What does “Hometown” mean to you, to all Hongkongers?

Excluding Japan (which is widely considered a “home away from home” for Hongkongers), “Hometown” probably means what we wrote under the column for our parents’ nativelands in our handbooks. But deep down we all know, that is not our hometown.

Then what is “hometown”? According to the ancient Chinese dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, “hometown” means ungranted land away from major cities. As also explained in the annotation, hometown was written as heung in Chinese, a homonym connoting belonging, suggesting that hometown is where people feel they belong to.

Then what is “stranger”? Is it the wanderer living away from home, but constantly reminiscing about the hometown; or is it the outsider in Albert Camus’s work, who is estranged from the absurd and critical crowd, the mainstream?

Perhaps, the word hometown carries no weight in our generation, but not to the generation before us. Since the 1850s, many from China left their hometowns to acquire a livelihood in Hong Kong, while the countless machinery, capital, technology and labour they brought in helped lay the foundation for Hong Kong’s economic take-off.

To them, hometown matters because it defines who they are.

The first issue was language. Prior to the 1967 riots, there had not been an official Chinese language in Hong Kong, therefore immigrants from various parts of mainland China communicated in their native dialects ​​within their own circles. Examples of these dialects are Shanghainese, Hakka and Chiuchow dialects, some of which are still being spoken by the older generation to this day. Due to language barriers then, it was difficult for immigrants from different hometowns to communicate.

Besides, surviving in a new city was tough. In face of unfamiliarity and a scarcity of resources, there was a need for mutual support, fostering associations of immigrants from the same hometown (also known as ‘Clansmen’) in various forms. Due to a lack of public welfare back in the days, most immigrants were reliant on clansmen networks for social, information and economic exchanges. Given its importance, the role of ‘clansmen’ becomes part of one’s identity, which easily creates a binary perception of ‘us’ and ‘them’, as well as a sense of hostility and distrust towards other ‘clans’.

It is therefore not hard to understand why the concept of hometown was important to the first generation of immigrants in Hong Kong. That being said, to the newer generations born and raised in Hong Kong, these ‘hometowns’ in mainland China may be merely economical destinations for holidays when we were young.

In recent years, Hongkongers have become more and more acquainted with the idea of ‘hometown’. Perhaps this is because of the realisation that our hometown is actually the place we grew up in – Hong Kong.

In search of freedom, many Hongkongers have now been forced to flee their hometown. Or perhaps they did not part with reluctance, because Hong Kong has changed so quickly that it is no longer recognisable. Or perhaps, our nostalgia is merely attached to the Hong Kong that has vanished, the Hong Kong that is in our memory. Hong Kong may be projected as the utmost beauty there, even though such beauty may have never existed. Nevertheless, the traces of our different experiences in this place condense into the homeland in our hearts today.

The Hong Kong we’d once known has now become out of reach.

Hongkongers, living within or outside Hong Kong, are now all outlanders.

對香港人而言，何謂家鄉？

如果不計日本，對於不少香港人來說，鄉下多數是小時候手冊上寫著的父母籍貫，但我們從小都心知肚明，上面寫著的那個地方並不是我們心中的故鄉。

鄉是什麼？《說文解字》：「鄉，國離邑民所封鄉也。」何謂民所封鄉也？段玉裁《說文解字注》寫道：「封猶域也。鄉者今之向字。漢字多作鄉。今作向。所封謂民域其中。所鄉謂歸往也。釋名曰。鄉、向也。民所向也。以同音爲訓也。」簡單而言，鄉就是指民之所向，即是指人所歸處。

異鄉人又是什麼？是指在異地生活，漂泊在天涯，對家鄉念念不忘的人，還是如卡繆在《異鄉人》中描述，那些始終無法融入主流，總是面對着荒誕和批判的人們？

家鄉於我們這代香港人而言可能是虛無縹緲的，但對上一代則不然。

上世紀五十年代起，因著政局和經濟原因，不少中國人離鄉別井到香港謀生，為香港帶來大量機器、資金、技術和勞動力，唯日後香港經濟起飛奠下良好基石。

那為什麼家鄉對於當時的人如此重要？

因為家鄉決定了一個人的身份。