where it stands on a global front, they always talk about it being a colonial city that worked its way through post colonization and successfully established itself as a world-renowned city. Or they talk about how it has recognized itself as a world-class city by excelling on the economic fore front and becoming one of the worlds leading international financial centres. However, people barely associate Hong Kong with being a multicultural city. Why is that so? Is it because the locals of Hong Kong are keener on promoting traditional culture than diversity? Or is it because multiculturalism creates more tension amongst the residents than brotherhood? Through this paper I would like to explore Hong Kong from the perspective of being a multicultural city, building up on how colonization established multiculturalism in Hong Kong and leading on to how multiculturalism affects Hong Kong as a global city, in today’s world.
But before exploring multiculturalism through the eyes of Hong Kong, we need to figure out what multiculturalism really means. Multiculturalism can be defined either descriptively or normatively. In a descriptive sense, multiculturalism can be defined as the mere survival of a diverse group of people, in a specific regional context (Webster Dictionary). Whereas the Princeton dictionary defines multiculturalism, in a normative sense, to be the laying down of certain rules and policies in order to promote peaceful and equitable co-existence amongst various cultural groups, in a single country. Hong Kong definitely meets the criteria of being a descriptive multicultural city. But does it meet the normativ...
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...om the perspective of a multicultural city, it does not. To be a world-class city it needs to establish itself as a strong multicultural city that is respectful of all its citizens, regardless of gender, colour, class and age (Sung, 2013). Hong Kong needs to re-assure the world that it will treat tourists and immigrants with respect and that their safety and well being will be taken into consideration. With the increasing worldwide competition to be the “best” city, it is vital that the Hong Kong government and citizens understand the importance of having collaborative workgroups. Hong Kong needs to come to terms with the fact that promoting multiculturalism will not necessarily make them lose ground with their cultural identity (Sung, 2013). If Hong Kong wants to be recognized on a global platform it needs to expand the definition of being a Hongkonger (Sung, 2013
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Chinatown is one of the largest of the big ethnic enclaves in Toronto. It started off small and it grew over the past decade. I am going to analyze how much Toronto’s Chinatown has changed based on demographic, social, cultural, and economic aspects.
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The idea of multiculturalism is that there are many different cultures in Canada that somehow manage to live in harmony. This movie depicts a variety of different cultures all coming together in one of the most nationalist cities in Quebec, and eventually getting along. It is important to see that though there are different cultures there is still love between individuals of these cultures, stereotypes that are in common, and humour to be made out of the differences, which are all larger than any territorial and linguistic boundaries. This movie also shows the issue with bilingualism which is another important part of Canada’s heritage but encourages the idea that bilingualism policies could create a more unified Canada. In a course on multiculturalism it is important to understand the ideology of these policies and how they work in practice which this movie depicts really
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Hefner, R. W. (2001). The politics of multiculturalism: Pluralism and citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
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