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Kingsley Bolton (ed.), Hong Kong English: Autonomy and creativity. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2002. Pp. viii, 324. Pb US$27.95.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2004

James Stanlaw
James Stanlaw
Affiliation:
Anthropology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790, [email protected]
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Extract

Many casual observers outside Asia believe that everyone in Hong Kong, owing to its British colonial past, speaks English as fluently as the queen (or, at least, George Bush). Others, hearing the grunts of martial artists like Jackie Chan, might think that English is truly a foreign entity to the people of Hong Kong, as unknown to them as, say, pizza or hamburgers. Both assumptions, as Kingsley Bolton shows in this fascinating new collection of essays, are quite wrong. Instead, the place of English in Hong Kong is probably unique in the world: It is neither simply a variety poorly mimicking the language of the UK, nor an imperial tongue imposed on a subservient populace. It is these dynamics of culture, identity, economics, globalization, education – and, indeed, politics – that are addressed in this stimulating book.

Type
BOOK REVIEW
Information
Language in Society , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 2004 , pp. 146 - 149
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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References

REFERENCES

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Kachru, Braj B. (1996). English as an Asian language. In Maria Lourdes S. Bautista (ed.), English as an Asian language, 1–23. Manila: Macquarie Library.
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Kachru, Braj B. (1997b). Opening borders with world Englishes: Theory in the classroom. In S. Cornwell et al. (eds.), JALT96: Crossing borders, 10–20. Tokyo: Japanese Association for Language Teachers.