Culture of Hong Kong Culture of Hong Kong The culture of Hong Kong, or Hongkongese culture, can best be described as a foundation that began with Lingnan's Cantonese culture (which is distinct to begin with) and, to a much lesser extent, non-Cantonese branches of Han Chinese cultures. It later became influenced by British culture due to British colonialism, resulting in a culture characterized by both Cantonese-ness and British-ness (Jyutping: Jyut jing wui zeoi; Traditional Chinese: 粵英薈萃). Moreover, Hong Kong also has indigenous people, whose cultures have been absorbed into modern day Hong Kong culture. As a result, after the 1997 transfer of sovereignty to
British nationality law and Hong Kong Kong began to fear for their future post-1997. Emigration was rampant and a brain-drain was beginning to affect the economy of Hong Kong. To stem the drain, people urged the British government to grant full British citizenship to all Hong Kong BDTCs – but this request was never accepted. However, the British did agree to creating the British Nationality Selection Scheme, which granted to a select 50,000 people and their families the ability to obtain full British citizenship without having to fulfill the ordinary requirements, under the "British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act, 1990". Under the act, the Home Secretary was