En Catalonia
I didn't know much about Catalonia(Catalunya) until I did my study in Barcelona.
When I first arrived there, there are flags different from the Spanish ones, and I was messed by the Catalan which is more common there than Castilian (the "Spanish" we know).......I was totally in a mess, that's really a 'lost in translation'.
I then started to realize the differences.
The history of Spain was that unfamiliar to Hongkongers, even to those were borned by the colonial government. We don't even notice that there are four offical languages in Spain (which, you can say all four are "Spanish"): Castilian (Spanish we know), Catalan, Gallego (Galician), Euskera (Basque). Just the Castilian is the one used by the Royal familiy and at the region of the capital and more widely used, it is crowned with Spanish.
I'm not very sure about the Galician and Basque (though Eta), but I knew about Catalonia in Barcelona. I knew from my friends that Catalonia is their official language, it is a medium of instruction in most of the schools. Castilian and English are also taught as second and third languages, and they can choose one more language, most commonly French and German, as their fourth language to be learnt in school. (but most of the Barcelona people will say that's really crazy!)
Catalonia has their autonomy, though limited -- but people there can be free to practice their national day celebration (which is a public holiday!), use their national flags, have their own parliament, their own regional vote on their own matters, and have their own political group to speak out in the Spanish government. And now the Spanish parliament and Senate are discussing to give Catalonia more independence (see BBC news on this.)
The mindset of the Catalan on 'nation' is very special. They look Catalonia as high, they see themselves as Catalan who is different from people from other parts of Spain. Yet, they didn't deny their "Spanish" identity. They are reluctant to say Castilian as Spanish, because they see Catalan as part of Spanish also, equally with Castilian. It is a clever coexistence of two nationality, and worth further researches on that.
Here we can see nationality is not necessarily to be contradictory; there are examples of coexistence. Yet, to apply it on Hong Kong here's a big obstacle -- under the absolute rule of the People's Republic of China (PRC), it is always appeared to be absolute -- the PRC is the only and the all. The Hong Kong and Taiwan identities are viewed as negative, which contribute to the weakening of the national identity to the PRC.
The situation of Catalonia is similar to Hong Kong -- we Hong Kong also have our own official and dominant language -- Cantonese, we have LegCo and judiciary system which is independent from the PRC government (should be), we have our own government, law enforcement system, medical system, education system....even our unique driving direction from other Chinese cities.
Though that similar, I'm regret to say that's difficult for the HK-PRC relationship to be like Catalonia-Spain, neither Taiwan-PRC do. The key problem is lack of democracy system in PRC -- it is still under a absolute rule, without democratic elections for the leaders nor the parliament. Thus how can PRC government guarantee the voices of the Hongkongers are heard, when the voices of the PRC citizens are not heard (they don't even have a chance to speak out) when it is linked.
Hong Kong people are struggling on that, yet we can see we are losing our Hong Kong identity and automony bit by bit. The national identities of the two are already said to be and made contradictory and destructive to each other -- the Spanish coexistence is hard to archieve. Yet, we can still strive for our own -- to build up our local identity in terms of cultural, as what we usually do, keep ourselves unique, Hongkongers, we are the best.
Here is a war underneath to go, a hard one. What I must say is such an absolute government didn't deserve to claim the lands and "unite" other parts -- it should be united. I can still place my hope of this in Taiwan, Republic of China. Blesses.
Extended Readings:
Spain MPs back Catalonia autonomy (BBC news)
Country Profile: Spain (BBC news)
Generalitat de Catalunya
Government of Spain
When I first arrived there, there are flags different from the Spanish ones, and I was messed by the Catalan which is more common there than Castilian (the "Spanish" we know).......I was totally in a mess, that's really a 'lost in translation'.
I then started to realize the differences.
The history of Spain was that unfamiliar to Hongkongers, even to those were borned by the colonial government. We don't even notice that there are four offical languages in Spain (which, you can say all four are "Spanish"): Castilian (Spanish we know), Catalan, Gallego (Galician), Euskera (Basque). Just the Castilian is the one used by the Royal familiy and at the region of the capital and more widely used, it is crowned with Spanish.
I'm not very sure about the Galician and Basque (though Eta), but I knew about Catalonia in Barcelona. I knew from my friends that Catalonia is their official language, it is a medium of instruction in most of the schools. Castilian and English are also taught as second and third languages, and they can choose one more language, most commonly French and German, as their fourth language to be learnt in school. (but most of the Barcelona people will say that's really crazy!)
Catalonia has their autonomy, though limited -- but people there can be free to practice their national day celebration (which is a public holiday!), use their national flags, have their own parliament, their own regional vote on their own matters, and have their own political group to speak out in the Spanish government. And now the Spanish parliament and Senate are discussing to give Catalonia more independence (see BBC news on this.)
The mindset of the Catalan on 'nation' is very special. They look Catalonia as high, they see themselves as Catalan who is different from people from other parts of Spain. Yet, they didn't deny their "Spanish" identity. They are reluctant to say Castilian as Spanish, because they see Catalan as part of Spanish also, equally with Castilian. It is a clever coexistence of two nationality, and worth further researches on that.
Here we can see nationality is not necessarily to be contradictory; there are examples of coexistence. Yet, to apply it on Hong Kong here's a big obstacle -- under the absolute rule of the People's Republic of China (PRC), it is always appeared to be absolute -- the PRC is the only and the all. The Hong Kong and Taiwan identities are viewed as negative, which contribute to the weakening of the national identity to the PRC.
The situation of Catalonia is similar to Hong Kong -- we Hong Kong also have our own official and dominant language -- Cantonese, we have LegCo and judiciary system which is independent from the PRC government (should be), we have our own government, law enforcement system, medical system, education system....even our unique driving direction from other Chinese cities.
Though that similar, I'm regret to say that's difficult for the HK-PRC relationship to be like Catalonia-Spain, neither Taiwan-PRC do. The key problem is lack of democracy system in PRC -- it is still under a absolute rule, without democratic elections for the leaders nor the parliament. Thus how can PRC government guarantee the voices of the Hongkongers are heard, when the voices of the PRC citizens are not heard (they don't even have a chance to speak out) when it is linked.
Hong Kong people are struggling on that, yet we can see we are losing our Hong Kong identity and automony bit by bit. The national identities of the two are already said to be and made contradictory and destructive to each other -- the Spanish coexistence is hard to archieve. Yet, we can still strive for our own -- to build up our local identity in terms of cultural, as what we usually do, keep ourselves unique, Hongkongers, we are the best.
Here is a war underneath to go, a hard one. What I must say is such an absolute government didn't deserve to claim the lands and "unite" other parts -- it should be united. I can still place my hope of this in Taiwan, Republic of China. Blesses.
Extended Readings:
Spain MPs back Catalonia autonomy (BBC news)
Country Profile: Spain (BBC news)
Generalitat de Catalunya
Government of Spain
posted by 太公 at 12:18 am
2 Comments:
As a Catalan who has lived in the mainland (Suzhou, Jiangsu) and visited Hong Kong tens of times, I find your posting extremely enlightening and the comparison between Catalonia/Spain and Hong Kong/PRC very accurate. The biggest difference?, in Catalonia and Spain you are free to say whatever you want without fears.
In Hong Kong, at the moment, yes. And I hope I will be able to do that also. Yet in China, people dun hv the freedom of speech at all!
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