Negotiating Emigration and the Family: Individual Solutions to the 1997 Anxiety

Abstract

In an environment of decolonization and Sino-British disagreement, the Hong Kong people are reevaluating their status relating to the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China. This is coupled with a sense of anomie resulting from the rapid shift to a postindustrial, postmodern era. The return to China could bring authoritarianism, yet movement toward postindustrialism and postmodernism represents liberalism. How do Hong Kong people cope with these two dialectically opposed sociopolitical and socioeconomic processes? This article explores how individuals and families cope with political uncertainty through negotiating emigration and marriage strategies. In selecting their strategies, they face dislocation in their host countries. All the while they must wrestle with issues of loyalty and identity; they must answer to themselves, ultimately to the Chinese government, and to the government of their adopted home.