Paper short abstract:

Hong Kongers negotiated diasporic identity hyperconscious the homeland is disappearing. This paper explores how, in a globalized, digitally connected world, classic notions of diasporic nostalgia for an unchanged homeland invert to conscious nostalgic-driven identity for a changed homeland.

Paper long abstract:

The 2020 National Security Law in Hong Kong has led to a mass exodus, 15% of which have resettled in the UK under the Hong Kong BN(O) Pathway. Prior to migration, Hong Kong identity is already often tied to ‘fusion cuisine’: from ‘East-Meets-West’ dishes at Hong Kong style cafes, to the plethora of various Asian diasporic food reimagined to Hong Kong taste as everyday cuisine. Food had been politicized as embodying Hong Kong identities before, from the anti-authoritarian Milk Tea Alliance formed in 2020, to the ‘heritagization’ of Hong Kong style milk tea (Mak 2021). As the ‘mainlandization’ of Hong Kong sees traditional Hong Kong/Canton style foods disappearing in favor of mainland traditions, the BN(O) diaspora finds themselves becoming living histories of a Hong Kong disappearing before their eyes.

In this paper I explore how Hong Kongers in Bristol witness Hong Kong ‘disappearing’ through social, cultural, and political change, as they leave and mainlanders move in. With a focus in particular on food traditions, I explore how BN(O) Hong Kongers in exile make themselves guardians and custodians of a ‘Hong Kong culture’ that is fading from Hong Kong. In this, classic diasporic notions of the Homeland Frozen in Time are inverted, and the diaspora consciously watched their homeland ‘disappear,’ while freezing what ‘culture and traditions’ they can abroad. I question if, given the age of a globalized, digitally connected world, notions of frozen homeland no longer reflect the realities of diasporic identity and nostalgia.