A Mighty River Flowing Eastward: The

Formation and Transformation of the Ethnic

and National Identities of Situ Hua

Hou Guanghao
Department of Ocean and Border Governance, National Quemoy
University, ROC
kh.p.hou@gmail.com

This article attempts to interpret the narratives presented in the autobiography of Situ Hua (Szeto Wah,
1931–2011), well-known activist and leader of pressure-group movements in modern Hong Kong, in
order to understand his ethnic and national identities. This exploration can illustrate the interaction
between collaborative nationalism, critical nationalism and colonialism that is ongoing and constantly
changing in modern Hong Kong. The article suggests that during his childhood and youth, Situ ethni-
cally identified himself as being Chinese and, in terms of his national identity, he longed for a strong
communist Chinese state. Second, it argues that Situ’s national identity was hollowed out by the Chinese
Communist Party while his ethnic identity remained unchanged from his youth. Finally, Situ’s success
in promoting pressure-group movements in Hong Kong led him to believe in democracy. His belief in
democracy resulted in the convergence of his ethnic and national identities. He still wanted to build a
strong Chinese state, but believed that this state should be democratic. It was his democratic Chinese
nationalism that propelled him to embark on such a political pursuit.

Keywords: Situ Hua, modern Hong Kong, ethnic identity, national identity, democratic
Chinese nationalism

Introduction

This article explores the formation and transformation of Situ Hua’s (Szeto Wah) ethnic
and national identities, based on his autobiography, Da Jiang Dong Qu (A Mighty
River Flowing Eastward). His discourse on democracy and nationalism in both Hong
Kong and mainland China, as presented in his autobiography, demonstrates how

CHINA REPORT 54 : 1 (2018): 81–98

Sage Publications Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC/
Melbourne
DOI: 10.1177/0009445517744410
82 Hou Guanghao

he understood his identity. His ardent support for pressure-group movements in

Hong Kong and his shrewd and persistent leadership were closely related to his faith
in democracy. His identification with the Chinese nation was intertwined with his
enthusiastic promotion of democracy.
Situ Hua was an activist and a pre-eminent leader of pressure-group movements
in modern Hong Kong. An examination of Situ’s autobiography not only allows us
to make an interpretation of his ethnic and national identities, but also provides some
insight into the ongoing process of changing interactions between various forms of
collaborative nationalism, critical nationalism and colonialism in modern Hong Kong.
This continuing, changing process that first emerged in the time of the writer
Lu Xun (1981–1936) was identified by Shao-Yang Lin (2015) and refers to a
phenomenon specific to modern Hong Kong. Various types of Chinese nationalism
have sprouted and grown in the structural contexts of different eras in Hong Kong
as people attempted to formulate their Chinese national identities, even though their
perceptions may have been different from the Chinese national identities found in
mainland China. An example of the interactions between collaborative nationalism,
critical nationalism and colonialism in modern Hong Kong can be seen in the work of
prominent scholars of Chinese classics who promoted and developed Confucianism in
Hong Kong in the early twentieth century to construct and cultivate Chinese national
and ethnic identities for the people of Hong Kong (Lin 2015).
Lin presents an informative account of this phenomenon and related concepts.
The implication for this paper is that Situ Hua’s ethnic and national identities, as well as
his democratic nationalism, can be viewed as an example of the long-term processual phe-
nomenon that Lin has identified in Hong Kong during Situ’s lifetime, especially after 1949.

Defining Ethnic Groups and Nations

In this article Situ Hua’s thoughts that reveal clues about his ethnic and national iden-
tities, as presented in his autobiography, are studied. Thus, the meanings of ‘ethnic
groups’ and ‘nations’ must be defined as they form the primary analytical framework
of this article. Furthermore, an understanding of these terms will help to achieve the
goal of this article as it attempts to answer the question: what does Situ Hua tell us of
his ethnic and national identities in his autobiography?
A Barthian definition can be used to understand ethnic groups. An ethnic group
is a group of people who culturally differentiate themselves from others. Moreover,
no one-to-one relationship exists between an ethnic group and a culture; the people
themselves determine critical cultural proximities and dissimilarities between them-
selves and other out-groups (Barth 1969). In this paper, the term ‘culture’ refers to
the ideational constructs of people’s moral values, norms and normative choices, as
well as their perceptive concepts and theories, aesthetic judgements and products and
religious faiths and commitments.

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 A Mighty River Flowing Eastward 83

Ethno-cultural boundaries can be manipulated to a certain extent, and people can

employ cultural dissimilarities to create boundaries between themselves and others.
Any ethnic boundaries erected to differentiate ‘us’ from ‘them’ depend on the
continual expression and validation of the cultural differences. An ethnic group is not
a fixed cultural unit; rather, it is produced and reproduced in sociocultural interactions,
and perceived and accepted during self-identification (Barth 1969). Ethnic identities
constantly evolve and are concerned with self-differentiation from others.
Furthermore, Rogers Brubaker (2004) also argues that an ethnic group can be
defined as comprising people with ‘widely shared ways of seeing, thinking, parsing
social experiences and interpreting the social world’ (Brubaker 2004: 79). An ethnic
group emerges when people label the group and identify themselves as members of the
group. According to him, using the concepts of nations as well as ethnic groups offers
perspectives on the world. Classifying people into a certain nation or ethnic groupis a
way ‘of recognizing, identifying, and classifying other people, of construing sameness
and difference, and of “coding” and making sense of their actions’ (Brubaker 2004: 81).
A nation can be defined as an ethnic group or groups politically mobilised by national-
ism in a context where politics and the state are involved. Nationalism can be defined as
an ideology demanding that an ethnic group or groups should establish and support their
own state. Nationalism transforms an ethnic group or groups into a nation. Crucially, an
ethnic group can be split into two or more nations. This occurs when the members of a
nation regard themselves as belonging to the same ethnic group while being politically
mobilised to support different political causes and states (or would-be states). Similarly, a
nation can be composed of different ethnic groups, given that these ethnic groups deem
it necessary to establish, support or view the state as their own.
In brief, an ethnic group is a group of people who culturally differentiate themselves
from others. A nation is an ethnic group or groups politically mobilised by nationalism.
It is also imperative to indicate briefly what identity means although a full discussion
of the term is not necessary here.
According to Charles Tilly (1996: 7), identity can be defined as ‘an actor’s experi-
ence of a category, tie, role, network, group or organization, coupled with a public
representation of that experience; the public representation often takes the form of a
shared story, a narrative’. Therefore, it can be argued that an identity can be classified
into many different types, such as ethnic identities, national identities, alma mater
identities, etc.

The Formation of Ethnic and National Identities:

Situ Hua in his Childhood and Youth

Situ Hua was born in Hong Kong in 1931. From 1841 and before the establishment
of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong had been by and large a society
of Chinese immigrants. The percentage of immigrants in Hong Kong was always

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84 Hou Guanghao

above 90 per cent. From fewer than 7,500 people in 1841, the total population had
increased to approximately 124,200 people by 1871 (Sinn 1997: 158; Tsang 2004: 16).
This immigrant society was segregated. According to Sinn (1997), the segregation
was not only a direct result of the segregation policy of the British colonial government,
but also a reflection of the economic and cultural differences between the Chinese
and British people. The Britishin Hong Kong were mainly affluent merchants. They
lived in areas (west of Queen Victoria Street and Garden Road) that were reserved for
Westerners. Although there were wealthy Chinese businessmen, they were excluded
from joining any British social organisations.
The Chinese people in Hong Kong organised themselves around home town
associations (tongxianghui). These home town associations provided various services
for their members with some of the larger associations even offering medical and edu-
cational services. In addition to these associations, Chinese immigrants also organised
themselves around Chinese religious temples, for example the Wen Wu Temple, and
Chinese medical services, such as the DongHua Hospital. It is important to note
that the segregation between the Chinese immigrants and Western people, and the
existence of these Chinese immigrant associations, maintained the ethnic identity of
the Chinese people in Hong Kong. The Chinese immigrants identified with China
(Ting 1997: 108).
Situ Hua’s father, as a Chinese immigrant in Hong Kong, was eager to give his
children a sound education in Chinese culture. Situ Hua learned Chinese characters
before attending elementary school (Situ 2011: 46). Situ Hua (2011) was also told
about the lineage of his family in his childhood. Tracing the family lineage has been
a common practice among Chinese immigrants as it reminds the immigrants of their
ancestral origins. This practice very effectively facilitates the formation of a Chinese
ethnic identity amongst the descendants. The formation of his embryonic ethnic
identity as Chinese can be inferred from his description of his family background and
family life in his autobiography (for example writing Chinese Spring Festival couplets
and reciting Chinese articles; Situ 2011: 46).
Situ Hua went to his ancestral village in Chikan, Kaiping County, Guangdong
Province, in Chinain late 1941 when he was 10 years old (Situ 2011: 17). He and
eight family members travelled to Chikan to escape the Japanese military occupa-
tion. Living in his ancestral village, he witnessed seven members of the village’s
self-defence team being hanged on a tree after they had been murdered by Japanese
soldiers. This event had a strong influence on Situ’s embryonic national identity,
which was created when he studied at the Guomindang-sponsored Daoqun Middle
and Elementary School in Hong Kong (Situ 2011: 47). The result was that Situ
began to desire a strong, rich Chinese state, one that would not be vulnerable to
further foreign invasion (Situ 2011: 23).
Situ Hua’s national identity developed further after he returned to Hong Kong
at the end of World War II. In 1946, when Situ was 16 years old, he began to read
communist literature and to accept socialist and nationalistic ideals. He gradually

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 A Mighty River Flowing Eastward 85

became involved in the networks of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Hong
Kong. By late 1945, the CCP had articulated its mission to construct an independent,
free, prosperous and strong China. Situ Hua, who was still a youth, was excited about
this. He acknowledged and believed in the CCP. ‘After living in mainland China and
experiencing the unforgettably difficult time of war and invasion’ (Situ 2011: 50), Situ
wanted a prosperous and strong Chinese state to emerge.
In 1946, when Situ Hua was 16 and under his teacher’s guidance, he first read
Xuesheng Wencong (The Students’ Digest), a journal that had a Chinese Communist
connection. In early 1948, Situ became a shareholder in that journal. In January 1949,
Situ took the responsibility as a member of the preparation committee for organising
Xuecong zhi YouShe (the Society for Readers of the Students’ Digest) in Hong Kong.
This society was clandestinely controlled by the CCP.
In September 1949, Situ joined the Xin Minzhu Zhuyi Qingnian Tuan (the New
Democracy Youth League), which was supervised by the CCP and trained young can-
didates for possible membership of the CCP (Situ 2011: 53–6). In the same year, the
Society for Readers of the Students’ Digest was transformed into the Xueyou Society
for the Study of Chinese-Western Dancing (Xueyou Zhongxi Wudao Yanjiu She).
Situ Hua was one of the most important founding members of this society. As an
extension of the CCP, the society was responsible for absorbing students with a leaning
towards left-wing ideology and who were sympathetic to the aims and ideals of the CCP.
In this environment, nationalism was fused with left-wing values and Communist
ideals. Being aligned with the CCP constituted an important part of Situ Hua’s
national identity during his youth. Adhering to the CCP’s ideals and supporting its
policies were deemed to be essential for contributing to the construction of a new
and strong Chinese state. At the same time, Situ’s sense of responsibility and his
poor family background contributed to his amenability to Communist ideals and its
disciplinary requirements.
Situ Hua’s father had gone to live in Hong Kong by himself at the age of 12. For most
of his life, his father worked as a factory labourer. At one stage, his father, being a
poor factory worker, had to accept financial assistance from Situ Hua’s uncle to pay
for Situ Hua’s continuing education (Situ 2011: 16). Situ Hua strongly believed that
his father was a diligent, clever and wise person but because of the unjust, inequi-
table social structure he was not treated as he deserved. Thus, Chinese Communism,
which promised an equitable, just and prosperous country facilitated by the strong
Communist state owned by all Chinese people, appealed to him. In his youthful mind,
Chinese nationalism, national identity and Communist ideals were fused.
Situ Hua’s father as well as his family background also shaped Situ’s personality, and
his personality influenced his actions in the CCP-affiliated organisations. Situ Hua’s
grandfather did not raise his own children, so Situ’s father, as the oldest son, had to
support his brothers and sisters. He helped his ‘siblings grow and find jobs’ (Situ 2011:
20, 25). Situ’s father had a benevolent, avuncular disposition which was inherited
by Situ (2011: 27): ‘The relationship between me and my brothers and sisters is the

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86 Hou Guanghao

warmest and most steadfast one. The way I cherish them is always like what my father
did to his siblings.’ Situ (2011: 24) also admits that ‘my father obviously influenced
me more; my personality is quite similar to his’.
The Xueyou Society was a youth organisation that aimed to recruit students who
were not enrolled in the Communist-sponsored schools buthad a pro-CCP proclivity
and were upholding left-wing ideals. In the organisation, Situ Hua was in charge of
teaching language and assisting other members to learn about Marxism, Leninism
and the works of Stalin and Mao Zedong. His benevolent, avuncular personality, his
dependability, his commitment to Communism andhis role in the Xueyou Society
ensured that Situ had an excellent reputation amongst the members. His prestige in
the Xueyou Society secured his de facto leadership and allowed him to accomplish his
tasks within the society, clandestinely assigned by the CCP.

Hollowing out National Identity:

Situ Hua in his Early Adulthood

‘Hollowing out’ Situ’s national identity means that his commitment to Chinese
Communism was demolished between 1954 and 1971. It was a lengthy mental and
psychological process, and Situ believed he was betrayed by the CCP during this
period. Situ Hua longed for a strong Chinese state, capable of protecting its people and
building a just and prosperous society. Moreover, Situ had believed this wish could be
fulfiled by obeying the leadership of the CCP. He persisted in his belief in the ideals
of Chinese Communism (Situ 2011: 105). Situ had dual core values associated with
his national identity.
One core value had to do with the means—the Communist ideals. The other
core value had to do with the end—a strong Chinese state. These two core values
were interlocked in young Situ’s mind. Situ committed himself to the pursuit of his
nationalistic goal through the CCP’s organisational network before the CCP removed
him from his position in the Xueyou Society. However, during Situ Hua’s early adult-
hood, his national identity was hollowed out because a core value was destroyed by
the CCP, a political party that Situ had expected to be instrumental in building the
strong Chinese state he had wished for.
Generally speaking, most of the people living in Hong Kong during the first two
post-war decades were Chinese refugees. In 1945, the population in Hong Kong was
approximately 600,000. By 1950, the number of Chinese refugees had increased the
population to over two million and then to two-and-a-half million in 1955 (Tsang 2004:
167). Tsang (2004: 169–70) indicates that these people had a refugee mentality, that
is, a psychological uncertainty about the stability of their settlement. They saw Hong
Kong as a lifeboat and mainland China as the ocean. Before the first generation born in
Hong Kong grew to adulthood in the 1970s (Sinn 1997), the majority of Hong Kong

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people ‘were either sojourners, economic migrants or refugees, and were not noticeably
different from other Chinese living elsewhere in China’ (Tsang 2004: 180).
As Sinn (1997: 202) points out, most refugees and economic immigrants in Hong
Kong did not intend to stay permanently. Before the mid-1960s, they still expected to
move back to mainland China. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, dialect-and-territory-
based home town associations functioned as ‘cultural and identity brokers’ (Kuah and
Wong 2001: 203). These associations maintained the cultural and ethnic identities of
the immigrants and refugees (Kuah and Wong 2001).
The Chinese people in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s, therefore, did not
formulate an ethnic identity of their own (Tsang 2004: 180). They, by and large, did
not differentiate themselves from those in mainland China, even though the movement
of people between Hong Kong and mainland China was greatly reduced and people
were deterred from returning to their homeland after the establishment of the PRC.
However, judging from the cultural practices Situ mentions in his autobiography,
against the background of the general ethnic identity of the Chinese people in Hong
Kong during this period, it can be argued that the young adult Situ ethnically identi-
fied himself with Chinese people. For example, he and his colleagues in the Xueyou
Society performed Chinese operas (Situ 2011: 65) and he used Chinese characters
and Chinese calligraphy when preparing for his sister’s wedding (Situ 2011: 98–9).
While Situ Hua’s ethnic identity remained intact, in that he identified with China
as he had in his childhood and youth, his national identity went through an overall
transformation. The CCP neither attempted to take back Hong Kong, nor alter its
status quo. The CCP only tried to incorporate as many societal forces as possible that
were sympathetic to and supportive of the CCP through its United Front policy.1
The establishment and thriving of the Xueyou Society were partially the fruit of the
CCP’s United Front establishment in Hong Kong.
However, there were a series of events that affected Situ and his CCP colleagues
between the 1950s and the late 1960s. He attributed these events to the militant
nature of the CCP. Although Situ (2011) gives a detailed account of these events in his
autobiography, the relevant points are summarised as follows. The series of events first
began in December 1952 when the police force of the British colonial regime broke
in and searched the premises of the Xueyou Society. The Xueyou Society suspended
its activities until 1954. During this time, Situ lost the organisational connection with
his CCP supervisor (Situ 2011: 68–70). Without a proper channel of communication
with the party, Situ did not have any access to the information about the intentions
and attitudes of the CCP regarding the Xueyou Society. He felt that the CCP intended
to strengthen its control over the Xueyou Society in the mid-1950s. He also admitted

1
The United Front as a policy originated from the Comintern, but rather than being a concrete, fixed
policy, the Chinese United Front has been effectively used as a strategy guiding the formation of alliances
between the CCP and other forces deemed necessary and useful by the CCP to achieve its goals at any
given time.

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88 Hou Guanghao

that his temporary (and informal) supervisor, Ouyang Chengchao, requested that
Situ discontinue his participation in the society after the Xueyou Society resumed
its activities in 1954. Situ ignored this request, for he deemed it to be unreasonable
(Situ 2011: 73).
Situ Hua had a good reputation and held informal power in the Xueyou Society.
He was its de facto leader. As Situ (2011) claims, the CCP’s actions against him and
other senior members, for example You Shunzhao and Ouyang Rongsheng, can be
traced back to 1953, when more and more students at the CCP-sponsored schools
joined the Xueyou Society. These students demanded that the ordinances of the society
be amended in order to enfranchise themselves. Eventually, the demand was approved
and the amendment was done.
In March 1957, when students from the CCP-sponsored schools who were
under the control of the CCP acquired the right to vote for the members of the
standing committee of the Xueyou Society, many of them were elected (Situ 2011:
76–9). After that, they began to criticise Situ Hua, making dubious accusations
without proper evidence. On the day of the election for the members of the
standing committee in 1958, those students with close connections to the CCP
publicly condemned Situ in a way reminiscent of the CCP’s rectification campaigns
(sometimes called struggle sessions).2 Situ and his old colleagues lost their (informal)
control of the Xueyou Society. This series of events against Situ in his role as a
leader of the Xueyou Society were designated by him as the ‘Incident of Power
Seizure’ (Situ 2011: 79).
In 1960, the CCP reassigned Situ Hua to work voluntarily for Ertong Bao (the
Children’s News) as the editor-in-chief (Situ 2011: 84–6). Situ accepted this assign-
ment, and in 1961 he became the principal of the G.C.E.P.S.A. Guan Tang Primary
School. This had a profound impact on his later life. It was during this phase of his
life that he made his final appeal to the CCP against the wrongful treatment from
which he had suffered earlier.
The failure of his appeal to the CCP led Situ Hua into an introspective phase of
his life (Situ 2011: 101). Situ’s appeal was made in July 1966 to Meng Qiujiang, a
brother-in-law of Xiao Jingguang, who was one of the Ten Grand Generals of the
People’s Liberation Army (PLA).3 However, in August 1966, the Cultural Revolution
in mainland China was formally inaugurated and the Red Guards were mobilised.
In September, Mao began a rectification campaign and purged what he believed to be the
capitalist elements at the centre of the CCP (Chen 2001: 803–13). Xiao Jingguang and
Meng Qiujiang were criticised and attacked, and Meng committed suicide. Therefore,
Situ’s appeal was ignored (Situ 2011: 91).

2
One of the purposes of the struggle session was to destroy a person’s reputation and to pressurise the
person into complete obedience to the CCP (Teiwes 1993).
3
The status of the Ten Great Marshals and the Ten Grand Generals was conferred by Mao Zedong in
1955 to prominent PLA officers.

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 A Mighty River Flowing Eastward 89

Effectively, the pretermission of Situ Hua’s appeal was closely connected to the
politics in mainland China, and it is clear that Situ understood the fact that people’s
lives in Hong Kong were directly affected by what was happening in mainland China.
However, Situ’s analysis of the nature of the CCP did not take into account the his-
torical context and social structure of the CCP and its involvement in politics. Situ’s
account of the nature of the CCP was, by and large, negative.
First, Situ Hua severely criticised the CCP and felt that it took advantage of its
members and did not consider the members’ needs and interests. He used his brother’s
and sisters’ experiences as examples of this. Situ quotes the opinion of his former col-
league, Guo Xiaokui, to confirm his negative views of the CCP: ‘This is how the CCP
has always done. When you are useful for them, they exploit you; when you are not,
they abandon you’ (Situ 2011: 91–2).
The second point is closely related to the first point and the third one below, and
is also closely related to the fact that Situ Hua’s national identity was getting hollowed
out. During this period of time, Situ came to feel that Chinese communism was actually
a pack of lies (Situ 2011: 105). He argued that when people were young, they tended
to desire an equitable, just, free and happy world; when they matured, they realised
that this desire was a nonviable and unfeasible utopian dream. Thus, when people
were young, they believed in communism; when they matured, they understood that
communist movements had been used to fulfil only some self-serving plans of certain
demagogues (Situ 2011: 105–6).
Following on from the second point mentioned above and reflecting on his own
experience, Situ Hua (2011) offered his third criticism of the CCP. The CCP, in
Situ’s opinion, revealed its true nature after the PRC was established. The CCP, he
believed, first cheated the masses. Then, having triumphed in the civil war against the
Nationalists, the CCP made great efforts to dominate all ‘regions, institutes, groups,
and units’ through ‘buying off members of those organisations, planting agents, and,
when necessary, taking over the control of those organisations’ (Situ 2011: 106).
Situ believed the CCP had undertaken these actions because the nature of the party
had always been militant and the CCP had always been poised for struggle. In Situ’s
(2011: 106) view, ‘the philosophy of struggle’ and ‘power seizure’ were two built-in
attributes of the CCP.
Situ Hua (2011) also believed that the Xueyou Society had become a successful
example of the CCP’s United Front. However, the unit of the CCP’s Hong Kong
branch responsible for infiltrating and controlling the education sector in Hong Kong
decided to take the credit away from the Xueyou Society. They did this by under-
mining the informal leadership of Situ and his former colleagues, and taking direct
control of the Xueyou Society. Situ firmly believed that at the core of the CCP was
an unquenchable thirst for power.
Situ Hua’s discontent with the CCP, which he carried from this period right up
to when his autobiography was published in 2011, indirectly demonstrates that his
national identity was hollowed out because one of its two core values (that is, his

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90 Hou Guanghao

Chinese Communist ideals) was destroyed, especially during his introspective phase
between 1966 and 1971, as he has claimed in the autobiography. Although he did
not adopt a completely hostile attitude to the CCP until the Tiananmen Incident
on the 4 June 1989 took the world by surprise, Situ had ceased all organisational
connections with the CCP from 1966 (Situ 2011: 101). However, it was this
dismantling of his faith in Chinese communism that allowed him to remould his
national identity on another core value: democracy.

The Convergence of Ethnic and National Identities:

Situ Hua on Reaching Maturity

After 1973, Situ’s ethnic and national identities gradually converged. Since the 1970s,
the Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong had begun to differentiate themselves from
the Chinese people of mainland China. For Situ, Hong Kongers (as an ethnic group
after the 1970s) were Chinese people (and a Chinese ethnic subgroup) who had been
baptised into democratic values. Ultimately, he believed that the people of Hong Kong
could contribute to building a democratic Chinese state. According to the definitions
of nations and ethnic groups discussed earlier, it can be argued that this was where his
ethnic identity converged with his national identity. The reformulation of Situ Hua’s
national identity was built on his successful promotion of pressure-group movements
in Hong Kong, which can be attributed to his organising skills and pragmatic disposi-
tion. His success, in turn, further strengthened his faith in democracy. His belief in
democracy plus his ethnic identity, allowed him to reformulate his national identity,
which became centred on establishing a democratic Chinese state.
Economically, with the victory of the CCP over mainland China in 1949, many
Chinese capitalists and their capital flowed into Hong Kong. They invested in con-
struction and manufacturing. Because of the American-led United Nations embargo
against the CCP in mainland China, Hong Kong had to transform its economic role
from a trading entrepôt into a manufacturing treaty port offering its goods to interna-
tional markets (Bickers 1997: 54). Generally, industries in Hong Kong in the 1970s
grew at a rapid pace and upgraded continuously (Tsang 2004: 175).
Politically, the British Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, facilitated the absorption
of the Chinese elite into the colonial regime and also enfranchised more Hong Kong
citizens. Moreover, MacLehose endeavoured to realise the ideal of good governance
(that is, an efficient governmental administration without corruption). For example,
he established the Independent Commission against Corruption in 1974.
It was during the 1970s that many pressure-groups emerged: for example, the Fight
Corruption and Catch Godber movement protested against a corrupt high-ranking
British police officer in 1973, and the Chinese Language Movement that began in
1968 and continued into the 1970s (Situ 2011: 140). From 1970, Chinese immigrants

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 A Mighty River Flowing Eastward 91

in Hong Kong were no longer willing to tolerate serious corruption in the British
colonial regime. They became increasingly aware of their interests and the need to
protect these interests by constituting pressure groups. Therefore, from the 1970s,
more and more people in Hong Kong became politicised.
As Faure (1997) indicates, the 1970s generation of Chinese people in Hong Kong
were not less Chinese than their forebears in terms of retaining their cultural identity,
but were more confident and self-assured. Economic prosperity, political mobilisation
and ideological discourse in the mass media encouraged a distinctive ethnic identity
to emerge and grow among the people of Hong Kong. ‘If the Hong Kong Chinese
up to the 1970s were Chinese sojourners in Hong Kong, the generation of the 1970s
are Hong Kong people of Chinese descent’ (Faure 1997: 104).
From the 1970s, the people of Hong Kong, or Hong Kongers, started to experi-
ence enhanced political status and enjoy improved economic conditions. They became
more and more cosmopolitan and were exposed to Western ideologies. The general
well-being of Hong Kongers in the 1970s gave them a sense of pride and supremacy
over people in mainland China (Faure 1997; Johnson 2001).
In addition to the economic and political factors, discourse in the mass media also
portrayed Hong Kongers as being progressive urbanites and the people in mainland
China as coarse ‘country bumpkins’. This discourse constructed a sense of ‘us’ as
sophisticated Hong Kongers vis-à-vis ‘them’ on the mainland (Tsang 2004: 195).
Starting from the 1970s, the contact Hong Kong Chinese had with immigrants from
mainland China as well as their relatives in mainland China generated some subjec-
tive experiences and arbitrary opinions supporting the images presented by the media
about the differences between themselves and the people on the mainland China (Faure
1997: 113). Furthermore, although Hong Kong was still saturated in Chinese culture,
the popular culture of Hong Kong was conveyed and communicated in Cantonese.
‘From a variety of sources, therefore, some global, some indigenous, some broadly
Chinese, Hong Kong began to develop a distinctive identity’ (Johnson 2001: 90).
Situ Hua (2011: 139, 217) also refers to the development of the Hong Kongers’
ethnic identity (or what Situ calls native consciousness and a sense of belonging) from
the 1970s. Basically, Situ concurred with the analyses of scholarly works on the issue
of the Hong Konger ethnic identity. However, Situ did not explicitly indicate whether
he personally identified with Hong Kongers. An understanding of his ethnic identity
after he reached maturity in 1973 would need to be inferred from his autobiography.
In Situ Hua’s autobiography, he begins to use the term ‘Hong Kongers’ frequently
from Chapter 20 onwards. For example, Situ (2011: 251) stated that he requested a
high level of Hong Kong autonomy and that Hong Kong should be governed by Hong
Kongers from 1984. Moreover, Situ (2011: 253) states that he attempted to promote
autonomy for Hong Kong, to speak for Hong Kongers’ interests and to protect their
rights in Hong Kong as a member of the committee involved with drafting the Basic
Law in 1985. That Situ wanted Hong Kong to be governed by Hong Kongers can be
found in many places of his autobiography.

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92 Hou Guanghao

Although Situ Hua acknowledged a Hong Konger ethnic identity, the elements
that constituted this ethnic identity are not clearly elucidated in his autobiography.
On the contrary, he often implied that Hong Kongers were Chinese, although they
could be classified as a Chinese ethnic sub-group. For example, Situ mentioned that
during the Second Chinese Language Movement (SCLM) at the end of 1978, he
actively participated in the movement in order to raise the status of Chinese. At that
time, he publicly advocated the importance of the Chinese language and argued that
it was closely related to the Chinese identity (Situ 2011: 229). Furthermore, in his
narrative account of an anti-Japanese movement in 1982, which resulted from the
Japanese government distorting the historical account of its invasion in China, Situ
clearly identified himself with the Chinese. At that time, Situ Hua convened the Civilian
Assembly for the Commemoration of the 918 Incident (Jinian Jiuyiba Mingzhong
Dahui) in order to enhance the Chinese identity of the people in Hong Kong (Situ
2011: 235). The above examples indicate that Situ believed that Hong Kongers,
including himself, were ethnically Chinese and at the same time were also ‘Chinese
people in Hong Kong’. Hong Kongers, for Situ, were a Chinese ethnic sub-group.
Situ Hua also believed that Hong Kongers could do much good for the Chinese
nation as a whole. For Situ, this perceived potential of the Chinese people in Hong
Kong enabled their classification as Hong Kongers. This is particularly evident in his
slogans: ‘No retreat [from Hong Kong], no retrogression [of Hong Kong democracy]’
and ‘No retrogression [of Hong Kong democracy], develop the power of the citizens
[of Hong Kong]’ (Situ 2011: 369). By ‘No retreat’ he meant that Hong Kongers
should not emigrate from Hong Kong after 1997. By ‘No retrogression’, he meant that
Hong Kongers should not allow the CCP to erode what they had achieved in terms of
democratic rule. ‘Develop the power of the citizens’ meant that Hong Kongers should
not surrender their democratic achievements but should promote democratic values
and co-operate with democratic movements in mainland China.
Hong Kongers, for Situ Hua, referred to a group of people who had experienced
a certain form of democratic practice and culturally accepted the normative values of
democracy. He believed that Hong Kongers could be a bastion against the erosion
of the normative values of democracy for all Chinese people and could assist in the
process of democratisation in mainland China (Situ 2011: 367). Situ’s expectation
of what Hong Kongers should do led him to acknowledge that Hong Kongers had
developed their own local identity (or more precisely, ethnic identity).
The Chinese people in Hong Kong could be viewed as Hong Kongers by Situ Hua
because he believed that they had been saturated indemocratic values and had experi-
enced a certain form of democratic rule. For example, Hong Kongers participated in
the Commemoration of the Tiananmen Incident (Situ 2011: 311). Hong Kongers
also strongly protested against Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law in 2003 which
among other things restricted various kinds of political activities (Situ 2011: 284).
Brubaker (2004) notes that ethnicity gives an epistemological perspective on social
phenomena related to different groups of people. In the case of Situ Hua, he was

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 A Mighty River Flowing Eastward 93

born in Hong Kong where he spent almost all his life. While he was growing up, he
identified with the Chinese but, ultimately, his strong belief in democracy led him to
see the difference between Hong Kongers (including himself ) and mainland Chinese
people. This is why he could view himself asbeing Chinese while accepting the fact
that the Hong Konger ethnic identity had been emerging since the 1970s. Situ’s
desire for democracy resulted in his underlining the importance of democratic values
embedded in the Chinese people in Hong Kong, thereby accepting Hong Kongers as
a Chinese ethnic subgroup.
However, the question to be answered is why Situ Hua was so keen to promote
democracy in Hong Kong and ultimately in mainland China. Situ stated that between
1966 and 1971 he was in an introspective period (Situ 2011: 101), but that after 1971
he reconstructed his national identity through a series of incidents involving pressure-
group movements. In 1971, the Incident of Remuneration for Teachers with Diplomas
(IRTD, Wenping Jiaoshi Xinchou Shijian) occurred. In March 1973, Situ became the
chairperson of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (HKPTU, Xianggang
Jiaoyu Renyuan Xiehui) that aimed to protect Hong Kong teachers’ interests (Situ
2011: 169–71). This movement was effective in that the HKPTU reached a number of
satisfactory agreements with the Education Department (now the Education Bureau).
In 1977, the Golden Jubilee School Corruption Incident (Jingxi Zhongxue Shijian)
involved Situ Hua and the HKPTU. This incident occurred when the teachers of the
Golden Jubilee School investigated the finances of their school. In February 1977,
Situ, as a leader of this movement, challenged the arbitrary and hostile closure of the
school by the colonial government (Situ 2011: 218). Finally, Situ reached a pragmatic
compromise with the government and effectively protected the rights and interests of
the teachers and students at the school (Situ 2011: 228).
In 1978, the Second Chinese Language Movement was initiated. This movement
gained wide support from almost the whole Hong Kong society. In this movement,
HKPTU once again played a leading and co-ordinating role (Situ 2011: 229).
The movement consisted of 32 pressure groups. They established the Union of Chinese
Language in December 1978, with Situ as the chairperson (Situ 2011: 229). The SCLM
also achieved what it had aimed to accomplish (Situ 2011: 232–3).
In 1982, China and Britain began negotiations regarding the revendication of
Hong Kong. In 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed. Many Hong
Kong pressure groups combined to set up the Joint Committee on the Promotion of
Democratic Government (Mincuhui). Situ Hua was the convenor, and this committee
aimed to establish a democratic government in Hong Kong before the revendication.
This committee also demanded that the Basic Law should accommodate ademocratic
Hong Kong government, should democracy be established before the revendication.
From 1973 to 1982, the pressure-group movements led by Situ Hua largely
achieved their goals. One of the many reasons for their success can be attributed to
Situ’s organising skills, pragmatic disposition and sense of responsibility. His pragmatic
disposition was evident whenever the macro-social circumstances were disadvantageous

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94 Hou Guanghao

to whatever movement he was leading (Situ 2011: 150–1). For example, during the
IRTD in 1973, Situ refused to allow the members to go on strike for the third time
(which could have nullified their previous efforts or, even worse, resulted in hostility
from the general population in Hong Kong) and, instead, invited Bishop Francis
Chen-ping Hsu to liaise with the colonial government.
Situ Hua’s organisational skills and vision were apparent when he established a
set of guidelines for the development of the HKPTU. He believed that a successful
pressure group must first protect the interest of its members. Second, a pressure group
has to offer services, welfare and entertainment to its members; for example, setting up
co-operatives to provide quality goods at low prices for its members. Third, a pressure
group should actively participate in societal affairs and pressure-group movements (Situ
2011: 173). Under Situ’s leadership, the HKTPU built up its capital and increased
its members: in 2010, it had approximately 83,600 members and about 100 million
Hong Kong dollars (Situ 2011: 193).
Situ Hua was very successful inleading movements and developing organisations. It
was his achievements that strengthened Situ’s belief in democracy and helped him to
rebuild his national identity, which had been hollowed out by the CCP. Situ believed
that people’s rights and interests could be protected by pressure-groups and that these
movements were the embodiment of democracy. His national identity could be called
democratic Chinese nationalism.
Situ Hua had been promoting pressure-group movements (and hence democracy,
in his view) from the time he reached maturity in the 1970s. When he first attempted
to protect the interests of the teachers in Hong Kong, he considered his approach to
be democratic. This is why Situ considered it necessary for the HKPTU to take part
in other movements aiming to defend people’s rights and democracy in Hong Kong.
Situ Hua’s promotion of democracy in Hong Kong became especially apparent after
1982, and his democratic nationalism reached its zenith when students began to gather
in Tiananmen Square in April 1989 (Situ 2011: 293).
In May 1989, Situ mobilised support in Hong Kong for the students in Beijing and
established the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements
in China (Zhilianhui; Situ 2011: 294–7). Promoting democracy and assisting the
advocates of democracy in mainland China were now an important part of Situ’s
national identity. Although Situ broke off his relationship with the CCP completely
after 4 June 1989, he did not change his dream of establishing a democratic state in
China. Rather, from that time, he intensified his pro-democracy actions and strength-
ened his faith in establishing a democratic Chinese state.
In his autobiography, Situ Hua elaborated on how he strove to maintain the achieve-
ments with respect to democratic rule in Hong Kong and to sustain the pro-democratic
movements in mainland China and abroad. As Situ clarified: ‘[m]y life-long career
was devoted to one unwavering goal: that is, to be a real Chinese. I love China, and
I long for China to be strong and rich, and to be a democratic and free country; one
that respects human rights and adheres to the rule of law. This is the primary objective

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 A Mighty River Flowing Eastward 95

of my life’ (Situ 2011: 309). Because Situ believed that ‘the CCP would not tolerate
any challenge against its political power’ and that ‘the nature of the CCP was against
the Chinese people’ (Situ 2011: 308–9), he assisted pro-democracy movements in
Hong Kong and mainland China.
Situ Hua’s success in pressure-group movements, which he believed to be essential
for the practice of democracy, strengthened his faith in democracy. His strong belief
in the feasibility of democracy enabled Situ to reformulate his national identity as
one allied with democratic Chinese nationalism, the aim of which was to establish a
democratic Chinese state. Situ viewed Hong Kongers as being a distinct Chinese eth-
nic sub-group. His view was that Hong Kongers were Chinese people who had been
exposed to democratic values and who had become accustomed to these values. They
had experienced democratic practices and could facilitate the democratisation of China.
Furthermore, as he points out in his autobiography, one of the many reasons that
Situ initiated the SCLM was his belief that the Chinese language should be taught,
used, supported and loved by people in Hong Kong. As mentioned earlier, because
Hong Kongers were deemed as a Chinese ethnic sub-group by him, Situ clearly stated
that ‘Chinese people using their own language can more directly and comprehensively
express their own thoughts and feelings’ (2011: 233).
However, he also suggests in his autobiography that ‘in order to improve the status
of Chinese language, the teaching of this language must be improved’ (Situ 2011:
232). Actually, Situ’s passion for Chinese language teaching can been traced back
to when he first became the principal of the G.C.E.P.S.A. Guan Tang Primary School.
He designed and implemented the courses of story-telling for strengthening the Chinese
language skills of the first and second year pupils; and he emphasised teachers using
proper approaches to foster students’ ability in Chinese article writing.
Additionally, Situ Hua stressed the importance of education in democratic norms
and values. Especially after the Tiananmen Incident, Situ intensified his dissemina-
tion of democratic ideals. As shown in his slogan: ‘Don’t Forget the Fourth of June
and Inherit the Will of the Martyrs; Uphold and Continue the Spirit of Democracy’
(Situ 2011: 320), Situ also requested the HKPTU to fortify education in democracy in
elementary and middle schools. In his autobiography, he strongly suggests that ‘democ-
racy is also personal self-cultivation, working style, and approach’ (Situ 2011: 245).
He wanted to instil democratic ideals into as many students as possible in Hong Kong.

Conclusion

This article has sought to interpret the discourse presented in Situ Hua’s autobiog-
raphy in order to understand his ethnic and national identities. The understanding
and interpretation offered in this article can, in turn, illustrate what Lin (2015)
has discussed: the continuing and changing interactions between collaborative

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96 Hou Guanghao

nationalism, critical nationalism and colonialism in modern Hong Kong. The article

has discussed the emergence and continuance of Situ’s ethnic identity and the
formation and transformation of his national identity. He acquired democratic
values from the colonial experience and ascribed them to the Hong Kong ethnicity,
testifying to a different kind of collaborative nationalism from the one that Lin
identifies amongst Confucians in Republican China. In both cases, Confucianism
and democracy, the colonial authorities could see their shared objective of resisting
Chinese Communism. However, Republican Confucianism defied critical national-
ism’s purpose of reforming China while democratic nationalism was simultaneously
critical nationalism in defiance of Communist rule.
To illustrate this, we first explored the formation of Situ’s ethnic and national
identities during his childhood and youth. Situ was born into a society of Chinese
immigrants in Hong Kong who perceived themselves to be Chinese. He was saturated
with Chinese culture and it can be inferred that he identified himself, ethnically, as
a Chinese person. Having identified with the Chinese and been exposed to Chinese
nationalistic education at an elementary school before the massive Japanese inva-
sion ofmainland China, Situ’s nascent national identity was formulated. When he
experienced the brutal behaviour of Japanese soldiers and witnessed the suffering of
the people in mainland China, his national identity was strengthened. He began to
long for a strong Chinese state that could protect its people and facilitate a just and
prosperous Chinese society. Situ, because he believed that such a state could be estab-
lished by the CCP, supported the CCP’s ideology and became affiliated to the party.
He was also influenced by his father. His personality and his enthusiasm for Chinese
Communism allowed him to achieve a highly reputable status in the Xueyou Society
which he co-founded.
Second, Situ Hua’s national identity was then hollowed out between 1954 and
1971, during his early adulthood. During this period, the Chinese people in Hong
Kong generally did not differentiate themselves from their compatriots on mainland
China, neither did Situ. This article has also briefly summarised how the Communists
hollowed out Situ’s national identity and discussed how he interpreted the nature
of the CCP in his early adulthood. This was a long process, during which time he
became deeply introspective.
Third, Situ Hua succeeded in rebuilding his national identity as he matured because
he converted from supporting Chinese Communism to supporting the ideals of democ-
racy. The mature Situ believed that a strong and just Chinese state could be established
through a democracy, which would, in turn, lead to a prosperous and equitable society
for all Chinese people. Moreover, after 1971, as Situ matured, his ethnic and national
identities gradually converged. This convergence makes sense because Situ believed that,
since the 1970s, Chinese people in Hong Kong had become a Chinese ethnic sub-group
because of their acceptance of democratic values and their experiences of democratic
practices. For Situ, Hong Kongers, including himself, could help to establish democracy
in mainland China. Situ also began to believe that he should promote democracy and

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 A Mighty River Flowing Eastward 97

build a democratic Chinese state for all Chinese people. Therefore, his faith in democracy
contributed to the convergence of his ethnic and national identities.
As mentioned earlier, this study of Situ Hua’s ethnic and national identities can
exemplify a modern Hong Kong phenomenon. This phenomenon shows that differ-
ent types of Chinese nationalism have emerged and been enhanced in the structural
contexts of various modern epochs when people in Hong Kong have striven to
formulate their Chinese national identities. Certainly, Situ’s influence on the ethnic
and national identities introduced to the people of Hong Kong remains to be inves-
tigated in further research. Situ’s ethnic and national identities as a Chinese emerged
in his childhood, but ultimately they were transformed and converged together, with
democracy being the link.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Professor Chi-yu Shih and two anonymous referees. I am very
grateful for their advice, comments, warnings and criticisms, which have made this
paper a better academic work. However, I alone am fully responsible for any mistake
that I may have made in this article.

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