Shen Yang
Nations and Nationalism, 2026
Abstract: Global citizenship highlights that one’s identity transcends national borders, whereas nationalism prioritises individuals’ identification with a specific nation-state. In the context of nation-building, tension could arise between global citizenship and national identity. This study examines global citizenship and Chinese identity in Hong Kong, where global citizenship has been argued as a mental territory that extends beyond Chinese nationalism. Through a mixed-methods design that combines latent class analysis, qualitative interviews and a survey experiment, this study reveals the rise of a cluster among young people characterised by strong global citizenship and Hong Kong identities but low Chinese identity between 2019 and 2021. The youth tend to view the global citizenship identity as incompatible with the Chinese identity because they perceive Chinese nationalism as parochial and even as xenophobic. The Hong Kong case elucidates how the perceived conflicts between globalism and nationalism undermine national identity.
About the author: Shen Yang was a HYI Chinese Politics Training Program Visiting Fellow from 2018-19.