What Do You Call Someone From Hong Kong? (Answered!)

Someone from Hong Kong is in English called a Hongkonger; other more rarely used terms include Kongkongian and Hongkongese. Hong Kong itself is an administrative region within China, so ethnically most people in Hong Kong are Chinese. There are many ethnic subgroups living in Hong Kong, as well as a considerable Hong Kong diaspora in the rest of the world.

There isn’t necessarily a widely agreed upon demonym for people from Hong Kong, then, in English.

In Chinese the name is simply Hong Kong people and there’s no better way of translating it than that.

Thus, Hongkonger or Hong Kong people or person, while perhaps not the snappiest demonym, is the best one.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What is someone from Hong Kong called?

The most widely used name for someone from Hong Kong is a Hongkonger.

This, though, is by no means universally accepted, and it is not something everyone would use.

It is perhaps the only common way, though, that a citizen of Hong Kong can be given a demonym in the traditional style that English does so.

In rarer cases, you may hear them referred to as Hongkongese or Hongkongian, but again these are by no means standard and not considered to be the proper way to refer to people from Hong Kong.

If we turn to the Chinese name for citizens of Hong Kong and translate it to English we simply get “Hong Kong people”.

This is the closest thing to a standardized demonym for Hong Kong people.

Even then, the question is still further confused by the variety of ethnic groups living in Hong Kong.

Naturally, the vast majority are Chinese, specifically Han Chinese; around 91% of the population.

The Han Chinese people in Hong Kong can be further subdivided into many groups, like the Hakka, the Hoklo, Teochew, Shanghainese, Sichuanese and Taiwanese.

Around 6% of the population is made up of non-Han Chinese people, including British, Filipinos, Indonesians, South Asians and Vietnamese.

And yet all of these people are unified as citizens of Hong Kong—which is itself a special administrative region of China.

Thus, in the simplest sense, these people are ultimately all Chinese citizens.

But it may be that their own particular ethnic identity is far more important to them than their nationality.

It’s never a simple question when it comes to ethnicity and nationality.

Again, though, if we are just looking for a catch-all demonym for people living in Hong Kong, then Hongkonger is currently the best we have.

Where does the name “Hong Kong” come from?

The name Hong Kong has only been in use for a few centuries, though the place itself has been populated for millennia.

It was at first romanized as He-Ong-Kong, and this name was in use by 1780.

This referred, at first, only to a small inlet between the southern coast of Hong Kong and Aberdeen Island.

Ultimately, the actual source of the name is not known.

It is believed to be a phonetic rendering of the phrase heung gong, a Cantonese name translating as “fragrant harbor”.

This could be a reference to the sweet influx of freshwater in the habor from the Pearl River, though the name may also be translated as “incense harbor”.

There were incense factories along the coast of Kowloon.

Other theories posit that the name derives from Hoong-keang, meaning red torrent, referring to the red soil of the waterfall near the island.

“Hong Kong” was in use commonly by 1810, and was eventually adopted as the official name.

Are Hongkongers Chinese?

Hong Kong, administratively speaking, is region of China; however, Hong Kong is at the same time an independent region with a great deal of autonomy.

Hong Kongers are of Chinese nationality, meaning they hold Chinese passports and everything that comes along with that, though they are also recognized as citizens of an independent region.

Ethnically, though, as we’ve seen, Hongkongers certainly are mostly Chinese.

They descend from Chinese people, mostly Han Chinese people, and are thus both in terms of their nationality and the majority of the ethnic makeup Chinese.

The problem, though, is that this can always be a very individual question.

Many Hongkongers feel strongly about their distinctly Hong Kong identity, and not that they are just Chinese people living in a certain region.

On the other hand, many Hongkongers feel they are Chinese in every important sense of the word.

Where do Hongkongers live?

It’s also worth noting that there is a huge Hong Kong diaspora spread throughout the world which also constitutes an important part of Hong Kong life.

There are an estimated 8 million Hongkongers in the world, with around 7 million living in Hong Kong itself. In mainland China, you will find close to half a million further Hongkongers.

There are also around 330,000 Hongkongers living in the United States, 213,000 in Canada, and around 145,000 living in the United Kingdom.

Smaller populations can be found across the rest of the world in Taiwan, Australia, Macau, the Netherlands and Japan.

Any of these people may feel themselves to be both Hongkonger and identify with the nation to which they have moved.

Hong Kong, then, is itself administratively speaking a region of China, but it is culturally very distinct and people from there are not simply Chinese.

It is a fairly complex question for a variety of reasons, not least Hong Kong’s colonial past.

The waters have been more than a little muddied by Hongkongers being governed by multiple different entities over the course of the years.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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