Historical Contextualization of the Narratives

Chapter 2 “Historical Contextualization of the Narratives” is subdivided into the sections, “ From Hong Kong as Crown Colony to SAR (Special Administrative Region) ” and “ From Republic of China (ROC) to Taiwan” . After an introduction to Hong Kong's (HK) demographic and media scene of the 1990s, the HK section touches upon its history and the colonial government's various democratization attempts. This is followed by a subsection on the Sino-British deal about HK's future under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ formula and the Basic Law, as the territory's mini-constitution. The next subsection dwells on the significance of the handover for China, Britain, and the Hong Kongers, and discusses the emergence of a separate Hong Kong identity. The Hong Kong section concludes with a survey of socio-economic and political developments since the handover. The section on Taiwan sketches the ROC 's history before the 1990s and the island's political conditions during the democratization process since the 1990s. It details perspectives on cross-strait relations, both from official ROC and People's Republic of China (PRC) voices and from the Taiwanese political parties and civil society. A subsection on the maturing multi-party system discusses Taiwan identity, ethnic issues, and nationalist awakenings, unravelling the various meanings of ‘nationalism’ and cultural and political ‘identity’ of the islanders.