Diaspora@Home

Abstract This paper challenges the conventional view of the Hong Kong diaspora as a recent phenomenon, arguing instead that a diasporic consciousness is an intrinsic and constitutive element of Hong Kong identity, rooted in a long history of instability. I trace the genealogy of this identity from its precondition as a ‘city of migrants’ (1945–1966), to the emergence of a Hong Kongese cultural home (1967–1984) and its subsequent period of unrest (1984–2018) marked by political shocks and the rise of civic localism. The 2019 movement then gave birth to the ‘Hong Konger’ as a new, assertive actor. In the aftermath of the National Security Law (post 2020), this identity crystallised into ‘diaspora@home’—a global, post-territorial consciousness. Drawing on theories of diaspora as consciousness, fluid home and deterritorialisation, I argue that this condition, encompassing overseas and internally displaced Hong Kongers, is fundamentally a form of ‘deterritorialisation of home’. This analysis offers a new framework for understanding communal resilience and updates theories of imagined communities in the digital age.