China of Hong Kong people

See: Early rural society in Hong Kong.

Before Hong Kong was ceded as a British colony, these four indigenous inhabitants had already lived in Hong Kong. Before the opening of Hong Kong, the indigenous inhabitants of Hong Kong were divided into four major ethnic groups, namely, people from villages around Hong Kong (Weitou people), Yi people (also known as water people), Hakkas and Helao people (Minnan people), and they were also one of the earliest indigenous inhabitants. Every nation has its own dialect, such as Cantonese dialect and Cantonese Yi language. Most people living in Hong Kong are from Guangfu, Guangdong, accounting for more than 67% of Hong Kong's total population. Their producing areas are mainly in the Pearl River Delta, including Nanfanshun, Dongguan, Siyi, Xiangshan, Gaoming, Sanshui, Heshan and Sihui.

Due to the large-scale migration of Guangfu people in the Pearl River Delta, and the fact that Cantonese (standard Cantonese) was spoken by people with high economic status at that time, and there were many businessmen, intellectuals and other upper-class people who came to settle in Hong Kong, Cantonese soon became the lingua franca of Hong Kong.

During the period from World War II to the civil war in China, a large number of refugees flooded into Hong Kong, including a large number of non-Cantonese, which made the urban area of Hong Kong full of dialects in the 1950 s, among which Shanghainese who came to Hong Kong with capitalists and Putonghua who came to Hong Kong with politicians had a great influence. Because dialects are not dominant in the common people's society, Cantonese should be used as the communication language between them, and the second generation of native immigrants will switch to standard Cantonese, so Cantonese will gradually change from the mainstream language without monopoly to the habitual language of China people with absolute monopoly, and various dialects will only be used within the family. Before that, many second-generation Hong Kong people will know more about the local Hakkas and immigrants from Shanghai, Chaozhou and Fujian. But today, most Hong Kong people don't know their mother tongue.

Chinese make up about 94% of Hong Kong's population. According to statistics, except Han nationality, there are 228 descendants of Manchu in Hong Kong, such as Rosamund Kwan, Kasizhou and Teresa Bao. China people (including non-Han people) living in Hong Kong generally call themselves Hong Kong people. The Chinese living in Hong Kong are mainly people who immigrated to Hong Kong from the Mainland in the 1960s and early 1980s and their descendants, as well as the indigenous inhabitants of the New Territories who have been living in the present New Territories. Most of the new population in Hong Kong today are mainland residents. According to the current policy, up to 150 mainlanders can apply for one-way permits to settle in Hong Kong every day, and more and more middle-class and wealthy mainlanders are willing to spend more than HK$ 300,000 to book beds in Hong Kong through some intermediary companies in order to obtain their children's residence status in Hong Kong, thus forming a "baby boom". However, many Hong Kong people are very dissatisfied with this phenomenon.

In addition, in order to enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness, the Hong Kong government also attracts outstanding foreigners to settle and develop their careers in Hong Kong through the Talents Scheme. They even enjoy the Home Visit Permit and then go to the mainland for development, such as Di Yun, Zhou Xun, Zhang Ziyi and Burberry.